My Thoughts

My Contemporary Literature Blog

[gramsey0507]

Final Thoughts

I learned a lot about contemporary and postmodern literature in this class. It has definitely opened my mind up to other styles of literature and writing. I loved the way many of the authors made the style of writing itself an art form and how they could tell you so much with so little. I thought all of the readings were pretty good or great even if I will never return to some of them. My favorite by far has to be The Road. I even picked up Generation X and am currently reading it. Overall it was an amazing class that has expanded my literary palate. 

12/6/13

[gramsey0507]

Subject of Spiruality in The Road

Let me start out by saying that I enjoyed The Road a lot. It is quickly becoming one of my favorite novels ever. Which makes sense considering one of my other favorite novels is No Country for Old Men. I highly recommend it if you liked The Road. Anyway on to the point of this post; religion and faith play a big part in the story of this novel. Whether it is Christianity or just faith and religion in general it seems like the boy is a savior or god. This makes sense and explains why his personality is so different from other people that are alive. He cares about other people, he is mysteriously drawn towards the little boy, the father calls him a god and Ely says it is dangerous to be the last god on the road, he says he is the one that has to care about people, and he was born shortly after the apocalypse started. All these events can show how he is a god or a spiritual savior in the post-apocalyptic world. 

11/22/13

[gramsey0507]

The Road First Impressions

The Road is proving to be my favorite novel that we have read in the class. I may be slightly partial towards it because I love Cormac McCarthy and have read many other novels by him. I love the way it is written even though it isn’t as outwardly and instantly postmodern as the other novels we have read. The atmosphere he creates with the style and tone of his writing is brilliant. I could read this in one sitting easily. The flow of the story is great and the diction is so darkly poetic it gives me chills. I absolutely love this book and can’t put it down for very long without having the urge to read it. 

11/15/13

[gramsey0507]

A Visit From the Goon Squad Impressions

So far my impressions of “A Visit from the Goon Squad” are not great. As with “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” I appreciate the way the novel is written but the actual story itself doesn’t catch my interest. The unique techniques that are used to write the story are very interesting. I feel like the novel could easily be a script for a film. The transitions between stories and the relationships between the characters could make for a cool cinematic experience. Despite this though I still am not interested in the characters or drawn into the story. Hopefully it will grow on me as I continue reading.

11/1/13

[summerbane]

Thinking back on everything we knew when we were young, you can easily understand why many of us were not happy with the ending of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. As children who were raised watching Disney movies and reading fairy tales, we were spoon-fed the idea that “everything was...

[gramsey0507]

That is one of my favorite parts about postmodernism. I love the fact that the books don’t have happy endings and sometimes don’t have endings at all. That kind of uncomfortable and awkward feeling you get when a story has no true ending makes me love it even more. The fact is stories in real life never really truly end so why should a novel be any different. It makes the whole thing feel like you’re reading a diary or being told a story which makes just that more human and believable. I love reading these novels that go against the grain and do unexpected things.

[gramsey0507]

ELIC Impressions

I did not like Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Let me start by saying that I love the way it was written and I loved the alternating points of views. The way the several stories intermingled was good. I also applaud the author for the subject matter and how he explored it. Using an unordinary child as a main character and also using the stories to compare 9/11 to Dresden were good ideas. However I felt some of the characters fell a little flat and didn't have many connections to me as the reader. I also felt the plot line was too thin regarding the subject matter which made it hard to enjoy the story. The flow of the story was also very choppy which made it hard for me to keep interest in the story. I think the book is worth a read but I will probably never reread it. 

10/11/13

[gramsey0507]

The Lynda Barry comics that we read made me think about comics as an art form and how underrated they are. Comics are such an amazing medium for art and literature and these comics just reinforced my belief of that. I think there are a lot of people that still believe comics are childish or that…

[kforkevingcsc]

I’m glad I wasn’t the only who enjoyed the Lynda Barry pieces we read and looked at. I’ve never been super-duper into comics, but I’ve always loved them, ever since I was a kid. I don’t read them very often, mostly because it has always given me a really bad headache, but I love the art and the style and the culture around them and just the medium in general. My cousin, who’s more like my brother, and plenty of my friends are all very into comics, he and our friend Caleb having worked at a comic store for a long time. I know a pretty good bit about them through listening to nerd-rage arguments, and usually getting into them myself, and I’ve always loved the stories and such, even if I didn’t keep up with it like them. One of my favorite bands has a series of comic books and graphic novels that follows their albums and the larger story those albums tell, and I have and love all of those.

[gramsey0507]

Graphic novels are a really good and easy way to get into and keep up with comics. I also love Coheed and Cambria.

[nitsirkeellehcim]

The word comic does not hold much weight for me. Usually titles like Batman and Spiderman come to mind, but not because I read either of them only because of how popular they are and the movies they have spawned. Newspaper comics are the second thing that I think of, and those are generally cute...

[gramsey0507]

The themes and deeper ideas you mentioned are actually very prevalent in modern comics even sometimes in titles like Batman and Spiderman. Comics have changed a lot from how they used to be. They are still just as fun and entertaining but they have added a lot of ideas that we are used to seeing in literature and art. If you think about the television shows and movies that have been based on comics in recent years it give a good picture. In television there is The Walking Dead and Agents of Shield and in film there is The Dark Knight, The Avengers, Kick-Ass, Scott Pilgrim, Wanted, The Losers, 300, Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and many more. While most of these are based in the action genre (which is not indicative of all comics) they just go to show the wide variety of subject matter that comics can cover. 

[gramsey0507]

Comics as a Medium for Art and Literature

The Lynda Barry comics that we read made me think about comics as an art form and how underrated they are. Comics are such an amazing medium for art and literature and these comics just reinforced my belief of that. I think there are a lot of people that still believe comics are childish or that all comics are superhero comics or funny comics. While those can be great and entertaining the comic book genre has so much more to offer if you just give it a little bit of attention. Comics can feature so many subjects and themes that it is hard for me to believe that someone could not find something to love. I just want to say to everyone that I hope these comics have inspired you to delve into the comic medium because there is so much to love.

9/20/13

[gramsey0507]

The Things They Carried Impression Part Two

The word “truth” is played around with a lot in this novel. Truth in storytelling is a big subject in the novel. In chapters in the book the author talks about how you can’t always tell what truth is when someone is telling a story. That same idea applies directly to this book though. You can’t be sure if everything the author is telling you is true or if he is exaggerating some things to get his point across. The word “truth” also comes in to play when describing the subject matter of the novel.  Many of the stories in this book are stories that the author had kept bottled up for a long time. He was afraid to tell some of the stories because it involves subjects that are usually kept away from the public and that the public does not want to hear. Suicide, war crimes, innocent killings, torture, brutality, fear and many other subjects are rarely discussed by soldiers because they are afraid of how people might view and judge them afterward. I feel that the ideas and subjects in this book resonate very well in the world even today.

9/14/13

[gramsey0507]

The Things They Carried First Impression

When I first heard we were going to be reading this book I thought to myself “Here we go again.” In every Literature based course I have ever taken I have always had to read a novel about war. There is nothing wrong with the subject but every novel I have read in these classes didn't interest me. This book however has completely changed my mind. My breath was taken away by how good this book was only after the first few chapters. I have been trying to put my finger on the thing that makes this book so different and I think I finally got it. I think the reason is he writes the book as if he were telling you a story. He starts out the story by describing in detail the people that are involved in it. He doesn't even talk about himself in the first chapter. He also adds little details and anecdotes along the way as if he were remembering them as he was telling the story and decided they might help develop the characters or the story. This novel is just blowing me away with how well it is crafted.

9/6/13

[gramsey0507]

See The Moon?

The thing that really impressed me about “See The Moon?” was the way it was written.  It really seems like the author was striving to create a piece of literature that reads the way people think and have thoughts. Sentences and ideas jump from one to another with little to no connection between them. If we were able to translate someone’s thoughts directly to paper as they are having them it would read close to how this story reads. If that makes any sense? It makes the story hard to read and comprehend but it really impresses me that the author was able to accomplish it.