#htrllap

[reverie-quotes]

The amazing thing about books is how they have lives of their own. Writers think they know their business when they sit down to compose a new work, and I suppose they do, right up to the moment when the last piece of punctuation gets planted on the final sentence. More often than not, that punctuation is a period. It should be a question mark, though, because what occurs from then on is anybody's guess.

— Thomas C. Foster, How to Read Literature Like a Professor

[englishprojectfortheages-blog]

Assignment for How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Chapter 18: If She Comes Up, It’s Baptism

In the Avatar television franchise, consisting of two series, Avatar: the Last Airbender, and The Legend of Korra, the four traditional elements are very central symbolic motifs linked largely both to the visual elements of the show, and to the theme of each season. Each season is written and titled as a chapter, and each named after an element either literal or an element of the agents of plot in the show. The chapters are titled sequentially: Water, Earth, Fire, Air, Spirits, Change, and Balance. The first three seasons are of the first series, and the rest are of the second, and each hosts some metaphorical baptism.

In Chapter 1: Water, a baptism occurs to an unexpected character in an unexpected scenario. Though the central plot of the season is the education of Aang, the Avatar, in his manipulation of water, the baptism occurs to Prince Zuko, the antagonist who seeks to destroy the Avatar. Near the end of the series, Aang’s companion and water teacher, Katara, defeats Prince Zuko in his assault with her mastery over water, and so his defeat is symbolic of water overtaking fire, and the metaphorical balance overcoming chaos, or fascism, in this case. After his defeat, a small, brave seed is planted Zuko’s mind that there may be no nobility in his quest, that indeed he may be seeking after a goal for a father who had no love for him, hunting fruitlessly. Though this only really bears fruit far later, his “baptism” brings him an inception of order.

Skipping ahead, in Chapter 3: Fire, upon Zuko’s budding of the fruit of balance that was planted by his defeat, he intends to teach Want his last element: fire. He finds, however, that he has no manipulation of fire any longer, seeing as his entire understanding of his fire powers was rooted in aggression, hate, and chaos, which are mental elements which he has forsaken. Upon investigating a myth, the two climb a mountain to find two legendary mythical dragons, previously thought extinct. The dragons emerge in a very rare ceremony, deeming Zuko and Aang worthy to be taught, and breathe a spiral of multicoloured fire around them, giving the two a new inception of understanding of the element rooted not in hate, but appreciation and awe of the element itself. While this is a less literal baptism, the two are as close as possible to submerged in fire, and they come out with a new foundation rooted in good and order.

Finally, in the second series, in the chapter of Spirits, Korra, the new Avatar, has been displaced to an island that it, coincidentally, home only to an isolated temple. Korra is, less subtly, submerged in sacred spirit water, in which she has unconscious dreams and visions from her past selves, the previous Avatars, and is told the origin story of the first Avatar. She emerges, three episodes later, with a new understanding of balance and spirituality, and now understands the nature of the spirit world, so that she may save it in its need from an evil who seeks to rise to godhood.

Each of these baptisms involve a symbolic submersion, and the rise out of the metaphorical pool brings a new understanding of the Harmony of the universe, and how to use it to enforce itself, which is a very important theme, and one vitally central to the series.

[studieswithcoffee]

reading my how to read a literature like a professor out loud and i’m so tired of reading out loud, i wish i had some form of an audiobook. *sighs* 

[amortenntia-blog]

Peril. Extreme peril.

[aliceincrazytown]

Ever try to write a sex scene? No, seriously. Tell you what: go try. IN the interest of good taste, I'll request that you limit yourself to members of the same species and for clarity that you limit yourself to a mere pair of participants, but aside from that, no restrictions. Let 'em do whatever you want. Then when you come back, in a day, in a week, in a month, you'll have found out what most writers already know: describing two human beings engaging in the most intimate of shared acts is very nearly the least rewarding enterprise a writer undertake.

How To Read Literature Like a Professor//Thomas C. Foster to which I laugh and say "you've never read smut have you?"

[theangelwithburningwings]

So I'm trying to do this summer homework..

and sometimes How To Read Literature Like A Professor is a really witty, entertaining and informational book. And other times it's like... stop. The last chapter was about violence, and what took him ten pages full of examples to write could be summed up in two sentences: Violence can have numerous meanings ontop of their obvious plot assistance. These can have mythical references, ideas of redemption, social comentary, or any mix of symbolism behind them; always look for deeper meaning.

I mean.. yes. That's.. okay. I feel like this book is kinda telling me things I already generally know. Like the vampire chapter was decently interesting, because it puts 'vampire' as an archetype instead of a demonic creature, and I had never looked at it that way before, but most of this is common knowledge. Snow can mean more than just snow. Look for symbols. Stories can be based off the bible. Or myths. Or shakespeare. Or other novels. Or all of those things. 

idk. Am I the only one really bored with it? To me, if you're gonna be in AP Lit next year, you should probably already know a majority of what this book is telling you..