Excersize #3

Reviews read: Dead to You,CHOMP, Cinder:Book One in the Lunar Chronicles

Components of a Review:
(1) opening paragraph about the nature of the work
(2)general summary or synopsis of the events in the novel
(3)what worked well in the novel and what did not
(4)Comparison/Contrast between prequels
(5)Discussion of themes, motifs, etc.
(6) Open ended conclusion leaving room for evaluation of possible sequel 

Note #1

All The Pretty Horses-Country Life

Cormac McCarthy's, in his famous novel All The Pretty Horses, strays away from the typical style Western. McCarthy's uses long and prolix passages to describe the beauty of the Mexican countryside as if the country is the only thing that exists. His passages of the countryside exude senses of calm beauty and a cool formality, almost placing nature and the boundless mountains and prairies on a pedestal- putting to shame the common conveniences of towns and cities. As the main characters ride into Mexico for the first time they notice that "the sun to the west lay blood red among the shelving clouds" while "the terminals of the sky to fade from pale to pale blue." His romantic description their surroundings is a testament to his aberration of the typical western, centered around action and movement. His highly stylized description of the mountains and ranges lead the characters to be filled with a sense of boundless imagination as they ponder and try to think of all that they could do in this new land. Rawlins, one of the main characters, says "where do you reckon that paradise is at?"  These boys are cattle ranchers by heart, and entering this lands fills them with immense gaiety bliss; these boys are in a state of beatitude.He sees this beautiful land around him and thinks that its paradise and his friend, John Grady, agrees. McCarthy's very stylized and poetic diction allows for an effect like none other, as he describes the surroundings, each description flowing along with the rolling hills of the land. Even the wildlife is depicted in great detail, as "a hawk set forth below them and circled in the deepening haze." The sense of limitless comes to mind as these boys keep on riding through the country, and as the country descriptions become deeper and more thoughtful. McCarthy puts much more emphasis on nature, a theme of Romantic writers, than on action, although there is some good action in the novel. This becomes one of McCarthy's central themes as he provides contrast between the country and towns by his short abrupt descriptions of towns and cities in contras tohis long prolix passages about the country. His stylized diction allows the words to flow and roll like the mountains and allows the animals, like the hawk, to become real and tangible.

Exercise 2

Weaknesses
(2)"Grey and tall and stocky as the granite outcrop their town was built upon" are the inhabitants described in an unvarnished plain-dealing diction.

  (4) Gaiman's diction has a reminiscent feel that exudes feelings of an ill fated fairy tale, or perhaps just a morose moral story. The description of the neutral town and it's similar inhabitants is enough to leave a optimistic reader pessimistic.

Good Post- Books for Dummies(like me)

Paragraph:Stardust

This is a sample paragraph for Stardust by Neil Gaiman.

In this scene of Stardust, Gaiman utilizes a bold, pedantic style language along with lyrical description to evoke a sense of monumental immaculateness which surrounds the town. The town of Wall sits comfortably "on a high jut of granite amidst a small forest woodland." The houses in the town "are square and old, build of grey stone." These solid images of the town suggest a sense of foreverness. The houses are made of stone and are the walls that protect it. As if nothing can harm the town but nature itself. There is a sense of peace that surrounds it though, a perfect little town jutting out toward the sky. Gaiman continues this very pedantic style language as he describes the roads leading way from Wall. The road is "lined with rocks and small stones" and it evolves to a road "paved with asphalt; followed further the road gets larger." This indicates that the town is actually small in size contrasting with the big imagery he depicted earlier. He evokes a sense of secure solitude, that maybe some travelers will find refuge, and the people in it find refuge from the real world.

Reading Goals

Here are my reading goals for this quarter:
1)Read in 4 odd places
2)read at leas 1500 pages or 7 novels/plays/short stories
3)Read at least 2 collections of contemporary poetry
4) Read out loud to my dog at least once a week.

Anthology Themes

For our combined anthology project, we have selected the contrasting themes of city and country.

Miles Davis, The True Cool Cat (Sumbmission #4)

Miles Davis. Many hear this name and shrug it off. "Who is that", "Is he someone important?" these are the  frequent questions of a musically uneducated person. This post is focused with bridging the gap of ignorance in order to open up the eyes to more people and how this men like Miles Davis can change the face of music. With trumpet in hand, Davis flows out his soul into the air mixing melancholy with the exciting and sometimes confusing. There is a solid formality to him, a "swagger"  he carries that most don't, and it makes him who he is. His music is the embodiment of his own soul. Miles Davis, at the time of his very first recording, was a bit of an outcast in the music industry. A man with no direction, but only when he met John Coltrane(another powerhouse in the jazz age) did things start to change. In his 58' sessions, Miles produced his famous "Milestones" album, which in today's world, stands as a pinnacle of jazz imagination and interpretation. This sparked the term "Kind of Blue Period" and many believe that his works within from, 1955-1961, to be his greatest works ever. This period was a phase of typical jazz style music, not branching out for new innovative sounds. But there is something about his music, a feeling one can't pin down, that makes Miles stand out. Even today, many jazz artists use miles as a comparison Miles Davids, but there is no real comparison. His works redefined what "bop" jazz could be. His sextet burst onto the scene and he caught fire, a ragin' blazing fire. But like many artists, Miles wanted to push his music forward, and create something never heard before. Well in the 1960's he did just that. By this time his style was well known, and Mile's was yearning for something different. Teaming up with Gil Evans, he produced albums that incorporated his renowned jazz style with classical orchestrations. An odd pair at first glance, but his "Sketches of Spain" album was also a fresh breathe in the jazz world. With wild electric bass riffs along with the fluid sounds of cellos, Miles reinvents what jazz can be. New broad colorful sounds added a sense of eeriness to his works. Sounding almost too weird to be music but not so weird as to cause disconnect with the music itself. Gil's original compositions pushed Miles even further. He redefined jazz He would go on to do this several times throughout his life. Therefore, as obvious as anyone can predict, from 1957-1968 was called the "Sketches of Spain Era". His colorful blending of typical jazz lines and classical orchestrations pushed Miles to the forefront of the jazz era, and people were getting excited. Miles produced albums that incorporated smooth tones with basic superimposed rifts and sometimes would create music that's so complex in style and life that it just seems hard to understand. This was Miles' goal, however. Miles went through a couple of period redefining, re-imagining, and reshaping. His flamboyant complexities made Miles one of THE BEST jazz artists of all time. Even his Funk Era helped define who he was. Mr. Davis embodied what music could be. Miles is truly the cool cat of the music biz.