Response to Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Pgs. 1-125

I have to admit that I thought the beginning of this book was very strange, especially when Oskar said, " Another good thing is that I could train my anus to talk when I farted. If I wanted to be extremely hilarious, I'd train it to say, " Wasn't me!" " This line was in the very first paragraph of the book and seemed very strange to me until I started to see that it was a little kid talking, a very intelligent little kid who knows a lot of random information. The reason why Oskar spoke in this manner in the beginning made a lot more sense to me as I read on and found out that his father died a potentially terrible death during the terrorist attacks to the World Trade Centers on September 11, 2010 in New York.

The death of his father was a very traumatizing blow to young Oskar because it seems like he was closer to his father than to anyone else around him. It was his father who taught him most if not all the random information that he knows and Oskar also saw his father as his role model because of the way he planned his life based on what his father taught him. This was evident when his father died and all of a sudden Oskar no longer wanted to continue on the family jewelry business as well as doubting his religious views of atheism.

The loss of his father left young Oskar with many questions that he needed or felt he needed to find the answers to which is why he starts going from door to door asking people if they recognized a key he had found that belonged to his father or if they knew his father at all. Oskar describes his emotions as feeling as if he was in "outer space, but not in a good way." He feels very alone because he believes that everyone has moved on with their lives and forgotten about his father. This feeling is amplified when Ron, his mom's "friend" appears and he wonders if his mother has started sleeping with him and forgotten about his dad. However, we can't rely on Oskar's depictions as facts because he is telling everything from his point of view and his poin of view may not necessarily be the absolute truth. I also think that Oskar may just want attention because like I proved before, Oskar feels like he is alone in outer space as he described in his own words.

This book became very interesting fast when the point of views from other family members started to show up. In the second chapter Oskar's grandpa, Thomas starts with a letter to his unborn son, also known as Oskar's father. It seems as if he were giving an explanation as to the reason why he abandoned his wife and child before his child was born. He aims his words to Oskar's father because he is the one who he seems to feel he abandoned and not necessarily his wife with whom he seemed to have a frustrating relationship with. And after this Oskar's grandmother starts telling her side of the story as her husband did in his letter to his unborn son. Oskar's grandmother writes her response to Oskar. I still don't understand why it is that she wrote this to Oskar but I hope I find out as I read on.

Interesting Article

I found this article about a group of student who did an technology experiment similar to ours. Theirs was more extensive though.

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/10/53_lincoln_high_school_student.html

Kevin Driscoll's talk

I went to the talk given by Kevin Driscoll last night and it was quite interesting. What I found really interesting was all the different types of culture people research. He talked about participatory culture and how it is how the population as a whole participates in certain areas of life that turns them into popculture. If everyone were to sit down every night and watch the same show we would all be participating and therefore that show would become part of the popular culture at that time. He also talked about how much online journals cost for a years subscription. I was in shock that they cost so much, over $10,000 is a lot of money. That is where the concept of open access comes in. It is a way to access material on the Internet without having to pay for it. I think that all journals and materials should be accessible to anyone without a price or at least a cheaper price. The talk as a whole was great and he packed a lot of information into the short amount of time we had.

My Technologyless Weekend Was Great

I met Professor Jha at the Casa Loma room for Kevin Driscoll's presentation about open access and Prya asked me how my weekend without technology was and I told her it was great because I have not accustomed myself to living a wired life. My weekend was great. Nothing really changed about it. I don't like to text so I don't have texting by choice. I also don't like to hear music all the time so I don't own an I Pod or other type of MP3. I do use email and facebook but I never really have a burning urge to use them very often. I like to live a very simple life. Today's current technologies are very complex and often very useful. However, I find things like texting, I Pods, super high tech cell phones, and other similar gadgets of leisure to be unecessary time wasters and life destroyers because they are making humans, a social and adventurous creature, very impersonal and anti-social as well as lazy and unproductive. I know that my views may be a little extreme for some people but I may have exagerated a bit. I know that there are other views out there. Maybe you love texting and I Pods and all those things so talk about it. It won't hurt my feelings if you disagree with me. Just give your opinion.

Images for the Goblin Market

I searched Google images for The Goblin Market and I found these two images to have extremely contrasting images of the goblins. The first images takes the text in a literal sense, and makes the goblins appear as rodents. The second image creates the goblins as creepy, unearthly creatures.

The poem depicts the goblins as rodents to make them seem atrocious and fearsome. However in the image that depicts the goblins as rodents is less frightening than the image that shows the goblins as actual goblins. Not that I know what goblins would actually look like, but this image gives a depiction that I would associate as goblins.

I just find it interesting that the image with the rodent goblins is far less creepy than the image with the goblins that are much more alien.

The image of Laura is almost exactly the same in both images. She has rosy cheeks, pale skin, and long golden hair that the goblins are holding. However, her situation in each image could be seen differently. In the first image she is given some space and looks comfortable, whereas in the second image she is enclosed by the goblins with very little room to move.

I feel as though the second image is a much better depiction of the poem. The goblins look like monsters that are enticing an innocent girl, and the whole image is much creepier than the first. I just find it odd that the first image takes the imagery of the poem literally by making the goblins appear as rodents, and as a result the image looks less creepy.

about pizarnik and horror

I highly doubt that Pizarnik wrote "the Bloody Countess" to express her fear of her own lesbianism. I also doubt that people watch and read horror to quell their "internal tortures." Perhaps she was like all other people who go into a horror film today. We go and see scary movies because we are fascinated with death. Nobody goes to see SAW or Hostel just to help themselves feel better about themselves. It is the same thing with Friday the 13th, we all know people are going to die, but we are curious as to how. Even those who shield their eyes at the death scenes eventually peek out from between their fingers. This comes back to a fascination with death. Perhaps Pizarnik was just fascinated with what the countess did and decided to document it. Just something to think about...not everything has to have an exceedingly deep meaning.

The Bloody Countess totally freaked me out and the fact that it is real makes is even scarier! I think that Elizabeth Bathory was lost and confused with who she was. She had no idea who she was or who she wanted to be. She hid behind this evil creature that she has created. She feels like she is being internally tortured by not knowing who she is and to help her feel better she tortures others. Someone always feels better when they see someone else going through the same or greater pain that they are enduring. I think that watching the girls get tortured was her escape from her internal torture. There was a movie made in 2008 called Bathory and it made over 3 million dollars at the box office, maybe all the movie goers are trying to escape their internal tortures too.

Joseph Silva: I've posted this youtube video to show a little history of Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed, so you can see a little bit of history from the bloody countess. Elizabeth tricked a lot of the villages around her castle, but the villagers can not do anything about it. This video shows her history of her servants and her killings.