Just in a general reply to the people who went to the Andrew Motion talk, I'm envious!
However, there is a public lecture in London on the 27th October about Wordsworth, Coleridge and Hughes and their writing about rivers, which sounds good - am definitely going!!
When I visited Cambridge, I didn't get the same feel I got for Oxford... to me the course seemed a lot more regimented than Oxford's, and a great deal more focused on British literature. I've also been practising my comparative technique, and am just generally reading.
Nice to cyber-meet you all though, we must arrange a meet if we ever get to the interview stage!!
Right now I am JUST loving "Notes from the Underground" by Dostoevsky...I've picked up an annoying habit though i just have to read it out loud!
I've also just bought and am half way through "The Annotated Alice" for coursework which is brilliant
Then I'm going to make a start on The Great Gatbsy and some Blake
at some point I really ought to re-read the books on my personal statement though...
Yes Blake! Today I read 'Songs of Innocence' and I am loving it. Let me know what you think about it when you read it, but aside from the general innocence stuff and the happy relationship between humanity and nature, I'm really getting into (and I don't think many people have spotted this!) the idea that Blake just doesn't profoundly believe that life is innocent. In Songs of Innocence that is, not his succeeding Songs of Experience.
This is shown in his themes themselves - sometimes, like in 'Night' he talks about nature alone and not humanity, and other times he amplifies the darkness. Also, growing up is always considered a necessity, and the dramatic qualities of the poems (Blake always uses another narrator) distances their happy beliefs from this.
The acutal syntax sometimes seems tentative, and he uses words with double meanings (most poignantly, 'beguile') and the pleading, desperate tone (which goes right back to 'To the Evening Star) to some of the poems is also well-remembered. Also, only some aspects of nature and humanity are nice: the "lamb" and "little birds" are the only parts of nature smiled upon, and though (again in 'Night') Blake argues that God smiles upon the nasty creatures, the pleading tone overrides this. Also, in 'On Another's Sorrow', Blake's statement "O! Never, never can it be" to me seems broken and desperate rather than victorious and reverent.
Sorry, I went on a bit of a rant here, but yeah. Wow. It's like Blake can't, even with the succeeding volume of damnation, 'Experience', present the world as innocent; not even the nice bits! A bit like Hardy. There's a dash of Coleridge in his representation of nature too (nature being unconditionally benevolent, but not universally greeting) but the idea of heavy foreboding and Blake's inability to present clear innocence is wowy.
It needs a bit more clarification, and I haven't read 'Experience' yet but it's definitely a good start. Blake is wowy good.
Who else? Ooh yes, I finished 'King Solomon's Mines' which was very good. Good portrayal of the disctinction and boundaries between life/death, reality/afterlife, so that was interesting. The character of Gagool was terrifying, and you can imagine the Victorian kids quaking in their boots while being read it at bedtimes! (though they probably wouldn't be wearing boots in bed, but the point still stands!) There's a good bit of exploration of race too, and Foulata, a native woman in love with a white man, says that as the sun and the moon can't love each other, they can't due to their skin colour, which is quite poignant. The narrator is a bit of an unflinching bastard towards race inequality and materialistic tendencies, so that's interesting.
Very good though, and hilarious too - I will never forget Henry Good and his white legs!
Quite a lot of literary funzies for one day. Tomorrow I must read 'Experience'. sundogs should read the two too, and let me know her opinion :P
So yes, rant over. Hmm. Sorry for boring you all.
One other thing: personal statements. Personal, statement. Statement, personal. Or something. Anyway, yes, what are people bally well doing!?
Before the last month I've just zipped about literature drawing out random conclusions and pretty weak comparisons, but am now settling down to Romanticism, nature as a conceit in literature, and the Jewish question in literature and am hoping to include this, and a deal of analysis in my PS, followed up by some extra-curricular rubbish, and something about how my subjects work with English.
Yes Blake! Today I read 'Songs of Innocence' and I am loving it. Let me know what you think about it when you read it, but aside from the general innocence stuff and the happy relationship between humanity and nature, I'm really getting into (and I don't think many people have spotted this!) the idea that Blake just doesn't profoundly believe that life is innocent. In Songs of Innocence that is, not his succeeding Songs of Experience.
This is shown in his themes themselves - sometimes, like in 'Night' he talks about nature alone and not humanity, and other times he amplifies the darkness. Also, growing up is always considered a necessity, and the dramatic qualities of the poems (Blake always uses another narrator) distances their happy beliefs from this.
The acutal syntax sometimes seems tentative, and he uses words with double meanings (most poignantly, 'beguile') and the pleading, desperate tone (which goes right back to 'To the Evening Star) to some of the poems is also well-remembered. Also, only some aspects of nature and humanity are nice: the "lamb" and "little birds" are the only parts of nature smiled upon, and though (again in 'Night') Blake argues that God smiles upon the nasty creatures, the pleading tone overrides this. Also, in 'On Another's Sorrow', Blake's statement "O! Never, never can it be" to me seems broken and desperate rather than victorious and reverent.
Sorry, I went on a bit of a rant here, but yeah. Wow. It's like Blake can't, even with the succeeding volume of damnation, 'Experience', present the world as innocent; not even the nice bits! A bit like Hardy. There's a dash of Coleridge in his representation of nature too (nature being unconditionally benevolent, but not universally greeting) but the idea of heavy foreboding and Blake's inability to present clear innocence is wowy.
It needs a bit more clarification, and I haven't read 'Experience' yet but it's definitely a good start. Blake is wowy good.
Who else? Ooh yes, I finished 'King Solomon's Mines' which was very good. Good portrayal of the disctinction and boundaries between life/death, reality/afterlife, so that was interesting. The character of Gagool was terrifying, and you can imagine the Victorian kids quaking in their boots while being read it at bedtimes! (though they probably wouldn't be wearing boots in bed, but the point still stands!) There's a good bit of exploration of race too, and Foulata, a native woman in love with a white man, says that as the sun and the moon can't love each other, they can't due to their skin colour, which is quite poignant. The narrator is a bit of an unflinching bastard towards race inequality and materialistic tendencies, so that's interesting.
Very good though, and hilarious too - I will never forget Henry Good and his white legs!
Quite a lot of literary funzies for one day. Tomorrow I must read 'Experience'. sundogs should read the two too, and let me know her opinion :P
So yes, rant over. Hmm. Sorry for boring you all.
One other thing: personal statements. Personal, statement. Statement, personal. Or something. Anyway, yes, what are people bally well doing!?
Before the last month I've just zipped about literature drawing out random conclusions and pretty weak comparisons, but am now settling down to Romanticism, nature as a conceit in literature, and the Jewish question in literature and am hoping to include this, and a deal of analysis in my PS, followed up by some extra-curricular rubbish, and something about how my subjects work with English.
Opinions?
(sorry for the perverse length of this post)
You remind me of somebody and I can't think who! Anyway I really really enjoyed your post- you seem like a really interesting person to have a conversation with.
I'll definitely be reading "Experience" - we can pick it to pieces. Blake is fabby.
Did you by any chance catch the documentary of Channel 4 on Lord Byron with Rupert Everett? I thought it was absolutely brilliant. Byron's poetry is just so...lush...I actually can't think of another word to describe it- reading "she walks in beauty" feels like being seduced by Hugh Grant...it's just so gorgeously rich, so sensuous but it's also sincere.
I think that's one of the great things about literature...you can pick it to little pieces- you can in essencejudge it (for isn't analysis just judging?) and yet that's beauty of it- if it teaches us one thing it's NOT too judge- not to take things at face value and that there are thousand different perspectives on a string of words.
You guys are all so lucky that you can go to talks etc - I'm in New Zealand and there's quite literally nothing even remotely of that nature... Heck, I was in a cafe reading the other day and someone asked me, 'What you reading FOR?' :-s
I read Chronicle of a Death Foretold the other day; it was great - has anyone else come across it at all?
You guys are all so lucky that you can go to talks etc - I'm in New Zealand and there's quite literally nothing even remotely of that nature... Heck, I was in a cafe reading the other day and someone asked me, 'What you reading FOR?' :-s
I read Chronicle of a Death Foretold the other day; it was great - has anyone else come across it at all?
Belgium doesn't have a very lively literature scene either.
Haha, when I read in public people always look as if they feel sorry for me
Belgium doesn't have a very lively literature scene either.
Haha, when I read in public people always look as if they feel sorry for me
This is the great thing about, say, Central London - everyone is reading!
Today I went and saw Helen at the Globe which was good, though they modernised derogatory to swear words which ended up creating humour where Euripides didn't want it which is a shame. Also I missed about 5 minutes due to the guy being sick up in the balconies, which proved interesting. The portrayal of the gods was pretty dire too. Aside from that though, it was really good, and the main actors put in a very good performance - it definitely has a lot to say about choosing vice or virtue, and I was quite taken aback by the King being left on his own with half of his crew slain. Even though he's the villain, it was sad, and I think Euripides intended this, due to it being the last scene. Hmm. Had a lovely line in it about the desecration of nature for warships
Found out there is a 90 minute monologue version of Lolita at the NT soon, so that looks interesting. Still having a vocabulary crisis. But yes, good. Good good. I want good AS results
Wow, there's a lot of intellectual dick-swinging in this thread.
Keble open day was lovely. Going to do some proper research on the ins and outs of the courses but I'm either going for Brasenose or Keble.
The last book I read was The Atrocity Exhibition by JG Ballard. Fascinating man, fascinating books. It's a rough ride but well worth it. At the moment I'm giving Tess of the d'Urbervilles the highlighter and pencil treatment for college. I really need a good essay in the first few weeks as I have no evidence of English work remaining.
Wow, there's a lot of intellectual dick-swinging in this thread.
Keble open day was lovely. Going to do some proper research on the ins and outs of the courses but I'm either going for Brasenose or Keble.
The last book I read was The Atrocity Exhibition by JG Ballard. Fascinating man, fascinating books. It's a rough ride but well worth it. At the moment I'm giving Tess of the d'Urbervilles the highlighter and pencil treatment for college. I really need a good essay in the first few weeks as I have no evidence of English work remaining.
The amount of people thinking of applying to Brasenose worries me, since that was the one that stood out on the open day! I'm not completely sure if I'll be applying or not, depends completely on the AS results.
The amount of people thinking of applying to Brasenose worries me, since that was the one that stood out on the open day! I'm not completely sure if I'll be applying or not, depends completely on the AS results.
To be fair, the carpet in the bedroom I was in with a friend was ******* gorgeous. It was nicer than my place! The lack of shower was highly alarming like but other than that it was lovely.
I need to do some proper research on college choice but I need the college library for that.
Welcome to English applicants - I was one last year and trust me, all the intellectual dick-swingers (fantastic, by the way) don't get in - if people try that hard to prove how intelligent/perceptive they think they are then it's a safe bet that they're all talk and no trousers, as it were.
Anyway, I'm reapplying this year (I guess this is the point of the thread) for either History & English or straight English at St Hugh's, Oxford, grades permitting of course. I applied last year to Exeter college but didn't get in - didn't think about what I actually like about English and instead just said I liked books that I thought sounded impressive - and got rightly found out for it as well. You can't ******** experts, especially if you aren't one.
I reckon course II English (Old & Middle English) sounds awesome - but nobody else seems interested!
Just thought I'd join in the english applicant party!
The dream is Cambridge. I did a residential three-day course in Corpus Christi this summer, and absolutely loved it.... but I'll wait and see how the exams went before I apply!
I also like the look of Warwick, York and UCL: and I'll probably apply to Trinity and UCD, too.
I'm a little scared by how serious all the books discussed above are. I need to up my game! Right now, I'm reading Austen's Mansfield Park (which I've read before) and Dickens' David Copperfield. After I finish those two, I think I'll try Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Grey.
I'm really enjoying what I'm reading right now - but I had serious trouble trying to force myself to finish Wuthering Heights last week. I just couldn't stand it!
Just thought I'd join in the english applicant party!
The dream is Cambridge. I did a residential three-day course in Corpus Christi this summer, and absolutely loved it.... but I'll wait and see how the exams went before I apply!
I also like the look of Warwick, York and UCL: and I'll probably apply to Trinity and UCD, too.
I'm a little scared by how serious all the books discussed above are. I need to up my game! Right now, I'm reading Austen's Mansfield Park (which I've read before) and Dickens' David Copperfield. After I finish those two, I think I'll try Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Grey.
I'm really enjoying what I'm reading right now - but I had serious trouble trying to force myself to finish Wuthering Heights last week. I just couldn't stand it!
I hated Wuthering Heights as well! I really have a thing against the Brontë sisters, I just don't know what everyone sees in them.
I did like all the other novels you've mentioned though, I'm sure you'll love reading them
Just thought I'd join in the english applicant party!
The dream is Cambridge. I did a residential three-day course in Corpus Christi this summer, and absolutely loved it.... but I'll wait and see how the exams went before I apply!
I also like the look of Warwick, York and UCL: and I'll probably apply to Trinity and UCD, too.
I'm a little scared by how serious all the books discussed above are. I need to up my game! Right now, I'm reading Austen's Mansfield Park (which I've read before) and Dickens' David Copperfield. After I finish those two, I think I'll try Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Grey.
I'm really enjoying what I'm reading right now - but I had serious trouble trying to force myself to finish Wuthering Heights last week. I just couldn't stand it!
The Picture of Dorian Grey is AMAZING! I loved it so much.
I did Wuthering Heights for AS level- it was one of my exam texts. It was a real chore to read last summer but over the past year I've read it 5 times and I actually adore it. It's amazing how it's put togethor, can be read on so many levels etc. 5 is a bit much but I'd recommend you gave it another try....then again I hate Austen- so we seem to have slightly different tastes
Yes Blake! Today I read 'Songs of Innocence' and I am loving it. Let me know what you think about it when you read it, but aside from the general innocence stuff and the happy relationship between humanity and nature, I'm really getting into (and I don't think many people have spotted this!) the idea that Blake just doesn't profoundly believe that life is innocent. In Songs of Innocence that is, not his succeeding Songs of Experience.
This is shown in his themes themselves - sometimes, like in 'Night' he talks about nature alone and not humanity, and other times he amplifies the darkness. Also, growing up is always considered a necessity, and the dramatic qualities of the poems (Blake always uses another narrator) distances their happy beliefs from this.
The acutal syntax sometimes seems tentative, and he uses words with double meanings (most poignantly, 'beguile') and the pleading, desperate tone (which goes right back to 'To the Evening Star) to some of the poems is also well-remembered. Also, only some aspects of nature and humanity are nice: the "lamb" and "little birds" are the only parts of nature smiled upon, and though (again in 'Night') Blake argues that God smiles upon the nasty creatures, the pleading tone overrides this. Also, in 'On Another's Sorrow', Blake's statement "O! Never, never can it be" to me seems broken and desperate rather than victorious and reverent.
Sorry, I went on a bit of a rant here, but yeah. Wow. It's like Blake can't, even with the succeeding volume of damnation, 'Experience', present the world as innocent; not even the nice bits! A bit like Hardy. There's a dash of Coleridge in his representation of nature too (nature being unconditionally benevolent, but not universally greeting) but the idea of heavy foreboding and Blake's inability to present clear innocence is wowy.
It needs a bit more clarification, and I haven't read 'Experience' yet but it's definitely a good start.
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