The Cambridge Offer-Holder's Chat Thread 2009-Mk II

There are also many allusions in characters' names to famous historical thinkers and writers, such as John Locke (after the philosopher) and his alias Jeremy Bentham (after the philosopher), Danielle Rousseau (after philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau), Desmond Hume (after philosopher David Hume), Juliet Burke (after philosopher Edmund Burke), Mikhail Bakunin (after the anarchist philosopher), Daniel Faraday (after physicist Michael Faraday), Eloise Hawking (after physicist Stephen Hawking), George Minkowski (after mathematician Hermann Minkowski), Richard Alpert (the birth name of spiritual teacher Ram Dass) and Charlotte Staples Lewis (after author C. S. Lewis)

Its based on philosophers? Really? Interesting, yet not my cup of tea. So long as they dont force any philosophy on me I will be happy. When to get time though to watch it??? Thats the hard question

The wonderful thing about TV programmes and literature is that they can often incorporate the issues into the storyline so even if it's clear it's the main theme of the episode, it's not like you're reading a textbook. Spoonful of sugar and all that lot.

A = (1/2)absinC

That is very true. Sadloy though, I beleive sometimes there is no issues purposely put into the episode or book, and people try to read too much into the book/programme and find deeper meanings that were never there. Big example: Stairway to Heaven is a devil song backwards Idiocy in my opinion!

Haven't (and probably won't until much later) read anything today.

@Mel: "wir lieben uns - ich gab ihm Grund, daran zu glauben, was auch geschah" is towards the end of Ch22.

I'm about to do something awful to you.

TVTropes Such a good website. About themes used within TV programmes etc. Very perceptive.

I've just got out of it and it took me 18 minutes. This is a massively restrained venture. And a record for me.

Did anyone watch University Challenge?

Did anyone watch University Challenge?

Doing so right now on iPlayer.

A few issues there. Just because something isn't intentionally incorporated, it doesn't mean it isn't there. There are all sorts of different approaches to literary analysis, but I'll leave that to someone like Fleur or Andy. You might be focussing more on what you get from the book rather than the historical context or the author's mindset or something, but as long as you are aware of which approach you're taking, I think they're all valid within analysis of these things, if justifiable.

Am I right in thinking that some people say something along the lines of: One book can be a different story for every individual reader because it's not just about what the author wrote, but also how the reader interprets and relates to it given their own experiences, character, and how they see it?

Also, some interpretations come in and out of fashion, so to speak. So when the thing is read may affect how it is viewed as well.

Lupus, You're right though, there are some things which some people come up with which seem very dubious. One of the things I found so frustrating with GCSE and AS Lit was not knowing how Lit beasties knew how much importance to place on a particular interpretation. Some get given none, some seem like they shouldn't get any, and some things, I think take a few more years of studying Lit to begin to have faith in.

It's a funny one. I think the Stairway to Heaven thing is just silly though.

edit: just a thought. I think it's very interesting how there are some places where Buffy is studied quite in-depth. This doesn't actually sound far-fetched to me. *prepares to be pelted with rotting tomatoes*

I always was sceptical to these interpratations as how do you know what the author intended?

...

The thing is, reading (or any form of art for that matter) is not a one way process , it involves an interaction between the work and the reader.

I just discovered... that Hugh Laurie went to Cambridge!

I'm guessing you probably already knew that, but I only just found out so felt the need to share my discovery!

Thats how Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry are such good friends, as they went to Cambridge together. However I am not sure what he read.

Also he rowed for Cambridge

Yeh, my Mum said that he rowed for either Cambridge or Oxford so I decided to get on wikipedia & find out.
He studied archaeology & anthropology at Selwyn and got a 3rd.

I think the Stairway to Heaven one is hilarious, and yet worrying that people could be bothered to go around checking songs backwards. Who has the time to do this???