Phantom Limb

Phantom Limb is an exercise in grief by the filmmaker. I feel he’s coping with his grief with every step of the film. The title itself expresses the deep grief he feels like he is missing a limb without his brother with him. It's heart wrenching to think of this child feeling responsible for the death of his brother. Each segment expresses the loss and pain he feels using unrelated images to show that grief can be all encompassing. The interesting thing is that the film maker is never seen nor heard during this extremely personal story, only through very plain text in the opening story. The virtual omission of himself in the film makes it able for people to relate their own experiences with grief while watching. It was very hard to not be affected by the compelling images shown.

phantom limb

the movie phantom limb went through the process everyone goes through when losing a loved one. He describes the guilt he felt after his brothers death and how his family handled it. He uses pictures and clips from other movies to describe the words he gives us about the process of death. I liked how he did not use the normal 5 steps to grief. He showed that it was way more than that. He wants to describe the pain and anger he felt with the loss of his brother but didn't want to only use himself as an example. When Timmy ( I think that is the little boy's name) loses his bird the narrator goes on to tell us this is his first experience of death. Timmy may not of understood exactly what death meant but he knows it's different than his bird just flying away. i think this documentary is saying you have a choice on how you grieve but it is impossible to do it a wrong way. No persons grief is greater than anyone else's when they deal with death. It all depends on how you deal with it.

Phantom Limb

The documentary was a good one and I really enjoyed watching this during our class period. The film was a pretty sad one and really pulled me in because of how smooth it went though. The story was good because it told us how not to deal with grief and that is a tough subject to talk about especially when it happens to a young family member. The scene though that really stuck out to me was when the sheep was being sheared. That was a very different scene and at first I wondered why it was even in there in the first place. The scene just showed how smooth and easy going the hair came off and stood for a metaphor. This was overall a great film.

Phantom Limb

I really enjoyed watching the documentary, Phantom Limb. It was so interesting to see all of the steps of dealing with loss. The part of the film that caught my attention most was the first scene on separation. This section was about his brothers death and how his family dealt with it. I found it so interesting that he chose not to use any voice overs and instead used text in between home video clips. The fact that his family still to this day doesn't talk about the death of his brother was shown by not having any voices in that section. I think he included his personal experience with the death of a loved one to show his credibility on the topic and also to show the wrong way of dealing with death. He knew that he and his family didn't deal with the death of his brother in a healthy way, and through the rest of the film he shows all the ways that are healthiest in dealing with the loss. Seeing the home videos of his family really made me feel for his family's loss. I think this section of the documentary was imperative to the film because it caught the audiences attention and had them emotionally involved from the very beginning.

Phantom Limb

This documentary illustrates a series of steps that takes the viewer on a trip through the grieving process. I thought it was interesting how the documentor never actually appeared or spoke in his film, but still presented himself as an example of his theme. He used visual metaphors along with the written narration to help get the point across (the collapsing buidlings and sheared sheep). The majority of the documentary takes on a depressing tone but at the end reverses it by repesenting the final step of grief with a birth, showing that the end can sometimes beget a beginning.

Phatom Limb

From the very beginning of the movie I was very interested. I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. Whether it was simply about the death of the directors brother or plainly about death. In reality the movie was about both. The movie was very relateable for everyone. The fact of death is a topic that most people have encountered and experienced in some point. The movie didn't hide anything. What was really interesting to me were the steps after death. They may not have gone in an order that works for everyone but the creators of the movie weren't scared to jump into that topic and touch upon things that people aren't used to hearing about. Death is something that physically and emotionally hurts and people don't usually want to bring that kind of pain up or resurface old emotions and feelings. Another thing that was very interesting to me were the pictures and examples that went along with the steps. For example the stage of shock gave an example of rats being shocked. I really never thought about how rats being shocked could relate to death in any form. Everything connected and built a real meaning. It was for the viewer to interpret those meanings and form them into something that related to their life in the past or currently.

"Third Bank Of the River"

The title was the first thing to perplex me from the Third Bank. A river only has two banks, I suppose the implication here is that her father becomes the third bank of the river during his term spent on it. I also began thinking of the boat, the vessel, that contains the father’s body. I feel like this is symbolic for not crossing over...as in stuck between banks, becoming the third bank. Through the writing, I feel the abandonment of the speaker, but I also feel the strong undercurrent of his obvious love and confusion at the behavior of his father. The oddest part for me is when their father won’t come to the shore of the presentation of the granddaughter. Then everyone really gives up on the father and moreover, they move on with their lives expect for the speaker who cannot. Even in rereads I haven’t the faintest thought of why or what is the compelling reason for this father to leave his family, the river means something other than how I’m reading it. The ending made me recall “The Storyteller” in that he offers to take up the mission of his father and stay on the boat and how the Storyteller took up the telling of the stories.

The Third Bank of the RiverIn

In "The Third Bank of the River," João Guimarães Rosa does explore these separate, symbolic opposites in the lives of members of the narrator’s family. He then crafts, out of the conflict, a third position which can be, at best, described as a treaty between two very unlike things. Often times, these extremes are the very definitions of characterization we come to expect in a short story, and, by reading between these lines, Rosa was able to jumble these words up "The Third Bank of the River" into a work of unclear and allegorical by nature. By never exactly defining the third part that is created, the author is able to explore this clearly important topic in greater depth. The importance of the crossing is that, in every case the author presents, it represents the journey from one position to its opposite, continuing until the characters reach their final destination, the third, middle situation. It is in this way that father’s crossing has a profound effect on the family and the way they play out the rest of their lives.

Caillebotte's "Young Man"

I have posted a large image of this painting so you can see the details (unlike in the book).
Dr R

The Third Bank of the River

While I was reading the Third Bank of the River I kept trying to think ahead as to what the author was trying to get across. One of the things I kept questioning was what exactly did the father leaving symbolize. I knew there was more to the story then just the simple fact that the father left for no reason. After reading I came to the conclusion that for me he personally symbolized a form of death. One day he just decided to leave and to the son his father was gone forever. The author gives us many clues as to why we should look at the father leaving as symbolic. Guimaraes Rosa gave very little detail and explanation. It was as if she wanted us to form our own opinions from our own lives in order to make sense of the story. Another explanation for the father leaving was to be a symbol of divorce. The father was leaving and the son could still see him but could not connect to his father like he used to. That is just like when a mother and father get a divorce and usually one parent leaves the house and the other one is the primary guardian. In this example the father left and the mother took care of the children.

My Presentation Poem for Tuesday, I will bring copies to class

The Man In The Glass

Peter "Dale" Winbrow Sr

When you get what you want in your struggle for self
And the world makes you king for a day,
Just go to the mirror and look at yourself
And see what that man has to say.

For it isn't your father or mother or wife
Whose judgment upon you must pass.
The fellow whose verdict counts most in you life
Is the one staring back from the glass.

You may be like Jack Horner and chisel a plum
And think you're a wonderful guy.
But the man in the glass says you're only a bum
If you can't look him straight in the eye.

He's the fellow to please-never mind all the rest,
For he's with you clear to the end.
And you've passed your most dangerous, difficult test
If the man in the glass is your friend.

You may fool the whole world down the pathway of years
And get pats on the back as you pass.
But your final reward will be heartache and tears
If you've cheated the man in the glass.

Please incude the author/artist name

Yes, be please include the author or artist name of your presentation text.  I'd like to see the year published or recorded, something about the genre too.


Try to post these enough in advance for folks to read them.

Thanks,
Dr R

sonnet 3

The issue in Sonnet 3 is about having children and the legacy they bring. It seems that the sonnet is talking to a man and how he is preventing a women to have children "Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother,". I think the sonnet's issue is that a man doesn't want to settle down and have children. Back in Shakespere's time that is how you passed on your legacy and to not have children was shameful. It states
"Despite of wrinkles this thy golden time. But if thou live, remember'd not to be,
 Die single, and thine image dies with thee."
meaning you may be young now but eventually you will become old and not be able to have children which will leave you to die alone and to die in legacy.

May 5,2011

Sonnet 18

After reading Shakespeare's Sonnet 18, I began to understand exactly what the speaker was trying to convey. In the beginning he compares a woman to a summer's day, yet he concedes that a summer's day can sometimes be dimmed by weather, become too hot, and all in all, lasts too short of a time. He then begins to talk about how nature always changes, and that nothing ever lasts for an extended period of time. The he writes about her beauty and how it is timeless and how it doesn't matter if she grows old and passes on, her beauty will live on eternally in the words he has written. He ends the sonnet saying, that as long as this poem exists and men can live and breathe and see, they will always know and understand the forever beauty of this woman, Even if it's just through the lines of this sonnet.

Sonnet 3

As the book states, these sonnets use the same general concepts: youth, reproduction, beauty, and death. Sonnet 3 is the author’s plea to a man to consider what he is denying the world, and himself, if he does not procreate. He explains the selfishness of the man’s choice not to reproduce “Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother”, in an attempt to help him understand the importance and beauty of making another life. In another appeal, Shakespeare shows him that children are renewed reflections of one’s own youth. He reminds the man that he is a mirror of his mother’s young beauty, and if he does not create an image after himself, he will forget his “golden time”. In a final attempt to sway the man, the author illustrates the sadness of dying without one to carry on your legacy and genes.
This poem had a more direct approach to the subject than the others. In Sonnet 3, he is directly requesting of the man to reconsider his decisions, whereas in the other sonnets he is only implying that they are directed toward another young man. The book asks to study the word choice and structure of the sonnets and how they differ, and I am quite honestly having a little difficulty with that. This sonnet does use harsher imagery than the others (“unear’d womb, tomb”), which lends more of an urgency than the others. I felt a sense of caution throughout all of the sonnets, but this one struck me particularly.

Text for presentation tomorrow

I found a little plot of land
in the garden of Eden
it was dirt and dirt is all the same

I tilled it with my two hands
and I called it my very own
There was no one to dispute my claim

Well, you'd be shocked at the state of things
The whole place had just cleared right out
It was hotter than hell, so I lay me by a spring
For a spell as naked as a trout

The wandering eye that I have caught
Is as hot as a wandering sun
But I will want for nothing more, in the garden
To start again
In the hardening of every new heart but one

Meet me in the garden of Eden,
Bring a friend, we are going to have a time
We have are going to have a garden party,
It's on me, no sir-e, it's my dime

We broke out hearts in the war between
St. George and the dragon
But both in equal parts are welcome to come along
To come along, I'm inviting everyone

Farewell, to loves that i have known
Even muddiest as waters run
Tell me what is meant by sitting alone in a garden,
Seceded from the Union in the year of '81?

The unending amends you made
Are enough for one life, be done
I believe in innocence, little darling, start again
I believe in everyone

I believe, regardless, I believe in everyone

Sonnet number 3

I just looked at my notes and realized I wrote “What woman wouldn’t want her womb tilled?”. Yikes.
The basic theme I read for this is a man realizing his own mortality and his desire to procreate while he’s still young. The speaker (a man) sees his future child as a reflection of himself instead of the looking-glass. For the mother will instead recall the fertility of her youth’s fields when she has aged. The man feels that without a child his image will die along with his body. A child exists to carry on your bloodline and your name. The woman does not get this benefit as she is just the vessel of the child and fertile field. It’s funny to see the need to procreate from the males prospective there’s almost a fearful element that he won’t find his partner to give him his ultimate goal of a child.

Sonnet 9

I had to read this sonnet quite a few times to understand it, but after I did I really enjoyed it. I'm not sure that I got all of what he was trying to say, but I got it for the most part. The sonnet speaks of a man being too afraid to get married because he doesn't want to leave his wife devastated when he dies. However, if he doesn't marry he won't have children and will die an old man without children. Because he won't have children, he will not have anyone to carry on any part of his existence. Without giving his love to a wife or children he will die without sharing his love and the world will be saddened by his selfishness. He should then be ashamed of his fear of not wanting to marry because he will upset so many people and be unable to share the love in which he should.

Sonnet 3

This was a pretty hard poem to understand but this was what I made of Sonnet 3. The poem starts out by the narrator telling the man in the poem that he needs to have a kid soon and some mother will not ever have a child because of him. The woman would think who would be so selfish to not want to have a child and not have his name live on for a little while longer. Who would not want to have someone carry on their name? The narrator then says how happy that his mother was when she had him and that she was proud of him and would want him to experience the same events in his life. Have a baby and start a legacy now when you are young and in your best health. You do not want to die without a family to support you or you will not be remembered.

Alone (presentation thursday)

Hey guys this is my poem for Thursdays class if you want to look over it!

From childhood's hour I have not been

As others were---I have not seen

As others saw---I could not bring

My passions from a common spring.

From the same source I have not taken

My sorrow; I could not awaken

My heart to joy at the same tone;

And all I lov'd, I loved alone.

Then---in my childhood---in the dawn

Of a most stormy life---was drawn

From ev'ry depth of good and ill

The mystery which binds me still:

From the torrent, or the fountain,

From the red cliff of the mountain,

From the sun that 'round me roll'd

In its autumn tint of gold---

From the lightning in the sky

As it pass'd me flying by---

From the thunder and the storm,

And the cloud that took the form

(When the rest of Heaven was blue)

Of a demon in my view.

Sonnet 2

When becoming forty years old and age has made your eyebrows wrinkle
and your body is showing other signs of aging
your youth that was once showing and people once admired you for
will be worth very little
And then when you are asked "where did your beauty go"
and where are all the treasures of your passionate days
You must say with your own sunken eyes
We are all consuming shame and unprofitable praise
If you would have put your beauty to good work
If you could only answer this my child
settle my accounts and justify my old age
Proving that this beauty was once yours
   this child would be new when you were old
   and you would see your very own blood run in him when you are cold.

Delight is Disorder

I like this poem because it challenges orthodox ways of recognizing and enjoying beauty in our world. Typically it is thought that standards of perfection, precision and symmetry are strong elements in determining what is "delightful" and what is not. However, in this poem Herrick takes an interesting look at the beauty found in humanistic flaws and deficiencies; the "Delight in Disorder". For example, the speaker mentions how "civility" can be discovered even in the creativity of a careless shoestring tie. This is a rather relaxing take on the world because it can broaden perspectives and ease the mind of worries. Instead of worrying constantly to meet the expectations of a highly superficial society, the speaker assures the reader that sometimes the simple things can often times be the most satisfying. The poem encourages its audience to find joy in uncomformities and the humbling aspects of our own imperfections. By doing this, we can live a life filled less of concern or stress but instead of a peaceful, beautiful serenity.