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Procrastinating. April 11, 2007

Posted by jophine in : Hilarious Things, Miscellany , comments closed

In honor of me finally starting my paper, I have stayed up until three am wasting my time and making Byron headers. I’ve put up a new one to commemorate the fantastic title of my paper, given to my project by my oh-so-insightful roommate.

Here is the original header (sorry for the thumbnail, but the full sized ones get truncated):

Byron

And the new one:

Cain
And three more, that I plan on eventually cycling in, but are now just here for the sake of amusement:

Shelleys

Manfred

Lakies

Well, I thought they were funny. Paper sections to be posted.

Milton, Byron, and Intertextuality. March 23, 2007

Posted by jophine in : Childe Harold, Dramatic Plays, Hilarious Things, Miscellany , comments closed

Just got back from a third of the Milton Read-a-thon, having wimped out after only four hours. I had to put something down, though:


I have not loved the world, nor the world me;

I have not flattered its rank breath, nor bow’d


To its idolatries a patient knee,–


nor coin’d my cheek to smiles,– nor cried aloud


In worship of an echo; in the crowd


They could not deem me one of such; I stood


Among them, but not of them; in a shroud


Of thoughts which were not their thoughts, and still could,


Had I not filed my mind, which thus itself subdued. (CHP, Canto III, stanza 113).

 

Versus:

This knows my punisher; therefore as farr
From granting hee, as I from begging peace:
All hope excluded thus, behold in stead
Of us out-cast, exil’d, his new delight,
Mankind created, and for him this World.
So farewel Hope, and with Hope farewel Fear,
Farewel Remorse: all Good to me is lost;
Evil be thou my Good; by thee at least
Divided Empire with Heav’ns King I hold
By thee, and more then half perhaps will reigne;
As Man ere long, and this new World shall know. (Paradise Lost, Book IV, lines 103-113).

This is so much cooler in my head. I have to reread Cain. Oh man, why didn’t I read Milton earlier?

Two figs… March 15, 2007

Posted by jophine in : Hilarious Things, Miscellany , comments closed

I had a good revelation in the shower, and I wanted to write them down before I forgot.

1. The other day, Sophie and I were laughing about the feminine theory model for narrative structure (multiple climaxes), and I got to thinking that Manfred, The Giaour, and to an extent Childe Harolds I & II have a structure of climax without catharsis. I might have to reread the climactic scene in Don Juan I as well, but I think it follows.

2. Don Juan I has a very interesting narrator — one who can make fun of Southey and Wordsworth (and really, don’t they deserve it?) but also one who can comment on the state of Spanish politics and sometimes looks upon Don Juan like a character he knows personally. What is Byron doing here? At the beginning of DJ II, he does a similar thing, ironically making fun of English poets. Not just one unreliable narrator, but two? Heaven help us.