Satire

Give five examples of satire from The Onion.

satire |ˈsaˌtīr|nounthe use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticizepeople's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporarypolitics and other topical issues.

(1) Struggling US Airways Introduces $100 Million Bomb Fee

(2) Shaq Misses Entire Second Half With Pulled Pork Sandwich

(3) How Bad For the Environment Can Throwing Away One Plastic Bottle Be?

(4)Friendship Between Caterpillar, Horse Exploited For Cheap Children's Book

(5) 'CSI' Set To Perform At Super Bowl Halftime Show

Norman Mailer's View of Women Writers

What is his view? What are his prejudices and stereotypes? Do you agree with any of his ideas? What ideas do you disagree with?

It's not that he doesn't like women writers, its just he can't seem to bring himself to be able to read them. He's stereotyping that all the women write in the same boring style. And in that sense I don't agree with him, because the same could be said about men.

More will be added later. (Maybe.)

Questions for The Hours

1.Describe the three female characters in great detail? What do they have in common?

How do they differ? How does their era influence who they are?

Virginia Wolf (Susex, England) - Lives with her husband, going a bit crazy again, committed suicide, smokes, writer of Mrs. Dallaway, doesn't care about her doctors, kissed her sister.

Clarissa Dallaway (2001, New York) - In bed with another woman, seems to be living out the book, witnessed Laura's son suicide.

Laura (1950s, Los Angeles) - Has a husband and child and is pregnant with another, reading Virginia's book, kissed her lady friend, her son committed suicide, she left her family after her second child was born.

2. Compare/Contrast these female characters with the female characters from the

literature weʼve read.

All suffering from depression, tied together through Virginia's book, all love women.

The Yellow Wallpaper Q&A

1. Why is the narrator writing in secret?

If her brother and husband knew they would think her working too hard and put an end to it at once. Or she could only be encouraging this sickness of hers.

2. Describe the relationship between the narrator and her husband.

The husband does seem to love her and take care of her despite not believing in this "sickness" of hers. She gets frustrated by the fact that he doesn't believe her.

3. What do the details about the room suggest about its function?

A nursery/gym.

4. Describe the effect the wallpaper is having on the narrator.

It's making her imagine things I guess.

5. How do you explain the figure beginning to appear in the wallpaper?

Just a guess but maybe she's the one starting to appear in the wallpaper. I mean, her sudden weakness and the growing figure in the wall make sense don't they? And she did say that she felt something was wrong with the house.

6. What is the "idea" that John says the narrator should not "let... enter your mind"?

That her mind is degrading. That she's going crazy.

7. The narrator's attitude seems to have changed. Do you think she will get better?

Probably not.

8. What is the narrator's condition at this point?

To me? Progressively getting worse. She's become obsessed with that wallpaper.

9. What does the narrator now believe?

That she has become free of the wallpaper, that she has gotten out of it's yellow clutches.

Women Writers

We have only read two women writers so far: Barbara Kingsolver for The Bean Trees and now Edith Wharton with Ethan Frome. Are women writers any different from men? Do they choose different topics? Do they have different writing styles? Do you prefer to read stories by men or women? Does it matter if a book is by a man or a woman?

For a lot of these I'll give the same answer: It all depends on the time and place the woman was writing the book. For example someone writing in the 1800s would write something completely different from someone on the 1900s. Why would it matter if a book is by a man or woman? That's a weird question.

Five Facts: Edith Wharton

* The saying "Keeping up with the Joneses" is said to refer to the family of her father.

* Wrote at least 85 short stories, and was also a highly regarded landscape architect, interior designer, and taste-maker of her time.

* First woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for literature in 1921.

* The Beinecke Library at Yale University houses the Edith Wharton collection, which has some 50,000 items, consisting of letters, manuscripts, photographs, and miscellaneous personal items of hers. (Creeeeeepy.)

* Wharton continued writing until her death.

Seattle 1999

What is the WTO? In the movie This is What Democracy Looks Like, what are they protesting about the WTO?

The WTO is the World Trade Organization. They're protesting about bad working conditions and low wages that the workers are getting. Blah, blah, blah. David Bowie, David Bowie, David Bowie.

Yeah.