News about Adrienne Rich's Death (2012)

Donald Barthelme, "The School", presentation by Kajo and Katarina

Humor:
Although the humor can be considered dark, it is present throughout the story and usually through escalation. 
- It normally begins with ordinary situations that anybody can recognize like a classroom gardening project but then it escalates to death and how to approach life values.
- The narrator's calm tone adds up to this theme because it never rises to a high pitch, and this monotonous way of telling the story actually makes it funnier in my opinion.
-  The narrator builds a large sequence of deaths so that the readers eventually find humor in death which is very unusual because death is normally a serious matter.
-  Starting from a tree, to reptiles and rodents, to puppies and finally to humans. One can say that there is a moral lesson in this story and it's that life is a school where we are supposed to learn and death is inevitable.

Elements of grotesque:
-  Story of death is told in non serious language.
-  The situation that should be traumatic is treated normally.
-  Role reversal in language: Teacher speaks like a pupil, children use formal philosophical language.
-  Elements emerge without a cause – deaths, philosophical question, Helen.
-  The situation that should be traumatic is treated normally which causes surrealistic/oneiric atmosphere.
-  One may argue that the story has neither a real beginning nor a real endubg. The reader may have a feeling that the end it is only another episode of the story that will be repeated endlessly.

Sense of time and post modernism:

- In postmodern literature time doesn't necessarily need to go in chronological order. This means that there can be flashbacks or distortions in time, and this is something that caught our attention in the story.
- The narrator talks about the snakes, and the Korean kid... etc and we don't know when exactly this is happening. No clear indication of when the action is happening.
- Later the narrator talks about a discussion they had “ONE” day in class. Again, this is very uncertain, and could be considered a flashback, as we don't know when the “ONE” day actually was.

Insecurity as a postmodern trait:

- Postmodern literature is often ambiguous and certain things are unclear. Insecurity is a present theme in this short story, I get a sense that the narrator might be doubting himself very often. Sometimes there are questions or issues present in the story but the narrator doesn't know the answer or has a very ambiguous answer. An example of this is the language used in the story, such as “I don't know” or “You know what I mean”. 

Language:
-  Using colloquial language causes a sense of disbelief.
-  Narrator plays with decorum, switching from informal to formal language.
-  Way of expression of the first-person narrator may be taken as directly addressing the reader, or as an inner dialogue with hitself.

Poema "Naturalmente ao Contrário" (de Cláudia e Christian)

Naturalmente ao contrário

Ocorrem, em sentido inverso

As imagens já passadas

São imagens descritas em verso

Sobre fardas ensanguentadas.

Corpos, sem dono, abandonados,

Balas que sobrevoam o chão,

Meninos que aqui foram deixados,

Nada mais que carne para canhão.

Os corpos voltam à vida lentamente,

As asas caídas retornam a voar,

As balas são recolhidas novamente,

Tudo o que era vivo, retorna ao seu lugar.

Bombas que deixam de o ser,

Aviões retornados às suas bases,

Hoje há um belo amanhecer,

Dias assim, na guerra, são fugazes.

Memória Descritiva do processo de composição do poema "Naturalmente ao Contrário" (de Cláudia e Christian)

Título – “Naturalmente ao contrário”, tem um significado muito simples e está directamente relacionado com a obra, com o personagem Billy e com a cena aqui retratada.

“Naturalmente” refere-se ao estado débil de saúde de Billy. Billy, tendo problemas do foro psicológico, devido ao trauma que a guerra lhe causou, acaba por fazer coisas que outros personagens, estando mentalmente saudáveis, não fazem. Uma dessas coisas é quando Billy decide visualizar um filme que tinha visto. E como é que Billy visualiza o filme? Visualiza-o ao contrário. Para ele, é natural fazer tal coisa. Para nós, não. Quando vemos um filme, fazemo-lo pela ordem que o vimos, nunca o vamos visualizar do fim para o início. Daí termos utilizado o advérbio “naturalmente”.

Em relação ao uso da palavra “contrário”, tem a ver com o que já explicamos acima. Ele visualiza o filme de trás para a frente, logo ele visualiza o filme ao contrário.

1ª Estrofe, 1º e 2º Versos

Através dos dois primeiros versos explicamos que o poema que se segue será, tal como o que acontece no livro, uma cena passada do fim para o início.

“Ocorrem, em sentido inverso, / As imagens já passadas” – vamos contar algo que vimos, pelo fim. É isto que o personagem Billy faz na cena. Ele vai ver o filme do fim para o início. – A passagem onde esta cena acontece na obra é a seguinte: “It was a movie about American bombers in the Second World War and the gallant men who flew them. Seen backwards by Billy, the story went like this:” (página 38, linhas 10-11)

1ª Estrofe, 3º Verso

Este verso não tem qualquer ligação com a cena do livro porque na obra esta cena é retratada em narrativa. Este foi um verso que acrescentamos para dar a ideia de que vamos apenas resumir a cena da obra, vamos recriá-la da forma que achámos mais adequada.

1ª Estrofe, 4º Verso e 2ª Estrofe, 1º verso

Este é o primeiro verso que começa a descrever o que se passa no filme que Billy está a rever mentalmente. Na obra está escrito o seguinte: “American planes, full of holes and wounded men” (página 38, linha 12). A primeira imagem que nos veio à mente foi uma farda ensanguentada. O verso seguinte, “corpos, sem dono, abandonados”, tem a mesma inspiração. Eram meros objectos que foram derrubados pelo inimigo e agora jazem naquele sítio e dali não irão sair mais. De homens passaram a nada.

2ª Estrofe, 2º Verso

“Balas que sobrevoam o chão” – remete-nos para a seguinte descrição: “sucked bullets and shell fragments” (página 38, linha 14). O mesmo processo que foi usado na obra está a ser usado aqui. É uma imagem vista do fim para o início.

2ª Estrofe, 3º e 4º Versos

“Meninos que aqui foram deixados / Nada mais que carne para canhão”

Estes dois versos não têm uma ligação directa com a cena mas sim com a obra no geral. Na parte em que usamos a palavra “meninos”, estamos a referir-nos a um dos principais temas debatidos na obra que é o facto de para a guerra serem levados jovens / crianças. O 4º verso está direccionado para o que se passa na guerra e está directamente relacionado com o 1º verso desta mesma estrofe. Aqueles meninos que iam para a guerra eram objectos de combate e quando morriam no meio destas explosões e ataques eram simplesmente substituídos por outros meninos.

3ª Estrofe

Esta estrofe está relacionada com a cena em que Billy começa a chegar, digamos, a meio do filme e os corpos que estavam deitados e as balas que estavam no ar começam a recuar no tempo e começam a regressar ao seu lugar de partida. “Over France a few German fighter planes flew at them backwards, sucked bullets and shell fragments” (página 38, linhas 13-14).

4ª Estrofe

“Bombas que deixam de o ser / Aviões retornados às suas bases” – estes dois versos remetem para o seguinte passo; “When the bombers got back to their base, the steel cylinders were taken from the racks and shipped back to the United States of America, where factories were operating night and day, dismantling the cylinders, separating the dangerous contents into minerals.” (página 38, linhas 25-27) – esta passagem remete-nos para a construção das bombas. As bombas que já tinham explodido voltam para o sítio de onde vieram e, a partir daí, são levadas para o seu local de construção.

“Hoje há um belo amanhecer / Dias assim na guerra são fugazes” – estes dois versos não têm nenhuma ligação à cena que se está a passar no filme, porém, na nossa opinião consideramos ser uma boa forma para terminar o poema. Tendo em conta que tudo volta ao seu início, os homens que estavam mortos voltam à vida, as bombas que foram explodidas voltam às fábricas onde foram feitas, logo o dia volta ao seu início.

O último adjetivo, “fugazes”, no fundo, remete para todo o poema. Os dias que, aparentemente serão calmos, são fugazes – como vimos aqui – os soldados acordaram, acreditaram que ia ser um dia sem qualquer conflito e umas horas mais tarde estavam a ser bombardeados e baleados. Na guerra nunca se sabe quando ou o quê irá terminar. Tudo é fugaz na guerra – a felicidade, os dias sem conflitos e a vida.

Billy Pilgrim's Letter about Tralfamadorians (Vanessa Ideias, Ana Durão e Marta)

    The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist. The Tralfamadorians can look at all the different moments just that way we can look at a stretch of the Rocky Mountains, for instance. They can see how permanent all the moments are, and they can look at any moment that interests them. It is just an illusion we have here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone it is gone forever.
'When a Tralfamadorian sees a corpse, all he thinks is that the dead person is in a bad condition in that particular moment, but that the same person is just fine in plenty of other moments. Now, when I myself hear that somebody is dead, I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamadorians say about dead people, which is "so it goes."
    They pretty much resemble what we today call a plumber's friend. They are green in color - a very flashy green, in fact – and about two feet high, having their so called suction cups on the ground, working as a single foot on which they manage to stand. They also possess a single eye in the middle of their heads, which happen to be shaped like hands. That is because their intelligence resides in their actions. They see with their hands and they also think with their hands, immediately turning their thoughts into actions. They are quite admirable, the Tralfamadorians. With their way of facing life and death and so on. They also have no free-will. And that makes things so much less complicated.
    Now that I think about it, I remember I have written about their appearance before. It doesn't matter. Let us just say this repetition of information serves to keep a very fresh and vivid image of these creatures in your minds, just in case you happen to forget. In fact, I have even taken the liberty of water-coloring one of these extraterrestrial beings myself, just for your viewing pleasure:

 I told you before they looked like plumbers' friends.
And to think a creature like the one you have just now seen was capable of getting me displayed in a Tralfamadorian Zoo.
    It was a strange place, the Tralfamadorian Zoo. Lonely. But I was given everything I needed for survival there.
    I had visits every single day. Not actual visits, but curious Tralfamadorians who very much wanted to see the new creature displayed at the Zoo. The sight of me apparently made them extremely happy for some reason. All I had to do was my usual everyday routine and that had them screeching in euphoria. Telepathically, of course. Because that's how they do it. That's how they communicate.
    Suddenly, one fateful day, I was not alone in that exhibit anymore. Another human, a woman, had been thrown inside the same exhibit as me. Her name was Montana Wildhack. They expected us to mate. And so we did. We had a child. I know nothing of that child today. He or she is probably not a child anymore. It could even be dead, for all I know. So it goes.
    I should have probably finished writing this letter long ago, but I suppose I got carried away.

Eagerly awaiting a response,



Prezi das colegas aqui


E ainda links para "crash courses":
Parte 1: http://youtu.be/F6g7S2W27Kc
Parte 2: http://youtu.be/HyKhIiGKq5M

Implied Author

See here.

Philip K. Dick sobre realismo...

HOW TO BUILD A WORLD THAT DOESN'T FALL APART TWO DAYS LATER

 

(...)

So I ask, in my writing, What is real? Because unceasingly we are bombarded with pseudo-realities manufactured by very sophisticated people using very sophisticated electronic mechanisms. I do not distrust their motives; I distrust their power. They have a lot of it. And it is an astonishing power: that of creating whole universes, universes of the mind. I ought to know. I do the same thing. It is my job to create universes, as the basis of one novel after another. And I have to build them in such a way that they do not fall apart two days later. Or at least that is what my editors hope. However, I will reveal a secret to you: I like to build universes which do fall apart. I like to see them come unglued, and I like to see how the characters in the novels cope with this problem. I have a secret love of chaos. There should be more of it. Do not believe—and I am dead serious when I say this—do not assume that order and stability are always good, in a society or in a universe. The old, the ossified, must always give way to new life and the birth of new things. Before the new things can be born the old must perish. This is a dangerous realization, because it tells us that we must eventually part with much of what is familiar to us. And that hurts. What I am saying is that objects, customs, habits, and ways of life must perish so that the authentic human being can live. And it is the authentic human being who matters most, the viable, elastic organism which can bounce back, absorb, and deal with the new.

Of course, I would say this, because I live near Disneyland, and they are always adding new rides and destroying old ones. Disneyland is an evolving organism. For years they had the Lincoln Simulacrum, like Lincoln himself, was only a temporary form which matter and energy take and then lose. The same is true of each of us, like it or not.

Philip K. Dick, 1978 in The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick  Selected Literary and Philosophical Writings. Ed. Lawrence Sutin, Nova Iorque: Vintage Books, 1995, 180-195.