Illusions and Impressions

[listen_to_teeth]

This week we looked at Swift's "The Lady's Dressing Room," and I think like most people did, I absolutely loved it. I found the bluntness of it to be fabulous and the harshness to be delicious. The amount of effort some women put into their appearance is questionable. It almost makes you wonder what they would ordinarily look like. Although I think

Comments

[tricia_stewart]

Hi Lisa, are you in the "Horror and Terror" class? Because the professor in that class made that very point. Great post by the way, that Margaret Atwood poem sounds interesting. Ciao,

-Tricia

[listen_to_teeth]

yes, i am in that class, and paolucci is the professor i am indeed talking about. how do you like the class? i just find him so engaging!

[tricia_stewart]

I really like the class, I have always been a horror fan and so it really interests me. I like Paolucci too, he makes the material even more intriguing when he adds to it. Although, I do think he reads a lot of sex into passages where it didn't even occur to me to be thinking about it. Like when he mentioned Carmilla's hands being under the covers while she comforted the six-year-old Laura. I just never thought that even a vampire would do that to a little girl, you know? Anyways, I'll stop now :) Hope you had a good weekend!

-Tricia

[listen_to_teeth]

Oh I know what you mean, I'm really interested in some of the most morbid and strange things. It's fascinating and frightening. I actually got creeped out in Dracula, a lot! The whole part where Lucy was sleepwalking...especially the first time she's bitten in the cemetery on the cliff - I had to go to my brother's room because I didn't want to be alone. hahah Talk about being a nerd. Anyway, yeah I have noticed that the class is very sexually charged too. I think it's because sex and horror kind of go hand in hand - especially when talking about vampires because they're supposed to seduce you and repulse you at the same time. About Carmilla, lol, I actually read that last year in another class and the professor was so much worse about it. All he concentrated on was lesbian sex in the story and he'd get this really evil grin on his face and laugh like a psychotic - it was pretty frightening and morbidly perverted. lol About Laura being a child, I guess it goes to show that no one is safe from vampires. But I guess is goes for society

[ofcatslives]

Interesting post Lisa, thanks for the Atwood mention, I see you are on board with my feeling about the need to include the work of Canadian authors into this course.

"I think this poem also has a lot do with appearances and visual illusions. Things are not as they always seem."

This point you have made is precisely the point I was making when I commented on Lesley-Anne's post in which you disagreed with me. The illusions you speak of are a result of the political situation in England at the time and thus what Swift is satirizing about.

Janice

[listen_to_teeth]

Janice: I wasn't disagreeing with you. I was disagreeing with Lesley-Anne. lol She said in her post that we needed to have a background of the time period in which the author was writing in order to understand the poem, or something like that. I disagree. I did not need to know about the history of women in England and what was going on at that time, to understand The Lady's Dressing Room. I could tell what he was writing about right off the bat, or at least I had some idea. I guess what I was arguing is that not all poems need that formal research to be understood. The poem is still very relevant today. I do however, realize that for some poetry, you do need that background information. Also, about your comment on knowing what the author's intentions are, I agree, because otherwise if you couldn't tell what the author was talking about, you wouldn't understand the poem. However, I like to interpret things on my own sometimes, so what the poet intends, I don't always care to understand.

[ofcatslives]

How strange, I swear I posted a response to this, but it isn't here. Lisa, did you delete it or did it just not post properly?

Janice

[listen_to_teeth]

lol i didn't delete it so i guess it just didn't post properly, or you told me the response over msn. see you tomorrow girly!