"This book has pores. It has features. This book can go under the microscope. You'd find life under the glass, streaming past in infinite profusion. The more pores, the more truthfully recorded details of life per square inch you can get on a sheet of paper, the more 'literary' you are. That's my definition, anyway. Telling detail. Fresh detail. The good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies. So now do you see why books are hated and feared? They show the pores in the face of life. The comfortable people want only wax moon faces, poreless, hairless, expressionless. We are living in a time when flowers are trying to live on flowers, instead of growing on good rain and black loam. Even fireworks, for all their prettiness, come from the chemistry of the earth. Yet somehow we think we can grow, feeding on flowers and fireworks, without completing the cycle back to reality. Do you know the legend of Hercules and Antaeus, the giant wrestler, whose strength was incredible so long as he stood firmly on the earth? But when he was held, rootless, in midair, by Hercules, he perished easily. If there isn't something in that legend for us today, in this city, in our time, then I am completely insane."

-from Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)

Is it curling the hair

Or painting the face?

Pinning on bows,

Pink ribbons, and lace?

Flounces and frills,

Bracelets and rings?

Polishing nails?

Is it all of these things?

No, you can't pin it on

Like a bow in the hair.

You can't put it on

Like the garment you wear.

It's deeper than ornaments

Gracing the skin.

For true femininity

Comes from within!

It glows from a heart

That is gentle and kind,

A soul that is chaste,

An honest, pure mind.

Without inner goodness

How futile the bows,

For "pinning on petals"

Can ne'er make a rose!

-True Femininity, by Emily Hunter

How Much Land Does a Man Need?

In my World Literature assignments for the past week, one of the stories I was required to read was "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" by Leo Tolstoy.
I pulled out my enormous blue zippered binder and opened it. Flipping past "The Ransom of Red Chief" with a chuckle as I remembered the humorous story, I turned to the day's assignment. When I saw the title - and the author - I groaned and immediately flipped to the end to see how many pages...too many.
I was admittedly a little squiffy, as I knew that Tolstoy is not known for writing "candy" books; however, I had to read it, so I dove right in.
The story started out fairly boring, undoubtedly due at least partially to my cynical attitude regarding this particular piece of literature.
"Just as I expected. Booooooring."
I sighed and turned the page. But much to my surprise, the story became suddenly (Gasp!) interesting. As much as I was trying not to like it...I was starting to anyway.
Yes, it was longer than most of the short stories I had read previously, but I didn't mind. In fact, I wanted it to be longer. I was so caught up in the misadventures of Pahom the greedy landowner that I never wanted them to stop. Of course, I knew they would, and Pahom would probably end up dead as well...after all, when the devil decides he's going to get you, it can be hard to resist him. (At least when you're a fictional character who clearly can't see that what you're doing is wrong in every way imaginable.)
And who would have thought that a story about some dude trying to get more and more land could actually become suspenseful? As the story started to end though, I actually realized that my heart rate was up, and I was reading faster and faster...
And the story ends with a dead guy.
Throughout the whole story, the protagonist is trying to get more and more land, and no matter how much he has, he's never happy.
In the end, all he needed was six feet.
Shazam.
I loved it.

I'll have to watch this movie sometime...

Christy

I'm very much enjoying reading the book Christy by Catherine Marshall, even if it is technically assigned reading for my literature class. I especially like it because I've been to that area of the country, so I can picture the scenery. These are some of my pictures from our visit to the Smokies.

This one's from our hike on the Appalachian trail. Yeah, not the whole thing. It kind of started to get hard to breathe when we got to the higher elevations, plus we were out of breath anyway. Being six thousand feet up will get to anyone, especially if you're from Flat Florida like me.

I think that this just might be my art show entry for photography.
I'm torn, cuz I got so many awesome shots from NC.

You can see the shadow of the clouds in the background! Isn't that cool?
Hey, Sarah Johnson, this is the stuff I live to get out in!

That's a Christmas tree farm down there in the background. I never want to leave the mountains! I want to live there when  I grow up!
There's another requirement for my future husband: He's gotta love the mountains!

I can totally picture the scenes from the book! If she's talking about a creek, I can see it cuz there's one right by the lodge we stay in (the little kids play in it non-stop). If she's talking about a rocky clearing in the woods, I can see it cuz I've been to several! If she's talking about the majestic summit of a mountain, I can see it cuz I've been on many! I know what the cool, crisp, fresh air that she talks about is like!
It's just awesome. Going to North Carolina is the one thing out of the year that I can get excited about any time I think about it. Us cousins have big plans to buy the camp we stay at when we grow up so we can be there all the time! :)

(haha, post number 111)

Meyow Morsels! The cat food cats ask for by name!

Mark Twain

The latest on my reading list has been Mark Twain's Humorous Stories and Sketches. The title does not lie; they are truly humorous. Yes, some are more so than others-for example, today I was reading Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences. I was literally cracking up, which is not something that I sincerely do often.
At least not over a book, and especially not over a book that might happen to be on my lesson plan for my daily literature lesson.
Having read all of Cooper's mistakes, it kind of makes me want to read the bemoaned Deerslayer tale. And thus, for my dear readers' benefit, I am posting all of the rules that made me all giggly-wiggly.
I hope and pray that you may never violate any of these rules and see James Fenimore Cooper as a true example of a literary felon.
And just in case you haven't figured it out yet, this is a joke, so please don't get angry at me for criticizing a great author. Now read on!

• That a tale shall accomplish something and arrive somewhere. But the "Deerslayer" tale accomplishes nothing and arrives in air.
• They require that the episodes in a tale shall be necessary parts of the tale, and shall help to develop it. But as the "Deerslayer" tale is not a tale, and accomplishes nothing and arrives nowhere, the episodes have no rightful place in the work, since there was nothing for them to develop.
• They require that the personages in a tale shall be alive, except in the case of corpses, and that always the reader shall be able to tell the corpses from the others. But this detail has often been overlooked in the "Deerslayer" tale.
• They require that the personages in a tale, both dead and alive, shall exhibit a sufficient excuse for being there. But this detail also has been overlooked in the "Deerslayer" tale.
• They require that when a personage talks like an illustrated, gilt-edged, tree-calf, hand-tooled, seven- dollar Friendship's Offering in the beginning of a paragraph, he shall not talk like a negro minstrel in the end of it. But this rule is flung down and danced upon in the "Deerslayer" tale.
• They require that crass stupidities shall not be played upon the reader as "the craft of the woodsman, the delicate art of the forest," by either the author or the people in the tale. But this rule is persistently violated in the "Deerslayer" tale.
• They require that the personages of a tale shall confine themselves to possibilities and let miracles alone; or, if they venture a miracle, the author must so plausibly set it forth as to make it look possible and reasonable. But these rules are not respected in the "Deerslayer" tale.
• They require that the author shall make the reader feel a deep interest in the personages of his tale and in their fate; and that he shall make the reader love the good people in the tale and hate the bad ones. But the reader of the "Deerslayer" tale dislikes the good people in it, is indifferent to the others, and wishes they would all get drowned together.

Wisdom from the Marches

"I see. It's nice to have accomplishments and be elegant, but not to show off or get perked up," said Amy thoughtfully. "These things are always seen and felt in a person's manner and conversation, if modestly used, but it is not necessary to display them," said Mrs. March. "Any more than it's proper to wear all your bonnets and gowns and ribbons at once, that folks may know you've got them," added Jo; and the lecture ended in a laugh. -from Little Women