Freighting

       The chapter about Freighting begins promising: I, the reader, am encouraged to write longer sentences (cf. Hoffman and Hoffman 96). Not a bad idea—I always struggle with shortening my potentially confusing sentences when writing term papers or the like. But this technique turns out to be unsuitable for me; while I like to string together several clauses that could also be divided into separate sentences—although this would mean not being able to make use of as many of my beloved colons, semicolons, and dashes—and to use complicated but classy verb forms that I am not entirely sure of how to use correctly, Freighting requires the writer to accumulate single words or phrases at the same position, like in one of the characterless examples the authors give: “Bill, my aunt Tina, and all their cronies, chopped, chewed, and utterly pulverized the red, hard, juicy, candied apple” (96-97)—even though they later arrive at the conclusion themselves that “this apple event is not worth developing any further” as it “says absolutely nothing of crucial importance” (97). Exactly. Which is what I hate most when reading a text. 
       On closer examination, however, I have to admit that maybe “my” kind of confusing writing style is not that much different from this kind of confusing writing style. And maybe, just maybe, I like to write in a style that I at the same time hate to read. But at least now I have got an excuse for why my writing is of course acceptable! After all, I do not have to read it myself.
 

Works cited
Hoffman, Gary, and Glynis Hoffman. Adios, Strunk and White. A Handbook for the New Academic Essay. 3rd edition., Verve Press, 2003.

Today I Am Still

Just a Bill.

During my whole life as an idea, a bill, and hopefully a law I pass the heads, desks, and houses of ordinary people, congressmen, representatives, senators, and the President to be proposed, discussed, and hopefully accepted. As an idea, I may stem from unfulfilled needs, wishes or hopes from mothers, fathers, children, and dogs -more likely their owners, in my billy experrience- in order to improve situations of daily life, safety precautions, and quenstions of liability. It is likely someone encountered problems, disputes, or uncertainties in any of those situations. The same way I spend my life in a constant state of uncertainty, until I finally become a full-grown, signed law.

Is Jane Eyre a feminist?

Do you think I can stay to become nothing to you? Do you think I am an automaton? -a machine without feelings? … I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh; — it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God’s feet, equal, — as we are! (Brontë Vol. 2, p. 18) 

These are the words Charlotte Brontë wrote in 1847, these are the words Jane Eyre says directly before the proposal of marriage by Mr. Rochester. Are these words part of the fundamental paragon for the first proto-feminist wave that started in Victorian times? The answer to this question is, yes - but is Jane Eyre really a feminist? I tend to observe opposing motives; Charlotte Brontë seems to not dare to make a change. I am not oblivious to the context of the quote itself, nevertheless in composition this novel seems to be lacking feminist ideas of progress.

Jane Eyre will not marry for convenience yet decides independently to marry for love at the end of the novel. Her reasons besides passion and love are the mutual beneficences, this relationship between Jane Eyre and Mr. Edward Rochester have. Jane Eyre says, ‘perhaps it was that circumstance … that knit us so very close: for I was then his vision, as I am still his right hand.’ (Brontë Vol. 2, p. 282) Mr. Rochester, who loses his eyesight and his right hand while trying to save his former wife, Bertha Mason from the burning ruins that are his home, Thornfield Hall. Hence, Jane understands herself to be equal to a disabled man.

A feminist novel uses a female protagonist as agent, a character that has her own articulate voice and realises her independence and desires. Jane Eyre is a paradigm of the Newer Victorian Woman and her darker antagonist Bertha Mason, the Madwoman in the Attic stands for old Victorian values of marriage of convenience – furthermore she is a symbol for the silenced female voice in Victorian society and marriage, which dies with Bertha Mason’s suicide. Jane Eyre has an antagonistic other in Bertha Mason, who reinforces the former pattern of the nineteenth century society. However, when light and angelic Jane Air is compared to the dark and ‘demon[ic]’ (Brontë Vol. 2, p. 71) Bertha Mason, this seems to be a relapse to the erstwhile image of the Angel of the House.

Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Vintage Classics, 2009.

Gilbert, Sandra M. and Gubar, Susan. The Madwoman in the Attic. The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. Yale University Press, 2000.

Feminism in George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice And Fire"

In our seminar "Introduction to American Literature and Culture" we were asked to apply a theory of cultural studies to a book, film or TV-show for last week and write an explaining paragraph about our chosen subject. I decided to focus on the representation of different forms feminism in the world of "A Song of Ice And Fire". After taking a closer look at the various female characters and their cultures in the story, I came to the following conclusion: The spearwives of the free volk represent liberal feminism, the sand snakes and many other of the women in Dorne, radical feminism, Cercei Lannister and with her quite a few other Westerosi women, socialist feminism. Equality and opportunity for women is what liberal feminists stress, superiority of the female what radical feminists do. The socialist feminism however points to, tries to explain, and criticizes the interconnections between class and gender in society.

(Pro-, hypo and diazeugma)

Life Expectancy

Squeezing Balls

When I think of nerds, I mostly think of glassy-eyed computer geeks with a severe lack of Vitamin D in their system. I met a different nerd the other day, one that squeezes stress balls extensively, squeezing them and counting while doing so and keeping record of the whole affair. All said and done, your average stress ball can be squeezed roughly 3000 times before failure.

I have never before, as I can recall, been more impressed, surprised, delighted, all at the same time by something someone has done, said, or thought. The whole affair gains even more inherent contrast, comedic potential due to the fact that the nerd in question usually does not share many of his observations, thoughts, dwellings. He is one of the rather silent, introvert kind.

Higher education in the UK

To become a higher education student you must fulfill various demands like having already achieved  entrance qualifications, like A-levels or equivalent qualifications from the UK or another country (“Higher Education - Introduction”). The system of higher education is split into two levels: On the one hand there are undergraduate programs that include bachelor degrees or higher national diplomas (HNDs) and on the other hand there are postgraduate programs that include masters degrees or doctorates. Normally, you need an undergraduate qualification to join the postgraduate program (“Higher Education - Introduction”). Great Britain is well known for its high quality and well-respected higher education worldwide. 

In Hamburg, there are no tuition fees anymore so  access to the universities is possible for everyone. In the UK studying can cost an undergraduate student up to £9,000 per year (“Costs and Fees”). Additionally, the costs of living can be very high. On account of the tuition fees and the expensive living costs in the UK, students usually borrow money from the Student Loans Company. Here, they have to pay it back after graduation and “the employer will automatically take repayments from the salary if the income, before tax, is over the UK threshold. The current thresholds for repayment are £21,000 a year, £1750 a month or £404 a week. So this is 9% of the income over the threshold.” (“How much do I repay?”).

Cited Works

“Costs and Fees” British Council, 

http://www.educationuk.org/global/articles/costs-and-tuition-fees-for-international-students/. Accessed 21 January 2017

“How much do I repay?” Student Loans Company,
http://media.slc.co.uk/repayment/qsg/how-much-do-i-repay.html. Accessed 21 January               2017.

“Higher Education - Introduction” British Council, 

http://www.educationuk.org/global/articles/higher-education-introduction/. Accessed 20 January 2017

Poetry – Bread as Cake or Cake as Bread?

During my time abroad, one of my lectures opened with the following recount: The professor recalled how he proudly told his Dad about having earned a doctor’s degree in poetry, but his Dad responded as he usually did when the discussion revolved around his son’s chosen path, ‘When will you stop reading poetry and make something of your life?’ Most people will have read a huge amount of poems by now, but the majority of these people might regard sonnets, elegies, shape poems, ballads, haikus and the like as only some form of art – like a cake. Far less will have considered the important role poetry takes on. In contrast to the common perception, poetry plays a fundamental role in society – like bread.
To illustrate the truth of this, Philip Sidney’s ‘An Apology for Poetry’ can be taken into account. In his work of literary criticism, Sidney states that poetry, if done well, has the ability to offer morality and hence has a function in society.
Furthermore, Tony Harrison includes Cornish in his 16-lined Meredithian sonnet ‘National Trust’, and subsequently, poetry is presented as a place where different languages and dialects exist. This image is further extended in his sonnet ‘Them and [uz]’ where he presents himself once more as a poet with different dialects. By including the Yorkshire accent, Harrison encourages and inspires the reader to confront and thus have an open mind about diversity.
On top of that, the free verse poem ‘That the Science of Carthography is Limited’ by Irish poet Eavan Boland deals with the Irish Poato Famine in Connacht. The poem takes a closer look at famine roads that do not appear on any maps, hence Boland prevents that anyone might forget about them. Consequently, poetry assists in keeping history alive.
To sum up, poetry does not only present a form of art, it also has a moral responsibility, supports society to keep in mind certain aspects of history and teaches people to accept diversity. Therefore, poetry is not only cake, poetry is bread, too.