thoughts on the term paper

First thing's first, that test was a trickster. If I had to designate it as a specific animal it would certainly be the post-fall serpent. It was sliding through the grass, making us feel at ease, and then WHOOOPAAOWW! It struck with speed and cunning. I wish I had a second chance at bat, I'd hit that snake in the face, and thus, receive an A. Enough with the metaphors.

'The Slave' is absolutely one of the heaviest books I've ever read and it seems to be the most logical choice as a paper topic, but is it the right choice? I guess what I'm having second thoughts about is whether I can come up with the evidence I need to in order to produce a solid enough paper to help me bounce back, both emotionally and academically, from that test which just left me dead on the side of the road. Perhaps that's an exaggeration, but these are legitimate thoughts nonetheless.

Anyways, I have my thesis sentence written and whether it is actually going to work out is yet to be seen. I would share it with all of you here and now, but, I don't want anybody to end up with my same topic. That being said, it is extremely likely that the amount of students using my same idea is in the double digits so I won't be surprised if there are a bunch of us on the exact same page.

Adam and Eve... relapse

In my British Literature I class, we're currently reading Milton's Paradise Lost. For those who aren't familiar with it, Paradise Lost is basically about Satan's fall from heaven to hell and then his influence on Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and also the origin of Christ's sacrifice...

It's interesting to see Adam and Eve from a different perspective than Genesis' dry description, but that doesn't mean its an agreeable perspective. Milton portrays Eve as a beautiful, but somewhat empty-headed character who is afflicted with traits of narcissism and who clearly can't and shouldn't make decisions without the guidance of Adam.

Just to recap, from an unbiased, modernist perspective, Adam is guilty of just as great a crime as Eve. Though he did not physically take the first fruit off of the Tree of Knowledge, the relationship between Adam and Eve was structured in such a way that it was Adam's responsibility to keep Eve out of trouble. Also, he allowed himself to be seduced into eating of the fruit himself, thereby participating in the crime... So where are all of these anti-feminine vibes coming from? If men rule the world, then men should be hassled about the abundance of bad decisions they've made, starting with Adam and his negligence of monitoring Eve.

Anyways, here's a link to a blog with a comic of Adam and Eve depicted by the artist R. Crumb... The blog's a good read too, check it out.

http://maudnewton.com/blog/?p=9633

A Surprisingly Cynical Poem by Dylan Thomas

Here is a poem by Dylan Thomas titled Then was my neophyte.

Then was my neophyte,

Child in white blood bent on its knees

Under the bell of rocks,

Ducked in the twelve, disciple seas

The winder of the water-clocks

Calls a green day and night.

My sea hermaphrodite,

Snail of man in His ship of fires

That burn the bitten decks,

Knew all His horrible desires

The climber of the water sex

Calls the green rock of light.

Who in these labyrinths,

This tidethread and the lane of scales,

Twine in a moon-blown shell,

Escapes to the flat cities' sails

Furled on the fishes' house and hell,

Nor falls to His green myths?

Stretch the salt photographs,

The landscape grief, love in His oils

Mirror from man to whale

That the green child see like a grail

Through veil and fin and fire and coil

Time on the canvas paths.

He films my vanity.

Shot in the wind, by tilted arcs,

Over the water come

Children from homes and children's parks

Who speak on a finger and thumb,

And the masked, headless boy.

His reels and mystery

The winder of the clockwise scene

Wound like a ball of lakes

Then threw on that tide-hoisted screen

Love's image till my heartbone breaks

By a dramatic sea.

Who kills my history?

The year-hedged row is lame with flint,

Blunt scythe and water blade.

'Who could snap off the shapeless print

From your to-morrow-treading shade

With oracle for eye?'

Time kills me terribly.

'Time shall not murder you,' He said,

'Nor the green nought be hurt;

Who could hack out your unsucked heart,

O green and unborn and undead?'

I saw time murder me.

From the start we are under the impression that this 'neophyte' is the subject at hand... Wikipedia tells me a neophyte is a beginner. In the context of Christianity, the term often refers to a newly ordained priest, monk, or a new convert to the religion. With this information I can now grasp the darker undertone going on here.

Child in white blood bent on its knees

Under the bell of rocks,

This first image is of a child in white, an innocent newcomer into the religion who is now bleeding from the knees from kneeling before God "Under the bell of rocks". I take it this bell of rocks is a euphemism for a church, but it isn't portrayed with the usual brightness and alleluias but with a certain deadness brought out with the emphasis on the word rocks.

Throughout this piece Dylan Thomas recycles the idea that this neophyte is in some way heading down a path with no answers. Starting with the third line, the poem becomes one big sailing metaphor. We see the word green six times, which is associated with someone who is seasick, and thereby an inexperienced seaman.

I also feel that there is a controlling entity within the poem. It is referred to in two separate instances in a similar way.

"The winder of the water-clocks"

"The winder of the clockwise scene"

This is most likely Thomas' reference to God or the institution of the church; either way it gives the impression that one is bound by restrictions. At last the poem is concluded with a final message to the reader (or maybe the neophyte, who could also be seen as the reader...)

"Time kills me terribly.

'Time shall not murder you,' He said,"

...

"I saw time murder me."

Here we see the higher power, whoever it is, specifically say "Time shall not murder you". Yet the speaker disproves this statement with the final line by saying "I saw time murder me"... Thomas could only be more direct if he said, "You lied about everything".

I originally chose this poem because; one, Dylan Thomas is my favorite poet. And two, because of the references to neophytes and the twelve disciples and such. Little did I know this was such a cynical piece of poetry but, I believe I like it more now. Its late. The end

p.s. sorry about the sporadic font changes and spaces between the lines. The settings change on their own and I don't know how to fix them... cheers