English & Writing & Grammar, Oh My!

I have decided that William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" is undeniably amazing and I will not be convinced otherwise. Let's look at the plot: Emily is a "middle-aged" (yeah, okay, sure) woman who needs to pin down a man because everyone says she does so obviously that means she has to. Her dad dies, so the town is like, "You know what, Em? Taxes? Don't even worry about 'em! We got it COVERED!" Then they come back and they're like, "Hey, remember how we specifically told you that you didn't need to pay taxes? We take it back. Jk, jk... unless...." And Emily's like, "Ha, hilarious that you think I'm about to pay you because I'm definitely not gonna do that." Then this Homer guy comes around and EXPLICITLY TELLS PEOPLE that he's gay, and they all talk about how hopefully Emily can "change his mind". Now, we don't have time to unpack how wrong that is, so let's move on. Emily buys H...

Chekhov's "The Lady and the Dog" reminds me of "The Pina Colada Song", and I will tell you why. In "The Pina Coloda Song" (which will now be known as PCS), both people in a relationship decide that they are unhappy. Rather than voice this discontentment or break up with each other, they simply decide to cheat on each other. Then one publishes an ad in the newspaper to get a date (which is weird enough in itself) and the other responds to it. When they realize that it was each other all along, they laugh about it and revive their relationship so they don't have to face the fact that they both tried to cheat on each other. In "The Lady and the Dog" (which will now be known as LAD), two people in different relationships decide to cheat on their significant others with each other. After initially agreeing it would be short term, they decide to try to make the relationship work. PCS and LAD both have the ethical issue of cheating and hiding it...

This week in class, we discussed Kawabata's "The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket". Last week, we discussed a poem about kelp. In both cases, relationships/people are compared to these mundane creatures. This begs the question: how do you know if you're a cricket or kelp? Essentially, a cricket is something truly special; it's the end all be all person that you've been searching for and are lucky to have. Kelp means you allow someone to take what they want from you, leave, and come back as they please. Basically, kelp=doormat. But, how do you know if you're being treated like this? How do you know when you're a kelp when you think that you've been giving yourself freely but you've really been "being gathered" in a way? And what if you spend all your life thinking you're a cricket but you're actually a grasshopper? Or vice versa? And which would be worse? What if you really are a cricket and you end up with a grasshopper that t...