In class earlier this week, we were all in different rooms. We met in a chat room online at 9:05 am, had technical difficulties, and ended up leaving at different times. Online chat rooms can be very useful when an instructor is out of town or trapped in his/her house after a snowstorm. But there is also always the possibility of the server that is being used crashing, or confusion on the chat members’ parts. There is something very impersonal about not being able to see everyone’s faces, or to know who is talking if one doesn’t know everyone’s names already. There is always that possibility of opening a new window and continuing on some other subject and forgetting all about the chat space.
Chat rooms are useful when one needs to interactively communicate with a large group of people. We had class online this week because our instructor was out of town, and were able to ask questions about assignments and go over key points for projects and papers due in the near future. Students who are normally shy and have social anxiety in class were able to ‘speak’ and ask the questions that they wanted in the chat room without a lot of the fear that one has in an actual classroom. Students could be comfortable in their pajamas but still share the same virtual space as 20+ other people. Students could lay in bed, eating chips if they wanted to but still be “in class”. A new level of comfort, physically and mentally, is achieved with online classrooms.
Where one gains one comfort, he/she loses another. Online chat rooms, at least the ones on T-square, can be very confusing and often break down. Chat rooms can easily get out of hand when there is a plethora of people trying to talk at once. There are also sub-chat rooms that not many people know how to access, and many instructions get lost in translation along the way. There is a delay when sending out information, and one does no have the immediate clarity in virtual spaces than in physical space. Unexpected errors may occur and students may not even get to ask their instructor a question before the whole system shuts down from an overload.
In physical space, students and teachers may forget what their peers say very quickly, but in virtual chat rooms, whatever one says can be read over and analyzed multiple times, so one must really take care with what they say. There are policies against flaming someone else, but that does not stop many students. So even though there is no physical interaction, chat rooms can still cause social anxiety in different ways.
The virtual world also offers an infinite amount of spaces that one can choose from. If one gets in the least bit bored with the chat room, he/she can go off and open another window and get lost in the virtual world for minutes to hours to days. If it’s the latter, then he/she definitely missed class. There is something about the physical classroom that is official, keeps student’s attention for a longer period of time, and is more personal than the virtual classroom space.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Technology and the Online Classroom
With current technology we are able to manipulate space and time in convenient ways. For example this week my English class was held online via a chat room. Class was very different sitting at a desk in the student lounge with the comfort and abilities I would have outside of class. The technology manipulated space by allowing me to be in both physical and virtual spaces at the same time. Also with every piece of information transferred being logged in chat rather than spoken, time was manipulated.
I was able to use all of my comforts that I was normally not allowed use in class. I ate my breakfast while listening to music and vaguely paying attention to class. Though I was able to capture everything in class while multitasking. This was because instead of having to listen to the professor I was able to simply read the chat log and I would be caught up.
Being in both spaces at once allowed for me to lose a certain perception. I was both in class (virtually) and away from class (physically) at the same time. It allowed for a somewhat awkward feel of the class. The awkward feeling stemmed from not being in a classroom setting I tend to forget what I am suppose to be focusing the majority of my attention on. I was caught between two worlds that of my surrounding and that of my computer ‘window’. Having to bridge the gap of the two worlds every few minutes probably allowed for more of a loss than a gain.
With the logged conversations time seemed to be more controllable. Even though new pieces of information were added to the logs which allowed being able to see a progression of time, there still existed the ability to go back and read previous statements. There is nothing wrong with being able to manipulate time like this; in a way it allowed me to create time. I was able to do other things while class was going on and still get the information I needed, whenever I needed it.
The subject matter covered during the online class session was pretty easy. We simply went over an assignment sheet and asked questions or got clarification. I believe if I were taking a physics class I would pay full attention to the chat room and the only difference that being online would give is a distraction. There are too many opportunities and distractions online which is why I believe there is a reason for classrooms.
What happens when you hold a class online? Simply you allow students to have even more distractions than normal at hand. Although the students can go back and read the log they won’t get the full effect unless they are paying tentative attention. I could have simply logged on and got credit for attendance and return to sleep. The main benefits I see with the classes online are being able to reach people at vast range of distances.
I was able to use all of my comforts that I was normally not allowed use in class. I ate my breakfast while listening to music and vaguely paying attention to class. Though I was able to capture everything in class while multitasking. This was because instead of having to listen to the professor I was able to simply read the chat log and I would be caught up.
Being in both spaces at once allowed for me to lose a certain perception. I was both in class (virtually) and away from class (physically) at the same time. It allowed for a somewhat awkward feel of the class. The awkward feeling stemmed from not being in a classroom setting I tend to forget what I am suppose to be focusing the majority of my attention on. I was caught between two worlds that of my surrounding and that of my computer ‘window’. Having to bridge the gap of the two worlds every few minutes probably allowed for more of a loss than a gain.
With the logged conversations time seemed to be more controllable. Even though new pieces of information were added to the logs which allowed being able to see a progression of time, there still existed the ability to go back and read previous statements. There is nothing wrong with being able to manipulate time like this; in a way it allowed me to create time. I was able to do other things while class was going on and still get the information I needed, whenever I needed it.
The subject matter covered during the online class session was pretty easy. We simply went over an assignment sheet and asked questions or got clarification. I believe if I were taking a physics class I would pay full attention to the chat room and the only difference that being online would give is a distraction. There are too many opportunities and distractions online which is why I believe there is a reason for classrooms.
What happens when you hold a class online? Simply you allow students to have even more distractions than normal at hand. Although the students can go back and read the log they won’t get the full effect unless they are paying tentative attention. I could have simply logged on and got credit for attendance and return to sleep. The main benefits I see with the classes online are being able to reach people at vast range of distances.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Gender Spaces
Up until recently, women had little to no rights, and were sequestered to the same area to repeat the same mundane tasks every day, while men had much mobility, freedom and independence. Over time, the spaces have become more lenient and close to virtually non-existent in some parts of the world, while in other parts these spaces are as restricted as ever.
Emma displays the mobility of men and women in the early 19th century. Men such as Frank Churchill could go off whenever they pleased to do whatever they pleased. Frank decides to ride horseback by himself one day to London just for a haircut. Frank also mentions in passing his desire to travel, and men of his rank and monetary status could just pick up and leave on a whim to France or wherever they so choose.
Women, on the other hand, did not have that same mobility. Even though not always mentioned directly, it would have been highly inappropriate for Emma to walk around outside of her property by herself. Emma would always have a companion with her, such as Harriet or Mr. Knightly as an escort. If she did not have a friend, she would have to bring a housemaid with her. Women were sequestered to the same house and immediate area all of the time and could not just leave on horseback on a whim. Being alone with another man who is not related to them would be highly inappropriate which is partly why Emma was so insulted when Mr. Elton proposed to her. Even when being courted by another man, women always had a friend with them. Women in the early 19th century and before then were very limited and suppressed.
Mrs. Dalloway, written about a century later, displays a radical change from the 19th century. The book begins with Mrs. Dalloway out in the middle of London walking and window-shopping by herself. Men such as Peter were going off to India and other far away exotic places, and women were left to their own devices. Peter, from Mrs. Dalloway, reflects upon how even women will travel to parts of India and will now shamelessly flirt with whomever they like and do their makeup in front of other men on the ship. The early 20th century led to women’s suffrage and equal rights and the subtleties in Mrs. Dalloway is just the beginning.
Women do not have separate spaces anymore on public transportation and maybe that is in part the reason for the change in behavior. Men could no longer feasibly keep women separated from the outside world and namely other men when public transportation became popular. There are not separate spaces for women on buses like there are sometimes parlors for women in larger houses and separate coaches for women to travel in anymore, and when brought to the level of men, they could start to have some of the same freedoms such as going to get a haircut or window shopping by themselves on a whim.
Citation:
Austen, Jane. Emma London: Penguin, 1996. Print
Woolf, Virginia. “Mrs Dalloway.” Oxford University Press. 2009. Print.
Emma displays the mobility of men and women in the early 19th century. Men such as Frank Churchill could go off whenever they pleased to do whatever they pleased. Frank decides to ride horseback by himself one day to London just for a haircut. Frank also mentions in passing his desire to travel, and men of his rank and monetary status could just pick up and leave on a whim to France or wherever they so choose.
Women, on the other hand, did not have that same mobility. Even though not always mentioned directly, it would have been highly inappropriate for Emma to walk around outside of her property by herself. Emma would always have a companion with her, such as Harriet or Mr. Knightly as an escort. If she did not have a friend, she would have to bring a housemaid with her. Women were sequestered to the same house and immediate area all of the time and could not just leave on horseback on a whim. Being alone with another man who is not related to them would be highly inappropriate which is partly why Emma was so insulted when Mr. Elton proposed to her. Even when being courted by another man, women always had a friend with them. Women in the early 19th century and before then were very limited and suppressed.
Mrs. Dalloway, written about a century later, displays a radical change from the 19th century. The book begins with Mrs. Dalloway out in the middle of London walking and window-shopping by herself. Men such as Peter were going off to India and other far away exotic places, and women were left to their own devices. Peter, from Mrs. Dalloway, reflects upon how even women will travel to parts of India and will now shamelessly flirt with whomever they like and do their makeup in front of other men on the ship. The early 20th century led to women’s suffrage and equal rights and the subtleties in Mrs. Dalloway is just the beginning.
Women do not have separate spaces anymore on public transportation and maybe that is in part the reason for the change in behavior. Men could no longer feasibly keep women separated from the outside world and namely other men when public transportation became popular. There are not separate spaces for women on buses like there are sometimes parlors for women in larger houses and separate coaches for women to travel in anymore, and when brought to the level of men, they could start to have some of the same freedoms such as going to get a haircut or window shopping by themselves on a whim.
Citation:
Austen, Jane. Emma London: Penguin, 1996. Print
Woolf, Virginia. “Mrs Dalloway.” Oxford University Press. 2009. Print.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
How much time can be put in an hour?
Many people fall into the state of a daydream every once in a while. That state where you create your own world and what is happening. Or perhaps they fall into a state where they ponder the future or look to the past. Lets define dreamtime as the time that passes in those dreams or moments. How much dreamtime can be covered per unit of standard time?
Daydreams are often very complex. You can control how fast or how slow things happen. The dreamtime is often based on how detailed the daydream. When creating a more detailed world it may take more standard time per unit of dreamtime because how much time it takes to create a world. On the other hand when thinking and creating events to happen in a dream it can be much faster depending on what perspective you’re following. If one chooses to they can make several events or even make time-skips in daydreams, which would cause dreamtime to move faster than standard time.
Pondering the future is similar to daydreaming. This is because you are still creating events, though you may be looking at people you know or events that are going to happen. Which brings us to the main difference between daydreaming and pondering the future. Daydreams are purely created and don’t have to take root in reality at all, while pondering the future has the same logical bounds as the real world. For example you can’t ponder the future in which you will sprout wings and fly, but you can daydream about it.
This leaves us with our last dreamtime, reflection of the past. At least for me it’s the most complex. Lets take for example in Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, As Clarissa walks through town she is able to think of the past. If we count reflecting the past as an event it looks as though Clarissa never has a moments rest. Her walk is no longer perceived as a long boring walk through town, but also a walk through her memories. Like Clarissa I often find myself reflecting on the past. There are two ways in which you can reflect on the past either multi-event or single event.
In multi-event one can look to see all the events that happened in a certain period of time. Thus dreamtime of multi-event is moving much faster than standard time. On the other side single-event is more detailed reflection of one event. For example you can analyze anything that happened in one night. Looking at any particular detail to try to figure out the ‘whole story’. I often am analyzing important events between close friends and me. I will look at every word, every sentence, facial expressions, and body language and analyzing that much detail causes dreamtime to move much slower than standard time.
How much dreamtime can we place in an hour of standard time? It seems it depends on what we are doing at the moment. Reflections seem to move slower than standard time, while summaries seem to move much faster. It seems that how much we fit into an hour of standard time is based on how much we want to fit into an hour of standard time.
Woolf, Virginia. “Mrs Dalloway.” Oxford University Press. 2009. Print.
Daydreams are often very complex. You can control how fast or how slow things happen. The dreamtime is often based on how detailed the daydream. When creating a more detailed world it may take more standard time per unit of dreamtime because how much time it takes to create a world. On the other hand when thinking and creating events to happen in a dream it can be much faster depending on what perspective you’re following. If one chooses to they can make several events or even make time-skips in daydreams, which would cause dreamtime to move faster than standard time.
Pondering the future is similar to daydreaming. This is because you are still creating events, though you may be looking at people you know or events that are going to happen. Which brings us to the main difference between daydreaming and pondering the future. Daydreams are purely created and don’t have to take root in reality at all, while pondering the future has the same logical bounds as the real world. For example you can’t ponder the future in which you will sprout wings and fly, but you can daydream about it.
This leaves us with our last dreamtime, reflection of the past. At least for me it’s the most complex. Lets take for example in Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, As Clarissa walks through town she is able to think of the past. If we count reflecting the past as an event it looks as though Clarissa never has a moments rest. Her walk is no longer perceived as a long boring walk through town, but also a walk through her memories. Like Clarissa I often find myself reflecting on the past. There are two ways in which you can reflect on the past either multi-event or single event.
In multi-event one can look to see all the events that happened in a certain period of time. Thus dreamtime of multi-event is moving much faster than standard time. On the other side single-event is more detailed reflection of one event. For example you can analyze anything that happened in one night. Looking at any particular detail to try to figure out the ‘whole story’. I often am analyzing important events between close friends and me. I will look at every word, every sentence, facial expressions, and body language and analyzing that much detail causes dreamtime to move much slower than standard time.
How much dreamtime can we place in an hour of standard time? It seems it depends on what we are doing at the moment. Reflections seem to move slower than standard time, while summaries seem to move much faster. It seems that how much we fit into an hour of standard time is based on how much we want to fit into an hour of standard time.
Woolf, Virginia. “Mrs Dalloway.” Oxford University Press. 2009. Print.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
How Perception of Time Effects Writing Style
Jane Austen and Virginia Woolf are from two different centuries and their writing styles prove how technological advances have changed writing and time. Emma is chronological and slow paced whereas Mrs. Dalloway takes on almost a stream of consciousness quality and is clipped and jumps from past to present and from place to place.
Austen lived in a time when the carriage was the fastest mode of land transportation. Some of her characters lived quite close to each other in today’s standards but only interacted with each other maybe once or twice a year. Austen describes every interaction and conversation between her characters in Emma. Her paragraphs are long and detailed and she analyzes every gesture and word that transpires. One can’t tell the exact time of day but always tell when it is night, day, and morning, evening, midnight or noon in Emma. Austen is precise and displays everything chronologically and does not have any flashbacks but will diverge and give information and detail when appropriate and needed. Austen immediately lets the reader know what Emma will be about, romance and the changing of her characters over time and describes her characters immediately as well either through dialogue or a direct paragraph or two including history, looks and social rank.
Woolf lived in a time when the car, railroad, steamboat and airplanes were making their debuts. Standard time was being introduced and watches accurate to the second were being engineered. Woolf starts Mrs. Dalloway with a flashback and introduces a few main characters with it. The reader isn’t even quite sure it’s a flashback until later when Woolf mentions in passing that Mrs. Dalloway is actually older than eighteen. As said earlier, Woolf writes Mrs. Dalloway in almost a stream of consciousness style. She flashes back without warning, jumps from character to character intermittently and the only reason the style wouldn’t be characterized as stream of consciousness is because Woolf writes the book in the third person. Unlike Austen, Woolf divulges information about her characters in a roundabout, hidden and indirect way. The events in Mrs. Dalloway are not chronological and it is not clear from the beginning of the book what it will be about. Even thirty pages in, it is hard to predict exactly what the rest of the book will be about.
One would think that with the introduction of standard time and the speeding up of time via modern transportation would make modern books more fast paced but also precise and chronological, but they seemed to have achieved the opposite effect. With precise time came the ability and motivation to make books and artwork that are clipped and distorted by time and space. Fast and precise time gave artists the motivation to distort and represent it in unconventional ways. The standardization and change in the perception of time and also space gave artists free reign, and these changes ushered in a new era of writing and artist movements such as cubism, dada and the Edwardians.
Citation:
Austen, Jane. Emma London: Penguin, 1996. Print
Woolf, Virginia. “Mrs Dalloway.” Oxford University Press. 2009. Print.
Austen lived in a time when the carriage was the fastest mode of land transportation. Some of her characters lived quite close to each other in today’s standards but only interacted with each other maybe once or twice a year. Austen describes every interaction and conversation between her characters in Emma. Her paragraphs are long and detailed and she analyzes every gesture and word that transpires. One can’t tell the exact time of day but always tell when it is night, day, and morning, evening, midnight or noon in Emma. Austen is precise and displays everything chronologically and does not have any flashbacks but will diverge and give information and detail when appropriate and needed. Austen immediately lets the reader know what Emma will be about, romance and the changing of her characters over time and describes her characters immediately as well either through dialogue or a direct paragraph or two including history, looks and social rank.
Woolf lived in a time when the car, railroad, steamboat and airplanes were making their debuts. Standard time was being introduced and watches accurate to the second were being engineered. Woolf starts Mrs. Dalloway with a flashback and introduces a few main characters with it. The reader isn’t even quite sure it’s a flashback until later when Woolf mentions in passing that Mrs. Dalloway is actually older than eighteen. As said earlier, Woolf writes Mrs. Dalloway in almost a stream of consciousness style. She flashes back without warning, jumps from character to character intermittently and the only reason the style wouldn’t be characterized as stream of consciousness is because Woolf writes the book in the third person. Unlike Austen, Woolf divulges information about her characters in a roundabout, hidden and indirect way. The events in Mrs. Dalloway are not chronological and it is not clear from the beginning of the book what it will be about. Even thirty pages in, it is hard to predict exactly what the rest of the book will be about.
One would think that with the introduction of standard time and the speeding up of time via modern transportation would make modern books more fast paced but also precise and chronological, but they seemed to have achieved the opposite effect. With precise time came the ability and motivation to make books and artwork that are clipped and distorted by time and space. Fast and precise time gave artists the motivation to distort and represent it in unconventional ways. The standardization and change in the perception of time and also space gave artists free reign, and these changes ushered in a new era of writing and artist movements such as cubism, dada and the Edwardians.
Citation:
Austen, Jane. Emma London: Penguin, 1996. Print
Woolf, Virginia. “Mrs Dalloway.” Oxford University Press. 2009. Print.
How Perception of Time Effects Writing Style
Jane Austen and Virginia Woolf are from two different centuries and their writing styles prove how technological advances have changed writing and time. Emma is chronological and slow paced whereas Mrs. Dalloway takes on almost a stream of consciousness quality and is clipped and jumps from past to present and from place to place.
Austen lived in a time when the carriage was the fastest mode of land transportation. Some of her characters lived quite close to each other in today’s standards but only interacted with each other maybe once or twice a year. Austen describes every interaction and conversation between her characters in Emma. Her paragraphs are long and detailed and she analyzes every gesture and word that transpires. One can’t tell the exact time of day but always tell when it is night, day, and morning, evening, midnight or noon in Emma. Austen is precise and displays everything chronologically and does not have any flashbacks but will diverge and give information and detail when appropriate and needed. Austen immediately lets the reader know what Emma will be about, romance and the changing of her characters over time and describes her characters immediately as well either through dialogue or a direct paragraph or two including history, looks and social rank.
Woolf lived in a time when the car, railroad, steamboat and airplanes were making their debuts. Standard time was being introduced and watches accurate to the second were being engineered. Woolf starts Mrs. Dalloway with a flashback and introduces a few main characters with it. The reader isn’t even quite sure it’s a flashback until later when Woolf mentions in passing that Mrs. Dalloway is actually older than eighteen. As said earlier, Woolf writes Mrs. Dalloway in almost a stream of consciousness style. She flashes back without warning, jumps from character to character intermittently and the only reason the style wouldn’t be characterized as stream of consciousness is because Woolf writes the book in the third person. Unlike Austen, Woolf divulges information about her characters in a roundabout, hidden and indirect way. The events in Mrs. Dalloway are not chronological and it is not clear from the beginning of the book what it will be about. Even thirty pages in, it is hard to predict exactly what the rest of the book will be about.
One would think that with the introduction of standard time and the speeding up of time via modern transportation would make modern books more fast paced but also precise and chronological, but they seemed to have achieved the opposite effect. With precise time came the ability and motivation to make books and artwork that are clipped and distorted by time and space. Fast and precise time gave artists the motivation to distort and represent it in unconventional ways. The standardization and change in the perception of time and also space gave artists free reign, and these changes ushered in a new era of writing and artist movements such as cubism, dada and the Edwardians.
Citation:
Austen, Jane. Emma London: Penguin, 1996. Print
Woolf, Virginia. “Mrs Dalloway.” Oxford University Press. 2009. Print.
Austen lived in a time when the carriage was the fastest mode of land transportation. Some of her characters lived quite close to each other in today’s standards but only interacted with each other maybe once or twice a year. Austen describes every interaction and conversation between her characters in Emma. Her paragraphs are long and detailed and she analyzes every gesture and word that transpires. One can’t tell the exact time of day but always tell when it is night, day, and morning, evening, midnight or noon in Emma. Austen is precise and displays everything chronologically and does not have any flashbacks but will diverge and give information and detail when appropriate and needed. Austen immediately lets the reader know what Emma will be about, romance and the changing of her characters over time and describes her characters immediately as well either through dialogue or a direct paragraph or two including history, looks and social rank.
Woolf lived in a time when the car, railroad, steamboat and airplanes were making their debuts. Standard time was being introduced and watches accurate to the second were being engineered. Woolf starts Mrs. Dalloway with a flashback and introduces a few main characters with it. The reader isn’t even quite sure it’s a flashback until later when Woolf mentions in passing that Mrs. Dalloway is actually older than eighteen. As said earlier, Woolf writes Mrs. Dalloway in almost a stream of consciousness style. She flashes back without warning, jumps from character to character intermittently and the only reason the style wouldn’t be characterized as stream of consciousness is because Woolf writes the book in the third person. Unlike Austen, Woolf divulges information about her characters in a roundabout, hidden and indirect way. The events in Mrs. Dalloway are not chronological and it is not clear from the beginning of the book what it will be about. Even thirty pages in, it is hard to predict exactly what the rest of the book will be about.
One would think that with the introduction of standard time and the speeding up of time via modern transportation would make modern books more fast paced but also precise and chronological, but they seemed to have achieved the opposite effect. With precise time came the ability and motivation to make books and artwork that are clipped and distorted by time and space. Fast and precise time gave artists the motivation to distort and represent it in unconventional ways. The standardization and change in the perception of time and also space gave artists free reign, and these changes ushered in a new era of writing and artist movements such as cubism, dada and the Edwardians.
Citation:
Austen, Jane. Emma London: Penguin, 1996. Print
Woolf, Virginia. “Mrs Dalloway.” Oxford University Press. 2009. Print.
Three Aspects of Time
Time can be viewed and reflected on in many ways. You can look to the past and reflect on what has happened. You may look to the future and guess what will happen. Finally, you may simply choose to live in the present and view what is happening now. There is a significant importance of each and a balance that must be maintained.
Being reflective on the past is important. In Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf the main character, Clarissa, often reflects on her past. She is middle aged at the start of the novel and reflects to a time where she was much younger. Like Clarissa, I often find myself looking to the past. I believe it is healthy to look to the past. You can figure out your past mistakes, reminisce on good times, and figure out how to better yourself as a person. Though when looking on the past, it is important not to dwell on negative events; such as, who hurt you or who people used to be. I feel like one should not spend all of their time looking to the past because then they would never look to the future to create something better than their past.
One who looks to the future never sees today, nor tomorrow. This means that as much as you can think of how your choices now impact your future, you’ll never actually attain them. For example, if you set a goal such as becoming a doctor, you will figure out you must go to med school, attain a certain GPA, and participate in volunteer work. Then when you become a doctor, you will probably already have set the goal to be a head surgeon or various other life choices. Not saying that being goal-oriented is a bad thing, but strictly living in the future won’t allow you to experience the present and the joy that comes with it. What are goals worth when you don’t get to reap the rewards of your work?
What can one say about living in the present? It is spontaneous and difficult to do. It often takes a go-with-the-flow personality type. I can’t think of a way in which I could live by thinking solely in the present. Not caring about what has happened in the past, not changing based on past experiences, and not caring about what tomorrow brings. I believe that without looking to the future I would have nothing to live for, and without looking to the past I would have nothing to learn from. While it is important to enjoy what happens on a day-to-day basis, focusing exclusively only on the here and now without learning form the past and dreaming of the future seems a bit foolish.
People should spend their lives in all aspects of time. The past should be looked at as a learning experience to improve your life. The future should be looked at to create goals to give your life direction. Finally, the present should be enjoyed for it wasn’t here yesterday and won’t be here tomorrow.
Woolf, Virginia. “Mrs Dalloway.” Oxford University Press. 2009. Print.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Character Representation
Jane Austen represents characters in Emma quite differently than characters in “Miss Brill” by Virginia Woolf. Virginia Woolf divulges information about Miss Brill slowly throughout the course of her short story and the reader doesn’t know certain details about her until the end. Whereas Jane Austen takes a different approach and immediately describes how her characters look and other people’s opinions of them right away.
Virginia Woolf believes that the character is the most important part of the story. The way that she portrays the character keeps the reader guessing with an open mind because she releases information, details, looks and feelings slowly and indirectly.
In “Miss Brill”, Katherine Mansfield first reveals that the main character is poor indirectly by saying she has worn clothes that she won’t or probably can’t pay to replace and will only pay the small price to fix them when absolutely necessary. Mansfield then reveals that Miss Brill is more an observer than one who makes close relationships with people. The reader knows this because Woolf has Miss Brill set in the park sitting by herself watching the other people who come to the park every Sunday rather than conversing with them or at least saying ‘hello’. Finally almost towards the end, Mansfield lets the reader know that Miss Brill is at least middle aged when a young couple sitting near her calls her old. The reader now knows that Miss Brill has never been married because of her name, and will probably never marry because of what the couple calls her.
Emma immediately cuts straight to the point. Jane Austen starts her book by describing the main character, Emma. Austen describes how Emma looks, her social class, her current situation concerning her governess being recently married and her father’s hypochondria and fear of change. Even though Austen wrote the novel in the third person, she describes Emma’s feelings and thoughts without any reservations or hidden meaning. Once Austen gets information about the characters out of the way, she proceeds with plenty of social interaction between characters. That includes dialogue, physical activity and further character development when Austen describes feelings, thoughts and conclusions that other characters make while interacting with each other.
Woolf argues in an essay refuting a piece by Mr. Bennett that the proper way to develop a character is to release information slowly so that the reader’s prejudices do not immediately cloud their judgment. Both agreed that the most important part of a story is character development, but their opinions as to the how differed. Austen represents the other side of the coin by describing her characters right away and having a myriad of social interaction and connections to further develop her characters.
The reader keeps an open mind throughout “Miss Brill” and starts off hopeful for the future. That hope slowly diminishes for Miss Brill as the reader slowly finds out more information about her. The lack of information keeps the reader interested, involved and invested in the character’s story. Emma differs in that there is really no hope for some of the characters, such as Emma declaring that she’ll never marry. Austen changes the readers mind slowly about some of the characters, and actually changes the characters as the story progresses and that is her way of keeping readers involved. Both methods of character development keep the readers guessing but for different reasons.
Citation:
Austen, Jane. Emma London: Penguin, 1996. Print
Woolf, Virginia. “Character in Fiction” Criterion July 1924. Rpt. In The
Essays of Virginia Woolf: Vol. II, 1919-1924. Ed. Andrew McNeillie.
New York: Harcourt Brace Javanovich, 1988. 420-38. Print.
Mansfield, Katherine. “Miss Brill”. Stories. 1956. New York: Vintage 1991.
298-302. Print.
Virginia Woolf believes that the character is the most important part of the story. The way that she portrays the character keeps the reader guessing with an open mind because she releases information, details, looks and feelings slowly and indirectly.
In “Miss Brill”, Katherine Mansfield first reveals that the main character is poor indirectly by saying she has worn clothes that she won’t or probably can’t pay to replace and will only pay the small price to fix them when absolutely necessary. Mansfield then reveals that Miss Brill is more an observer than one who makes close relationships with people. The reader knows this because Woolf has Miss Brill set in the park sitting by herself watching the other people who come to the park every Sunday rather than conversing with them or at least saying ‘hello’. Finally almost towards the end, Mansfield lets the reader know that Miss Brill is at least middle aged when a young couple sitting near her calls her old. The reader now knows that Miss Brill has never been married because of her name, and will probably never marry because of what the couple calls her.
Emma immediately cuts straight to the point. Jane Austen starts her book by describing the main character, Emma. Austen describes how Emma looks, her social class, her current situation concerning her governess being recently married and her father’s hypochondria and fear of change. Even though Austen wrote the novel in the third person, she describes Emma’s feelings and thoughts without any reservations or hidden meaning. Once Austen gets information about the characters out of the way, she proceeds with plenty of social interaction between characters. That includes dialogue, physical activity and further character development when Austen describes feelings, thoughts and conclusions that other characters make while interacting with each other.
Woolf argues in an essay refuting a piece by Mr. Bennett that the proper way to develop a character is to release information slowly so that the reader’s prejudices do not immediately cloud their judgment. Both agreed that the most important part of a story is character development, but their opinions as to the how differed. Austen represents the other side of the coin by describing her characters right away and having a myriad of social interaction and connections to further develop her characters.
The reader keeps an open mind throughout “Miss Brill” and starts off hopeful for the future. That hope slowly diminishes for Miss Brill as the reader slowly finds out more information about her. The lack of information keeps the reader interested, involved and invested in the character’s story. Emma differs in that there is really no hope for some of the characters, such as Emma declaring that she’ll never marry. Austen changes the readers mind slowly about some of the characters, and actually changes the characters as the story progresses and that is her way of keeping readers involved. Both methods of character development keep the readers guessing but for different reasons.
Citation:
Austen, Jane. Emma London: Penguin, 1996. Print
Woolf, Virginia. “Character in Fiction” Criterion July 1924. Rpt. In The
Essays of Virginia Woolf: Vol. II, 1919-1924. Ed. Andrew McNeillie.
New York: Harcourt Brace Javanovich, 1988. 420-38. Print.
Mansfield, Katherine. “Miss Brill”. Stories. 1956. New York: Vintage 1991.
298-302. Print.
Blog Post #3 (Chris Autry)
This week we've seen the reverberating impacts that space and time can have one one's social life. In both readings, Emma and Miss Brill, these reprocussions are felt in the character's lives. In Emma, mail plays a vital roll in interpersonal communication. It is also safe to assume that Miss Brill wrote the occasional letter as well. At the time, letters were a proxy in lieu of a visit. This is similar to the tools we have today such as Skype, text messages, instant messaging, and social networking. Letters provided a time invarient way of communicating with distant relatives, friends, and romantic interests. I mention that these technologies are time invarient because the mode of the communication remains the same, with technology rapidly increasing the speed at which these messages travel. Complexity has also been added over the centuries, with voice, then video messaging appearing much later.
Provided their class, both Emma and Ms. Brill would not have thrown the gatherings found in high society and the aristocracy. These gatherings had major social repercussions. One only has to be familiar with Austen's Pride and Prejudice, where balls were the nucleus of social interaction and courtship. The Bennet and the Woodhouse families both landed in similar places within the middle class, unlike Miss Brill who was both older than Jane and Emma. As mentioned in class, once older, single women lived particularly lonely lives. Having this looming over one's head further constrains the social role of women in the 1800s.
Ms. Brill's circumstances in particular had confined her to a restrictive space. Taking account the time period, it's safe to assume Ms. Brill had no available transportation, both public or private. Her travels in the essay consisted of trips to the public gardens, the school where she taught, and short distance errands. The restricted space, as well as her age must have evoked an extraordinarily constricting feeling within Ms. Brill. In Pride and Prejudice, Mrs. Bennet sought to have her daughters avoid this fate by seeing them 'married off', to a higher social standing, when possible. Similar to how Mrs Bennet tries to make matches for her daughters, Emma herself is a matchmaker.
Works Cited:
Mansfield ,Katherine “Miss Brill” Stories 1956. New York Vintage 1991 298-302. Print.
Austen, Jane. Emma London: Penguin, 1996. Print.
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice
Kern, Stephen. The Culture of Time and Space. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003. Print.
What is Age?
There are many categories of age. One category’s “personal age” which is measured based on one’s emotional and mental age. The second is “standard age” which measures one’s age based on the amount of time they have spent on Earth. The third is “age group” which is a classification of one’s aged based on society.
Katherine Mansfield’s Miss Brill, a short story about an a lady that lives by herself in a small apartment in Paris, shows that people tend to stereotype characters subconsciously. During the beginning of the story Miss Brill’s age is withheld. This allows readers to think about Miss Brill without preconceived notions. Starting out we see through her eyes. She is more excited about everything and seemed to have the youth of a young person. Later on a “couple” calls her old and a new side of her was shown. Immediately she went from this young person full of hope to this very pitiful old lady. When Miss Brill’s changes perception of herself the reader gains a new perspective. She isn’t this young lady that was starting her life, but rather a old lady whom lived by herself in a ratty old apartment. Our sense of hope for her seems to vanished because we immediately assume that old people don’t have time to change their lives.
Age, like time can be defined as relative. Phrases like “She’s a child at heart” come to mind. This phrase defines someone whose standard age is old, yet they have a personal age that is much younger. Their ideals and views of the world may seem to follow their personal age. Another way people tend to classify age is through maturity level. For example look at a boy whose father may have died and thus they had to fill that role for their younger siblings. A phrase coined for such person is “He had to grow up fast”. In reality his time line didn’t go longer than other people, but he traveled along it faster. This gave him a much older personal age.
What decides one’s age group? Age groups are defined by culture. In Ancient times it was unheard of for a woman to not be wed by the age of twelve, yet today in America being married at the age of twelve is illegal. Recently a health care bill was passed in the United States to say that you are still a child until the age of twenty-six. A simple explanation for the change in standard age applied to an age group seems to be the lengthening of one’s life span. Simply if one can live more years they can afford to stay in each age group for a longer amount of standard time.
Can we really define someone’s age in one term? The answer is no, there are simply too many aspects to the complexity of time. One can be considered much older than the years they have and vise versa. Because of the difference in “standard age” and “personal age” there is no such thing as someone’s true age.
Mansfield ,Katherine “Miss Brill” Stories 1956. New York Vintage 1991 298-302.
Print.
Katherine Mansfield’s Miss Brill, a short story about an a lady that lives by herself in a small apartment in Paris, shows that people tend to stereotype characters subconsciously. During the beginning of the story Miss Brill’s age is withheld. This allows readers to think about Miss Brill without preconceived notions. Starting out we see through her eyes. She is more excited about everything and seemed to have the youth of a young person. Later on a “couple” calls her old and a new side of her was shown. Immediately she went from this young person full of hope to this very pitiful old lady. When Miss Brill’s changes perception of herself the reader gains a new perspective. She isn’t this young lady that was starting her life, but rather a old lady whom lived by herself in a ratty old apartment. Our sense of hope for her seems to vanished because we immediately assume that old people don’t have time to change their lives.
Age, like time can be defined as relative. Phrases like “She’s a child at heart” come to mind. This phrase defines someone whose standard age is old, yet they have a personal age that is much younger. Their ideals and views of the world may seem to follow their personal age. Another way people tend to classify age is through maturity level. For example look at a boy whose father may have died and thus they had to fill that role for their younger siblings. A phrase coined for such person is “He had to grow up fast”. In reality his time line didn’t go longer than other people, but he traveled along it faster. This gave him a much older personal age.
What decides one’s age group? Age groups are defined by culture. In Ancient times it was unheard of for a woman to not be wed by the age of twelve, yet today in America being married at the age of twelve is illegal. Recently a health care bill was passed in the United States to say that you are still a child until the age of twenty-six. A simple explanation for the change in standard age applied to an age group seems to be the lengthening of one’s life span. Simply if one can live more years they can afford to stay in each age group for a longer amount of standard time.
Can we really define someone’s age in one term? The answer is no, there are simply too many aspects to the complexity of time. One can be considered much older than the years they have and vise versa. Because of the difference in “standard age” and “personal age” there is no such thing as someone’s true age.
Mansfield ,Katherine “Miss Brill” Stories 1956. New York Vintage 1991 298-302.
Print.
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