A Protest type of Literature

Today is November 30th, the final day of National Novel Writing Month. And I have lost.  Failed completely! I wrote the first day, and haven’t had the time since! I am trying to justify it with the fact that I can hardly keep up with all my coursework, so I don’t feel like that much of a failure. But that does not mean this novel is going away any time soon. I even have a real genre! Whenever people ask what genre I am considering with my novels, I don’t know what to say. I am not a big fan of labeling my work until I know for sure what I am doing. In this case, I know it is Protest Literature. All semester long in American Lit we’ve been reading different types of Protest Literature and it didn’t hit me until Wednesday that I am embarking upon the same sort of work. I feel very passionate and strongly about education reform, and this is the way I know how to contribute. I will keep up my work on it, and one day, I will find someone to publish it. This is too important for me to give up on.

Professors say the Darndest Things

Yeah, yeah–kids do too, but this past week, two of my professors said things so quote-worthy, I wrote them down in my notes.

In my Russian History class, my professor seems to know so many people.  From time to time he will reference a book that a colleague or a friend has written, that pertains to the material being covered in the lecture.  This past Monday, he talked about one that was fantastic and we should do whatever we could to get our hands on a copy.

“Stealing from a library is bad!  It’s a cardinal sin!  But, I don’t see anything wrong with stealing one or two or five or six from a bookstore!  They make enough money!”

Now, I do not condone stealing books of any kind.  Especially from a bookstore!  (Then the author is being cheated of their fair share!!)  It was quite humorous to hear that coming from our professors mouth.  He’s been teaching at the U for 47 years.  I am sure he is tenured.  Like another professor of mine has said, “The University could sooner move all the buildings on campus to the left 2 inches, than fire a tenured professor.”

In my American Literature class, I really enjoy hearing lectures from the professor.  Early American history, literature, and whatnot is not the most exciting material in the world to cover, I cannot gloss over that fact.  But somehow, with his enthusiasm it makes everything a little more bearable.  Again this past Monday, during lecture he mentioned a book, a novel in fact, and asked if anyone had read it.  No one raised their hand, for it was a bit obscure.

“There are these things called novels that people write every once and a while.  It’s like TV for your mind!”

The second part was said with a really enthusiastic tone, which made everyone laugh.  Of course we’ve heard of novels.  The majority of the students in the class ARE English majors.  Reading is what we do.  We are probably the few on campus that actually still read for pleasure on a regular basis.  Only, when we are English majors, we have so much to read for class, it is detrimental to our academics to read for ourselves.  I feel as though I am cheating myself by reading something not pertaining to one of my classes.  I am behind enough in my reading!

This month has been crazy busy.  I am glad the weekend is nigh.  I need to catch up on sleep and schoolwork, like nobody’s business.  Speaking of sleep, let’s see if I can get to bed before midnight.

It’s been awhile…

What has happened since my birthday?

My family (minus the older brother) came to visit the weekend after my birthday. It was nice to just hang out with them. We went shopping a little bit, and had dinner at a place downtown St. Paul called Cosetta’s. It’s an Italian deli-style place, fairly cheap, and really good.

Last Monday and Tuesday I had trouble focusing on schoolwork because we were leaving Tuesday evening to go home for Thanksgiving break. We left around 7, first drove up to Superior to pick up our good friend Molly, then drove through the wilds of the U.P. back home. Remember when I wrote about our “joy ride” this past Fourth of July, up in the U.P.? Well, this was in the middle of the night. There were barely any other cars on the roads, and apparently they roll up the sidewalks at 5 p.m. so none of the gas stations were open as we were slowly running low on fuel. It was the beginnings of a good horror film with the car full of college students going home for a holiday, driving in the middle of the night, getting stranded, having someone stop to help, only to slowly kill them all! But we made it home safe and sound, at 3:24 a.m. Wednesday!

Thanksgiving break at home was really nice. I keep forgetting what I did last year, because it was forgettable! Doug and I were unable to get home, so we made our own Thanksgiving dinner with Sasha here in the cities. It wasn’t the same. But this year was fantastic! I managed to go bowling two different nights! Wednesday we went to Holiday Lanes, where it was Quarter Mania! 25 cent tappers! Friday night we went to Dome Lanes were karaoke was to be had. Thanksgiving itself was nice too. We had my Dad’s entire family over for dinner at our house (minus my Uncle Bob). The Packer game was on, they won, my mom made apple pie, I had a Bloody Mary…it was fantastic.

The drive back here yesterday was eventful as well. Doug, Molly, and I ventured back in the U.P. over to Superior first. We wanted to stop to eat at a random bar, with deer heads on the walls, in the U.P. But once we actually were up there, the bars were few and far between. And deer heads? Non-existent! I thought it was deer season! We eventually found a decent one in Bessemer, where the locals thought we were so cool to be from the BIG city of Green Bay. (It is easier than trying to explain where our actual hometown is located.)

Now, I am left with a very messy bedroom, and a to-do list a mile and a half long! The list I made earlier today doesn’t even include my schoolwork either! I am very behind in my reading, and I have one essay, some peer paper reviews, a revised paper to write, and a final paper coming up in the few weeks remaining in the semester. Plus a drawing of Russia (I think…) for my Russian history class. I am always saying I have 500 pages to read…I am not exaggerating! That’s what happens when you take all English and History classes! (But I love it…)

I’m twenty-one today!

It hit me for the first time at lunchtime when I was at Noodles & Co.  They serve beer there, and I realized that if I wanted, I could have purchased one.  I didn’t, of course, because I took a midterm later this afternoon.  In a little while I will be going to dinner at a restaurant called Annie’s Parlour, where I will eat one of the most delicious cheeseburger/strawberry malt combos in the state of Minnesota!  Then I will be attending a student written/directed/performed play on campus that my roommate Douglas is stage managing.  And after that?  I may hit a bar or two…

AFI Countdown, Part Two

This is a series I started awhile ago, probably sometime during the summer when I actually had time to blog almost everyday. To refresh everyone’s memory, the American Film Institute has a countdown of the 100 Greatest Movies every June on CBS. The first year I caught it they were focusing on love stories. Other years have been comedies, thrillers, quotes, songs…you get the picture. This series I started for my blog is counting down the movies I have actually seen myself and my comments on how I liked the movie and when I first saw it, and why I watched it in the first place. I left off at number 77, which was All the President’s Men. If you would like to read the original post, it can be found HERE.

76. Forrest Gump

This is a movie that is often quoted with either, “Run, Forrest, Run,” or “Life is like a box of chocolates.” It is one that everyone knows about and is revered highly among film critics. It is something you have to see in order to get various pop culture references. In fact, there are many historical references in the movie itself. I believe Mrs. Berg, my AP U.S. History teacher mentioned it in class once for an extra credit opportunity to watch the movie and write down every historical event that takes place within Forrest’s lifetime. It is well done in that regard I must say. (I never did do the extra credit.)

72. The Shawshank Redemption

I saw this movie in English class freshman year of high school. Mrs. Wagner was the teacher and I remember having to get our parents to sign a permission slip to watch the movie because it was rated R and most of us were 14 or 15 at the time. I don’t remember in what context we watched it, but I liked it. It is one of those movies in which the ending surprises you a bit and after thinking about it for awhile, you see what was happening throughout the rest of the film to foreshadow the conclusion.

71. Saving Private Ryan

I think I have seen this movie a couple of times. Once on TV maybe, but for sure in my AP U.S. History class. For AP, the test we work up to is the first week in May. We spend the entire year preparing for the one big exam at the end, but school is not let out for another month. After the test was over, we spent our class time watching historical movies and working on one big power point presentation on the topic in U.S. History of our choice. (I did mine on Ellis Island, by the way.) Saving Private Ryan was the first one our class chose to view. The first 20 minutes or so was a little intense, but then again so is war. I don’t think Americans as a whole realize what goes into a war. Sure, they show footage on the news, or recreate events in movies, but in our lifetimes we haven’t had any major battles on our soil. Movies like this attempt to show what it is really like, and although it looks very realistic and highly intensive, it is nothing compared to what it must really be like.

70. A Clockwork Orange

Because of this film, I cannot think of Singin’ In the Rain the same way. I read the book by Anthony Burgess before seeing this movie. There are many differences, that I see as completely plot altering (but then again I am a writer and will always favor the book over the movie.) Seeing the movie did help me fit some things together and put a picture with what I was reading. (If you aren’t familiar with the book or movie, the main character speaks a language that he has invented and it can get a little confusing from time to time. Luckily, in the age of the internet, it is easy to find dictionaries of the very same language if you get stuck on a particular phrase. That, and Spark Notes, which is always a life saver.)

I have decided to only do four at a time for blogging purposes. No one really wants to read a mile long blog. I mentioned in my last post that I thought my list of movies I have seen will grow because I have a Netflix subscription, but alas, it has not. I need to start getting the classics to my mailbox instead of the throw away movies they make today.

I support…

Writer’s Guild of America Strike

Being a writer myself, I know that one day this could be me in a different situation. I fully support the writers of Hollywood and their strike because after all, without the writers, THERE WOULDN’T BE ANY STORIES!

I am loving, currently…

-Vitamin Water

-Ugly Betty

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

-Russian Culture

-The New Yorker cartoons

-Jimmy Stewart

-Regina Spektor

-Getting a flu shot

-Vanilla Lattes

-Lemon poppy seed bread

-My bus pass

-The ability to strike

-The moments before the Christmas season rush

-Sweater weather

I’m going to say it: It kind of snowed today!

Today’s temperature was a little on the chilly side.  No, let’s face it–it was just plain cold.  In fact, I saw a few flurries this morning!  I discovered this weekend that the music channels on our digital cable already started to play Christmas music.  I am sure they started the first of November because they were playing Halloween music last week.  (This being the “Sounds of the Season” station.)  I had it on for the majority of Friday afternoon and when Doug came home he said I was crazy and I was not allowed to listen to Christmas music until Thanksgiving.  Unless! it snows, and accumulates.  (i.e.  stays on the ground past noon.)  But he did mention another caveat.  He said if we watch White Christmas, then we can listen to Christmas music.  Well, I don’t own that movie and I can’t say I have even seen the movie in its entirety at once.  I have seen parts of it and have probably seen it in parts all at once, but I can’t remember much of it.  When I told him we could watch my personal favorite, It’s A Wonderful Life, he scoffed at the idea!  He told me it is dumb and not a real Christmas movie.  Well, I beg to differ!  James M. Stewart happens to be my favorite actor of. all. time.!!!  I framed one of the sheets of the stamps bearing his likeness this year.  Yeah, it’s big time.  So, am I upset that the weather has turned to the chilly end of autumn?  No, because with cold weather come sweaters and mittens and scarves and warm drinks and my birthday and Thanksgiving and snow and family and giving and Christmas and decorations and parties and the end of the semester and everything that is happy.  If only I could get through these papers and exams and write my novel, I will get there.

Let me tell you about this novel I’m writing.

I started it.  My novel, that is.  Yesterday marked day one of National Novel Writing Month.  I was freaking out all day, thinking that I was crazy to take on such a task, but after Doug reminded me that I HAVE to write this book and I already know what to write, I just had to sit down and do it.  I started the prologue I guess I will call it.  I am pretty sure it is finished for the most part.  I will worry about revision later.  Right now I just have to focus on getting the initial ideas out there.  I am very excited for this story to be written, I am very passionate about telling it and feel like it is a topic that really needs to be addressed.  Basically, it is a year in a high school in a small town in Upper Michigan and the ups and downs of the public education system.  My high school experience was fine enough, but there are some things I had trouble dealing with.  Things that should not have been cut out or left out because the money simply wasn’t there.  I feel like I received an adequate education, but it could have been so much more–it should have been so much more.  Just because a private education wasn’t readily available doesn’t mean I cannot learn what I should in a secondary education.  That is why  I need to write this story.  I am not the most eloquent when it comes to actual speech.  But writing, is what I feel I can do.  It is the way I can contribute to the world.  It has to be done and I am hopeful that it will turn out in the fashion I am dreaming of in my mind.  I don’t know why writing works for me, or even how, it just does.  I am very self-conscious about my work.  I am getting better, but I still feel as though it is never good enough.  One day that will change, but until then, I just have to keep writing.