FINAL BLOG entry: Semester Summary!

This semester with Doc. Jason Smith was more of a journey than a regular class, or should i say a supernatural journey.

My first steps into this journey were taken with Asmodeus one of the seven deadly sins demons, more precisely the demon of Lust. With Asmodeus I learned about one of the origins of supernatural on an evil kind of level. I learned that being envious and jealous will most definitely bring the worst out of a person and create something a lot like our friend Asmodeus, so i had to leave him along the road and move on.
Then came along Emily Dickinson. Through a very dark poem of my choice, Emily took me on a carriage for a short and quiet trip with death, immortality and herself. With the guidelines from Jason Smith and what we had learned as a group about taking apart a poem to understand it better, It took me a while to discover Emily's poem and see between the lines, see the actual picture, the movie of what Emily went trough with this poem using the symbols and other clues finally discover where death and immortality were really taking her. I don't know about Emily Dickinson but I wasn't ready for Eternity just yet, so i took a different road and ended up in a very creepy garden of Eden.
As a matter of fact that what Goblins market was. Christina Georgina Rossetti takes us through a very dark and creepy long, long poem changing the garden of Eden from a beautiful and cute place to this very disturbing full of sexual symbols and other violent visual description. I ran away from the goblins with Laura and laughed in joy with both sisters when everyone ended up safe, but the symbolism in this story was so strong, each sentence gave me so much to think about, each action meant so much more after taring it apart. Christina Rossetti also made me discover the Hero's journey and it's scheme. I realized at that point that every single story i had heard, read or seen before was based on this simple circle. I still don't know if this scheme broke the hero's stories for me or made it even better, but what i know is that, from now on, I will always use these kind of structure to follow a hero.
After studying heros in there stories it was time to be a little self-centered and analyze my own hero's archetypes. This is when i learned i was an Altruist and Warrior kind of hero. Trying to make sense of to completely opposite archetypes (from my point of view), it came to me that each of these archetypes represented two important sides of myself, almost equally balanced at the moment. The altruist is the side in me that used to get me in trouble by making me focus more on others problems and forget mine, making me loose all interest in my own plans. The warrior is this other side who decided to take over when i thought it was enough. Time wise I would see this happening as when i moved here (in NY) and decided to take control of my life.
But enough talking about myself. The next step to our journey was MacBeth. I had already had an accounter with our disturbed hero, back in high school and i really enjoyed comparing our way to study this coward looking hero in France and here in New York. Of course the result of this time spent with the Macbeth couple was the same. Full of archetypes and mental breakdowns, our two murderers were a great practice for symbolism and archetypes. But once lady Macbeth ended her own life and her husband was rightfully killed, it was clearly time to move on and find other heros, maybe good heros.
It was time for our final test, each of us had to find our own story, our own heros, good or evil and make them come to life.
My choice was The Beast of the Gevaudan, my evil hero but also a myth walking on the line between fiction and reality. After a lot of research, many different version of the same story, many description of this same beast, i came up with my own version and my own beliefs. Using my arguable skills in cartoon and a few of my friend's voices i put together a 5 minutes video.

My conclusion for this blog series could and should be a whole blog series itself, but to keep it short and rap this one up, through this semester i have followed a lot of interesting, disturbing, scary, lovely, evil, weird, impressive hero's that have taught me how to really look at a story, its details, its characters and there personalities, but also to use this for any literature i will come across in the future. As a fine Arts student it has given a lot of inspiration and will give me new tools to illustrate and create from anything.

Thank you

Blog entry FINAL PROJECT - LA BETE DU GEVAUDAN (The beast of the Gevaudan)

L’HISTOIRE DE LA BETE DU GEVAUDAN

             In Haute Loire, a mysterious beast, the Bête du Gevaudan, appeared in 1764. Its origins are not known and the reality of this story has been built up through years by the witnesses of many French people passing on the details of how this beast attacked 210 victims, killing 113 of them, leaving 89 of them partly eaten and ignoring 49 people so they could live to pass on their traumatic experience. Somehow, the beast seemed to only target humans over farm animals, many times witnesses reported attacks on humans while cattle were on the same field, which is why this beast took on the name of a “man eating wolf”.

  The first attack was a woman attacked by a massive and dark creature but saved by the bulls present in the same field, which charged at the creature. The first victim was on June 30, 1764. A young 14 year old girl was killed near Les Hubacs (Langogne). After a group of seven friends were attacked by this same beast and managed to fight it off by staying close together, King Louis XV heard of the situation and sent professional wolf hunters to take care of this beast. Jean-Charles-Marc-Antoine Vaumesle d'Enneval, his son, and eight Bloodhounds were sent, they group arrived on February 17, 1765. After a few months without any result and still more victims, the king replaced them by François Antoine, harquebus (a rifle) bearer and Lieutenant for this hunt. Our hero ends up finding and killing a 2 foot 7 inch high and 5.6 foot long grey wolf weighting 130 pounds. Once declared as being the feared creature, the beast was stuffed and sent to Versailles where François Antoine was received as a hero. However, another creature quickly appeared and more victims were added to this massacre (12 more deaths to be precise). Jean Chastel was the one who took care of it, becoming the local hero.

  This is the very boring story told by Wikipedia. Very accurate, very detailed, lots of names, precise dates, precise geographical keys, details on all parts of the attacks, almost giving colors of the clothing worn by each character in this story. The interesting version with my work crossed into a movie was made very short by the available sources. The most serious sources I found made this beast and mysterious story into a very random and logical boring one. What my sources seem to have tried to make invisible is the story that interests me (and you I am sure).

             Jean Chastel, the hunter who killed the second beast in Wikipedia's story, is the one that made me want to go further into crossing stories. After his success in killing the creature, more details appeared about the way things happened. Jean would have been traditionally reading the Bible and praying before starting his hunt, when the beast came into his sight. Jean apparently had time to finish reading and praying before taking his rifle and shooting the beast with one of his home made silver bullets. Wikipedia gives us two arguments to show this situation would have been impossible. First, Jean could not have had time to finish reading since the beast usually attacked on sight... What if Jean Castel wasn't only a great shot but also a fast reader? What if the beast had actually not seen him right away? What if the beast had a poor vision and took a while realizing his next lunch was sitting there reading? Wikipedia’s second argument is that Jean Castel was often seen walking with a large red colored mastiff by his side and this could have been the feared monster trained by Jean himself, then killed to appear as a hero. This would also explain the resistance to bullets by the fact that the beast would be wearing a bullet proof jacket; Wikipedia calls this the “armored hide of a young boar”. Although, scientifically the “silver” bullets that were supposedly used would not have the accuracy nor the appropriate strength to even penetrate human skin.

In the movie “La Bête du Gevaudan” the beast is a dangerous, ugly, humongous, man eating, man trained killing machine. A secret society made this beast to keep the Gevaudan's population under control. Crossing these two versions, Jean Castel could have been the beast's keeper. However we want to see this story, this beast did exist, the victims did die, and the blood was spilled. The History Channel's professionals proved by going to Gevaudan that the beast could not have been just a huge wolf since they don't possess enough biting force to cut through human flesh, but rather that the descriptions available better suit an Asian hyena. The beast is not a large wolf; all the descriptions agree on one thing, the beast was a WOLF-LIKE creature. Wikipedia’s description portrays him with formidable teeth and an immense tails, reddish fur, and an unbearable odor (not sketchable).

THE MOVIE MAKING PROCESS

I have to admit, I did not think making this movie would be my ticket to hell. First I wrote a short story line, then decided it would be a “speed drawing”, story telling movie, then I grabbed a few friends and made them get out every single drop of stupid sounds and voices possible. I shot the videos, lots of them, of me sketching, ripped my hair out, then finally had my friends watch the footage and choose what they would give me. After hours of editing and struggling on Imovie (Mac), the movie is finally done. This movie is my way to see the Beast of Gevaudan story mixed with a little bit of stupidity... Well lots of it, but we had a great time making it and I hope you enjoy it.

4.1 Special Surprise UPDATE ON FINAL PROJECT

Here is my last update for my final project.
After thinking about how boring a morph of my Bête du Gevaudan sketches might be, i decided to use one of the most popular and fun ways to tell a story: SPEED DRAWING.

Details:
- Since i will be telling you guys a french story, i will use my strongest fRRRRench accent to narrate this mysterious and OH so scary story.
- The use of Speed Drawing will enable me to NOT spend more than 10 minutes on my sketches (which seems impossible for me so far)
- Also if I (an you) end up being lucky MARKERS should help this come to life and actually scare you (if my fRRRench accent doesn't kill the scary part).


IMPORTANT NOTE TO YOU READERS:
- I have no idea how this Speed Drawing is going to work for me and in no way expect wonders from myself (even being a Fine Art Major).

4.0 UPDATE ON FINAL PROJECT

So far wikipiad had given lots of information, too much too my test and became too precise and down to earth. I have decided to take the detailed information about this story on wikipedia and make sure to argue against there very logical researches.
I have the material and information i need along with plenty of numbers
My next steps will be to get more sketching as i now have more descriptions, then make the maps, and finalize my written part (deciding weither or not to completely go against wikipedia or not and if allowed actually make this a satire of their "bete du gevaudan page".
Finally i will put everything together as a new long blog entry.

Blog Entry 3.5 Coraline in the Hero's Quest

After reading Coraline and having studied the Monomyth structure it seemed to me that every story is made based on this Hero’s quest structure. Why is this structure so efficient and why do we all love adventures stories so much. The question asked for this essay summarizes my thought: Why do we care? In Coraline this circle of the Hero’s quest is perfectly followed, the different elements are made clear and easy to find. From the “call to adventure” to the “known and unknown” and finally “the return of the hero”, Neil Gaiman makes this kid’s book a perfect example of the Hero’s quest. To help me detail this structure better I will set my essay on the Hero’s Quest scheme found on wikipedia.com (see last page).
    First off, Neil Gaiman gives us the starting point by setting up Coraline and her parents in a very odd and old house. Coraline is the “bored to death” main character about to become our Hero. She just moved with her parents and is desperately looking for something exciting and always goes “exploring”. Without knowing it, Coraline is about to throw herself into the adventures she asked for but with a bit more danger than she expected. The “call to adventure” in this story happens after she goes through the small door into the other home. She makes it back without a problem, but when she realizes her parents are missing, she has no choice but to go back looking for them. The door she has to cross to access her other mother’s house represent the frontier between Know and Unknown (on our scheme), a very clear line between a world Coraline knows way too well and the other world full of surprises and danger. Very quickly the “supernatural aid” comes in the form of the talking cat giving her information about the other world. Also we realize that the “Transformation” from the Hero’s Quest starts right away even before Coraline goes back through the door to start her adventure, when she reminds herself by telling the story to her friend the talking cat of how her father saved her from the bees that one time by  standing and getting stung while he told her to run away, at this very moment Coraline starts realizing she cannot be afraid anymore and has to be brave (which she repeats to herself throughout the whole adventure). Then comes the Challenges and Temptation, everything in her other mother’s house is a temptation: Coraline is being given everything she wishes for (food, clothes, toys, games...), she has to decide between this perfect world with everything given to her and her real parents and the things she wouldn’t have. The second time she meets the other old man with the mouse in the flat above her, the other Mr. Bobo tries to convince Coraline she should stay and enjoy all these wonderful things she could have. The “Abyss, Death and rebirth” is made clear and something very interesting happens: Our little hero who started off being always frustrated by her mother who doesn’t give her what she wants, for example during “back to school shopping” with the gloves and the hat. Now that her mother is not there to control her desires Coraline could very well just succumb to the temptation and stay with the other family, instead, the balance between Coraline’s Id and Ego is established when she admits only wanting her real parents and what comes with it (or should I say what “doesn’t” come with it). Of course in a children’s book there could be no death or real violence, so instead, Neil Gaiman choose to have a symbolized death of Coraline as a child controlled by her Id and her rebirth as our new grown-up Hero being perfectly balanced by her Superego.
Coming back to the start of the Unknown part of our scheme, the Evil monster is here embodied by the Other Mother, who has created this house as a spider would have built her web to catch her prays. The other mother is the main challenge and also takes on the role of Threshold guardian when she steals the key from Coraline trapping her into her house. But after exploring the entire other house which ends pretty quickly since the other mother had created nothing further than the yard, Coraline takes action to save her parents and three other souls by challenging the other mother to a game. Comparing Neil Gaiman to our scheme we realize the author made a few twist in this structure, making the “Revelation and Abyss” occur in the middle of many challenges and not after them (temptations, the other father in the flat attacking her, the old man tempting her...).
Then after having accomplished all challenges, not succumbing to temptations and the final fight (using the cat) with the other mother, Coraline finally reaches the Return point of her adventure. But being back in her own house is not the final test she goes through. The author offers us one last twist, taking one part from the unknown part of the scheme and bringing it into Caroline’s known world: The other mother’s creepy hand desperately looking for the key. As if our little hero had to prove that what she had gone through and learnt in the other world had to be tested in the real world. Coraline passes the test using a “Picnic party trap” and is finally able to enjoy a good night of sleep.
    Now getting back to our main question: Why should we care? What could possibly be so important to us that we feel so close to this little character? How do we end up feeling so close to Coraline? How do we end up feeling like even though none of us has ever gone through a small door and had to fight an evil woman with button eyes, we still related to this story? And finally, how do this Hero’s Quest structure and its elements make this happen?
Whether this structure comes natural with telling such stories or the authors use this structure on purpose, the Hero’s quest structure is the key to having every heroic archetype into one single story, making each of us readers automatically connected to the story one way or another. Whatever main archetype we represent (see Carol Pearson’s Heroic Myth self-test), we can find our own archetype into this story and any story containing the Hero’s Quest structure.
For example, after taking the test my results were: mainly Altruist and also Warrior, probably the most obvious archetypes here (probably for me at least, since they are my archetypes). Coraline herself is the main character representing this archetype by going back for her parents even though she is only a kid and is very scared at first, this makes each reader who would have as a result the altruist feel closer to the hero and have interest in knowing how her quest ends. Coraline also represents the Warrior: having to fight her temptations, having to fight her other father, having to defend herself…etc. The point is here, that Coraline goes though most heroic archetypes and is surrounded by the rest of them, bringing us closer to her and the story. This gives us more interest in the development of the action. It appears we feel closer to what is similar to us and this is why having a structure enabling a story to have connection to each reader will make it interesting for readers of all ages.

Blog Entry 3.4 Final Project "Bete du Gevaudan"

I finally got to my final decision, LA BETE DU GEVAUDAN, using every single entry i can find on the internet i will sketch a quick drawing of each different description i'll have found. Then using a morphing program i will make a short tranformation of all sketches put together.

The story of the Bete du Gevaudan (Beast of the Gevaudan) is set in France, Haute Loire (Lozere), starting in 1764 to 1767. According to Wipipedia, this beast attacked 210 people and killed 113, only injured 49 of them and 89 of the one that died were partly eaten. A movie was also made about this beast, really well done, this movie depicts the story and shows how two man team up to destroy the wolf, only difference to the real story, in the movie the beast is controled bya secret society that uses it to keep the population under control and rule the region. Some sources say there was only one beast, some others counted more than one. My job will be to recreate the REAL story (illustrated) of the Bete du Gevaudan.
Here is a first example of what my 10 minutes sketches should look like:

The description for this sketch was the one from Wipikidia.com: Long teetgh, really long tail, massive beast...

(Other sketches will not be shown until the final presentation)

- With this my project will be composed of two different parts:

- The short version of the story of the Beast of the Gevaudan

- A map to precisely locate this story. The map will go from a general view of France, to then more precisely the region of Loreze then the town of Gevaudan, the limits then and now.

- The morphing of all sketches (should have about 15 sketches by the presentation)

- The interesting facts and unfoundable facts from this story (if foundable)

Blog Entry 3.3 Final Project Ideas!

For this final project the things I possibly want to work on are the following:
Gargouilles/Gargoyles: This little (not so small though) at the top of cathedral and other high religious buildings. Mainly in Europe, more specifically in France, even more precisely Cathedral Notre de Dame! This Gargoyles were made for very specific reasons during the medieval period, not just for decoration. Their origins brought a lot of stories. My goal with this project would be to find as much information as possible about these strange statues and find the original story!
Demons: As a following to my very first blog entry, this final project could be on Asmodeus to allow me to take more time to study his history.
My favorite idea so far, LA BETE DU GEVAUDAN: a wolf/Monster who terrorized france for years around 1960's. Many drawing have been made of this creature but no one actually ever knew what he looked like! The idea for this research would be to get a very detailed story of what actually happened but also a very detailed portrait of the beast using every source possible to combine them and realize my own interpretation!

Entry 3.2

After a long time not being able to decide what part of the many movies made or what scene to choose, I arrived on this part of the movie made in 1971 by Polansky. In this scene Macbeth goes back to meet with the witches begin for help. A large group of witches welcome him to their cave and practice some kind of spell to let him talk to the spirit and know about the future. One thing that stroke me is in the passage where Macbeth has a vision, going from mirror to mirror and finally arriving in a forest. Even though this vision is suppose to show him the long generations of king descending from Banquo, the act of traveling from one mirror to another is very important here, knowing that mirror are seen as windows to different world, here Macbeth keeps jumping from one world to another, with a different Banquo in each and finally the last mirror shows him the horror of his own acts, Banquo stabbed in the back... on the command of Macbeth himself.
Also, before he even drinks the witches potion, Macbeth is taken down in the cave, but one thing this movie adds to the action described in the original book is the fact that the young witches grabbing Macbeth's hand doesn't have to pull him very hard to make him follow her, as if Macbeth was whiling to walk down to hell without hesitation.

Entry 3.1 Macbeth

For this blog entry about Macbeth, my choices of pictures are these two cross aching drawing. To me they both convey a big part of the uncomfortable mood depicted in the play. This first drawing depicts Macbeth as the coward archetype:

The first one depicts the scene where Macbeth sees the ghost of Duncan in his chair during a feast, this sight terrifies him and Lady Macbeth has to ask their guest to leave. A sticking element in this drawing is how well the artist depicted the fear Macbeth is experiencing, his posture and the very strong sense of dynamic in contrast to the very calm back ground, as if no one even saw his reaction at this very moment makes it a very strong image. Looking at Macbeth's posture we realize his whole body is straight, probably from being frightened, but also the line going from his head to his toes is a diagonal line, usually used by artist to convey an absence of balance and the viewer is usually very affected by it. This use of diagonal join to the plot could be understood as the moment where Macbeth starts his fall from the success of becoming kind. It also depicts perfectly the fact that after becoming king he becomes a lonely man as everyone fears him, the fact that he looks terrified but no one sees him, his very tenses and straight body in contrast to a very relaxed background, and finally the very heavy and dark shadows on Macbeth compared to a very light background.

Macbeth is here the perfect example of the Coward archetype, not wanting to face and assume his acts of violence, his left hand up in the air trying to keep the ghost away. We can also notice his eyes wide open of surprise, but Macbeth had to know this or worth was coming.

The ghost of Duncan represent all of Macbeth's regrets, remorse and feelings of guilt, we cannot know for sure if the ghost actually appears or if Macbeth's guilt is playing games on him.

 

In this second image, Macbeth is seen as the victim of other's influence:

Lady Macbeth is here the focal point, by contrast, line directions, position and much more design techniques used by the artist that we could discuss in details. The artist gives us a perfect visual illustration of the character Macbeth is in this play: a victim easily controlled by other's influence. First the witches who plant the idea of becoming king, then his wife who makes sure he will get to the throne. Looking at this scene, Lady Macbeth is obviously in power, she is holding two daggers, symbolizing her desire to act and not just plan. She is not just holding these daggers, she looks like she just took them off of Macbeth hands who his behind her and hiding his face. The fact that Macbeth is, all throughout the play, controlled by woman could be seen as a sign of weakness, especially back when the play was written by Shakespeare.

These are only two of a long list of archetypes present in Macbeth's character, coward and victim, but not a victim of anyone, only himself. Indeed, Macbeth, by being so easily controllable and so greedy brought all his pain and suffering on himself.

WesBlack102: Blog Entry 2.2 Altruist

WesBlack102: Blog Entry 2.2 Altruist: "The Altruist The 'Altruist' is a person that is selfless. This type of person wi..."

TheSupernatural: Blog Entry 2.2: ALTRUIST

TheSupernatural: Blog Entry 2.2: ALTRUIST: "According to psychologist Carl Jung, the archetypes are preconscious psychic dispositions. Also, Jung states that they are innate with a pe..."

Blog Entry 2.2: From ALTRUIST to WARRIOR!

(There is a very good explanation to the presence of Xena on my blog)

     After taking The Heroic Myth Self-Test (by Carol S. Pearson, 1998) I end up being primary an ALTRUIST. For the purpose of this writing I stayed away from all dictionary and definition and kept the definition from my language, french .To me, an altruist is someone who puts others needs before himself, doing everything in his power to help others wether it affects his life. My choice to illustrate this archetype is a picture of Xena, the warrior princess.

Yes, weird choice. I was looking for characters or image that make me think of this precise part of the Hero in our culture and ended up following a classmate's advice and looking up Xena. But when I saw the picture I realized that all hero have, of course, all the archetypes from the Hero Myth, somehow Xena makes me think of the Altruist. When I think of an altruistic person I think of one of these heroes fighting for the good of a victim in danger, but more specifically, I think of the fact that they jump into danger without even thinking. This to me is the very base of an Altruist. In her adventures, Xena always ends up fighting for someone else's life or right and never for herself, which in the end ruins her own life. She is the extreme example of the altruist who almost lives to help others.

Even though my example is quite ridiculous, this helped me understand what this Altruist archetype was about. Without comparing myself to Xena (I could but it wouldn't be very useful here), I can really relate to this archetype, not only because the test gave me this result, but because I have my whole life tried to be a good man and to me the first step was to help others without any asking questions, it wouldn't be mine to judge. I have realized over time that this side of me was affecting my own life and decided to change. The Warrior as a second result may as well be the result of this change towards being a bit more selfish and focusing more on my life while still helping others.

Again, sorry for the really... special choice of example kindly offered by corpossibilidades.blogspot.com

Thanks for reading!

Blog entry 2.1 "Goblin's Market or the Creepy Garden of Eden"

The Goblin's Market or the Creepy Garden of Eden

    The author of this poem, Christina Georgina Rossetti, was born in 1930 in London. Some of her most famous work is the poem I will be writing about here: Goblin's market, Remember and In the Bleak Midwinter. Knowing that her father was also a poet, we could assume that she was inspired by him and carried on his work. It seems, to me, that the fact that Christina's mother was a nun and with the second sister they both got deeply interested in Anglo-Catholic movement, Christina was strongly influenced by her family, for instance the poem Goblin's Market could be interpreted as a creepy version of the Adam and Eve story. Christina also volunteered in a “house of charity” which seem to have been a strong influenced for this poem, the passage were to Laura gets sicker and sicker and her sister has to do the one thing she refused to do until then is a very good example of the “Fallen women” she help and probably got close to. In this blog entry I will focus on the symbolic and archetypes present here, how they give a great power to this poem and how these elements of our culture put together in this poem can make it a very disturbing work.

As I read this poem, one thing struck me, the fact that this poem has all the elements of the Adam and Eve story: The malefic fruit, the two characters with one staying away from the fruit and the other one succumbing to temptation and the fatal consequences of eating the fruit.

In this poem the two characters are called Laura and Lizzie, two sisters who walk by a goblin's market and hear their calls: “Come buy, come buy”. Laura succumbs to the temptation while her sister Lizzie tries to keep her away from it. Having no money Laura uses a chunk of her own hair to trade, but after eating the delicious fruits her health slowly starts to degrade. After seeing her sister become dangerously sick Lizzie decides to go back to the Goblin's market to buy more the antidote, more fruits, to cure her poor sister who cannot hear or see the goblins anymore. Once there, Lizzie proposes to pay with real money and that when we understand how the spell works, by trading in a part of herself to get fruits Laura had given the Goblins her health and youth. Lizzie has to fight through the goblins who are trying to force-feed her; she finally makes it out of this trap and goes back to her sister to save her from a certain death. Laura being saved, the two sisters go on and have a long life with their respective family.

The symbols in this poem could all be found in the Adam and Eve scene, from the fruit to the snake being here embodied by the goblins.

I will start with “the fruit”. This is the first element that made me compare this poem to the Garden of Eden. The very complex description of this fruit and its malefic consequences, which looks delicious but is deadly, is extremely close to the role of the fruit from Adam and Eve's story. This symbol is pretty clear here, the fruit as the decadence of humanity or the end of purity according to the bible. The trade Laura makes is very interesting symbolically. She gives up a piece of her hair, which is our cosmic connection, to pay for the fruits. The evil is, in this poem, represented by a group of goblins, all with different faces and looks: Cat, rat, snail and wombat. These animals bring a notion of magic (for the cat) and creepiness or ugliness (rat and snail), but then the poem follows with: dove, love, pleasant, kind; giving the opposite impression about these characters. This description gives the goblins a very evil look but a pure and kind personality. Again, I can't help comparing these goblins to the snake: a scary and creepy body with the skills to sounds and appear kind and caring.

The archetypes present in this poem are all also to be found in Fairy tales, or the Heroic Monomyth theory.

In fact, a fairy tale’s structure would almost always be: A character in danger (mostly princesses), an evil character or monster (usually a dragon or any creepy and scary creature), the savior (whiling to do go through any danger for the endangered princess, usually out of love), a enchanted place or scene and finally the happy ending with love, marriage and lots of kids.

Christina Rossetti here, proposes us a very disturbing and sexual fairy tale on the base of Adam and Eve theme:

The enchanted place: a very random back country scene made unreal by the presence of goblins.

The princess in danger: also one of Young's basic archetypes is here Laura who succumbs the temptation. In this poem Laura also takes on another role: the Fool. By eating the fruit knowing something evil will probably come out of it.

The Savior/Hero: Lizzie here takes on this very important role, she starts of as the prudent almost coward character but ends up as the strongest one who save her sister only out of love. Here is an interesting scheme showing the steps Lizzie takes towards becoming the hero:

In this circle our hero goes from being called to adventure but takes a little while to decide and jump in, then she passes straight to the danger and almost death, which changes her without being said, the change being in our opinion of her. She finally returns. The Known and Unknown notion are also followed as shown in the scheme since Lizzie doesn't know what to expect.

Evil: The goblins, taking on all the archetypes possibly given to this notion of evil: Destroyer, pervert, murderer, betrayer... and much more. They all act as one same person becoming an archetype not only representing many other archetypes but also many symbols.

The happy ending: Once Lizzie saves Laura the ending becomes the perfect fairy tale happy ending with a La Fontaine moral: Frustration could save you.

It seems like what Christina wants us to get here is the original sin moral, but pushed further. By mixing a creepy poem with the Adam and Eve story but also adding this fairy tale’s structure, the author created an even stronger story full of archetypes and symbols. Each action, each description could be broken down into many different meanings. The religion, the decadence Christina has been close to explodes in this poem.

But to me this poem reminds us of the hope still possible for human. Even though the bible describes Eve eating the fruit as the end of purity, the author here goes against this idea and makes it a fairy tale like happy ending with the two main characters getting married, lots of kids and happiness.

Citations:
- Wikipedia: Christina Rossetti

Blog Entry 1.3

Because I could not stop for Death 

by Emily Dickinson

Because I could not stop for Death

He kindly stopped for me

The Carriage held but just Ourselves

And Immortality.

We slowly drove, he knew no haste

And I had put away

My labor and my leisure too,

For his civility.

We passed the School, where Children strove

At recess in the ring

We passed the fields of gazing grain

We passed the setting sun.

Or rather, he passed us

The dews drew quivering and chill

For only Gossamer, my gown

My tippet only tulle.

We paused before a house that seemed

A swelling of the GROUND

The roof was scarcely visible

The cornice in the ground.

Since then 'tis centuries and yet

Feels shorter than the DAY

I first surmised the horses' heads

Were toward eternity.

My choice for this entry is the poem “Because I could not stop for death” by Emilie Dickinson. This famous author of the 19^th century wrote a lot of poems about Death.

As confusing as this poem was after my first reading, I realized how much there was to it as I started searching for symbols and clues to understand.

First of all, the title confused me more than anything, “Because I could not stop for death” gives the subject matter of this poem, but also a sense rush. But does it mean the author is trying to escape death or is it a reference to others death and not being able to stop and cope for their death?

The first stanza then starts off with the title, with this same confusing idea of death being a person. It almost feels like the author would have stopped for death if she had a chance, but she didn't. In only one verse the author puts herself in control of Death, as if she was the one controlling whether or not she wanted to give time to Death.

To most of us, Death is a scary and taboo subject, we seem to always personify it as one entity that would come and take us away. But here the author makes it a person that we get close to as the poem goes. In the second verse the speaker who didn't have time to stop for Death ends up having the luxury of having Death stopping for her. Death is even described here as “kind”, as if Death, was a gentleman stopping to pick up a hitchhiker. So far, the mental image that I made of this scene is the speaker walking along an empty road, Death coming with a Carriage and taking time to stop for her. But then a third character comes in this scene, Immortality. Again, the notion that exists in our culture is defined here as a person. We now have the author sitting next to Death depicted as a gentleman and in the back, Immortality, all sitting quietly. What strikes me in this first stanza is the absence of description. We have an image of three characters sitting on a “carriage”, but no landscape or anything around, as if there was actually nothing surrounding the scene.

The second stanza gives us a bit more information about this scene, the carriage is moving slowly (“he drove slowly”, “he knew no haste”), we now have motion clues added to our scene. Then giving the favor back to Death, the speaker “puts her labor and leisure away”to make it an amicable ride. In only two stanzas the relationship between Death and the speaker became civil. It almost seems like this poems could have been made to make the speaker itself feel more comfortable around death.

The third stanza finally brings a background to this scene: “a school where children strove at recess in the ring”. This verses bring the notion of the beginning of life. Then using the repetition of “passed” the speaker takes us through a field of “gazing grain” and “a setting sun”. Again, by personifying the grain the speaker makes it a striking visual element. Giving the grain a human reaction to their passage and using the visual element of the sun, the speaker sets up a bright and shiny grain field that looks alive. In this stanza, the author takes us through the cycle of life with the children as the notion of youth, the grain as life and the sun as eternity.

Continuing with the sun, the speaker then emphasis the fact that the sun is eternal “or rather he passed us”. Not only does the speaker makes it a person but it is also a reminder that the sun is a much bigger entity, to me this one line is the most powerful one. The sun being what our planet depends on and being much bigger, it reminds us of how short and little our life is compared to this eternal planet. Then a textural clue is added. “The dews drew quivering and chill”. This cold and humid texture contrast with the worm and shiny sun used in the preceding verse. Knowing that the speaker is sitting next to Death, this notion of “chill” only makes sense to me and brings back our cultural beliefs concerning death. We also get a sense of time, or should I say confusion about time. There was a sun set in the last verse and the “dew” is already there “quivering and chill”. Isn't the dew suppose to come later in time? How much time as gone by? But again, we are in presence of Death and immortality, a complete unrealistic scene where opposites meet. The end of this stanza brings us visual clues about the speaker. “For only Gossamer, my gown My tippet only tulle.” For such a ride, with Death and Immortality, the author seems to be wearing very formal cloth. The “tippet” is what makes her outfit so formal, as if she was attending an important event. Knowing that she is riding in a carriage with Death and Immortality, this makes it a very “last ride” kind of image.

The fifth stanza brings us to a strange looking house. But first another notion of motion stops us there:”we paused before a house”, show us that the carriage driven by Death actually stopped to look at this house, this must be an important house or a very meaningful one. The way the speaker describes this house gives an image of a tomb, an old one bitten by time and taking roots into the ground. The house, or shall I say “tomb” seems to be coming out of the ground (“swelling”) and it seems like earth is trying to suck it back in. Knowing that the house is a continuation of our body, this image of a tomb seems to represent a tomb enclosing not only our body but also our life. This image being used after the children in third stanza, the grain field and the sun in the forth and fifth stanza, emphasis the idea of cycle of life. Going from youth (or birth) with the children, to life and eternity with the grain and the sun to finally a creepy vision of death with the house described as a tomb, we now have gone through all stages of this cycle from birth to death.

Finally in the last stanza, the speaker gives us yet another clue of time, but only to break our notion of time: “Since then 'tis centuries and yet Feels shorter than the DAY”. This two lines change this short trip into an endless one. Then again with the last lines it seems that the carriage is heading towards eternity. 

ENTRY 1.2 Internet research- ASMODEUS

ASMODEUS

     Doing research about Demons, I found that demons, who are now described as evil creatures, were at first not necessarily maleficent and vengeful. In fact, modern Catholicism has made it such.Demons are categorized into different groups, and they all focus on specific things. I decided to focus more specifically on the Seven Deadly Sins Demons. I finally decided to narrow my choice down to Asmodeus ,the Demon of Lust. Out of the seven respective demons, Asmodeus was the one I related to the most. Lust being the hardest thing to control in my opinion, I wanted to have an occasion to further my researches about this demon, what he represents and where his origins come from. Furthermore, his appearance is the most interesting. Asmodeus has three different heads (human, bovine and ram), the body of a human and a chicken leg. He also rides and is accompanied by a lion with the neck and wings of a dragon. 

Using Wikipedia to research about the Seven Deadly Sins, I found the names of the seven demons, their respective stories and their conjured appearance. This information led me to make an educated choice as which one to write about. Asmodeus's role as one of seven princes of hell and demon of lust, which is better known as twisting sexual desires, is what makes him such a powerful subject.

In the Book of Tobit, Asmodeus is in love and seems to be only attracted one woman, but after killing seven of her potential husbands one of them actually succeeds in marrying her by tricking him and Asmodeus is forced to leave. This would be the explanation for his role as demon of Lust. In the Dictionnaire Infernal and The lesser key of Solomon Asmodeus is depicted almost exactly the same way. His three heads (man spitting fire, bull and sheep or ram) are all three related to lust and revenge. For the rest of his figure, his torso is that of a man, but his leg is that of a cock. After a quick research about chicken or cocks as symbols, I have found that Greeks believed that even lions were afraid of cocks and also that in the new testament, cocks became a symbol of vigilance and betrayal, which could be an explanation for his companion being a lion and how he keeps him tame.In later depiction, Asmodeus is portrayed as a handsome looking man, who is personable with good manners but limping because of the presence of his chicken leg. Another explanation for his handicap could be the fight he had with another demon which sent him plummeting from the sky.

     This blog entry has taught me everything about this specific demon (or lord of lust). From the first research about demons and deadly sins, I also gained knowledge about the origins of these demons and their stories. What interested me the most about this research is the fact that through time our beliefs and how we depict our own created demons has changed dramatically. Asmodeus and other demons went from neutral to malevolent. What strikes me is the fact that as our culture has evolved, our demons followed.

Citation: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asmodeus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken

http://jfjacobs.com/Gallery/SciFi-12/tommy_castillo_dmm_1_asmodeus_michael?full=1