Week 8

2/ ” I perceived in this moment that when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys. He becomes a sort of hollow, posing dummy, the conventionalised figure of a sahib.”  Write a short paragraph explaining what you understand by this paragraph.

In this paragraph from Shooting an Elephant of George Orwell an understanding of loss and a statement on British colonisation can be seen. George displays an understanding of forced violence as the character must keep face so as to assist in the colonisation of Burma, for the main character to survive he must commit this atrocity so as to save face and to save himself and so it could be seen as a necessary evil (almost). Many would argue in this modern age that he needn’t have fired and that it was his fault  for the situation he was placed in, however I feel the understanding I take from this paragraph is humanities ability to find a situation and people find themselves where they think it is kill or be killed and it would be unfair to judge a person on the base glimpse we have of this person. What I further understand from this paragraph is perhaps looking too deep, however I push on, this quote of: “hollow, posing dummy, the conventionalised figure of a sahib” I believe in this quote we can see the mask we all put on through life, we all maintain this mask of calmness or one day we wear the mask of the leader or the student or the teacher swapping the mask each day or each hour so as to be seen as we want to be seen from different people we greet upon our life’s path, where in reality the turmoil or the erratic state of our mind is bubbling underneath the figure we portray and in this instance of Shooting an Elephant, Orwell’s character see’s what mask he must wear and understands that this mask does not fit him well and perhaps is fragile to the point where it may shatter the masks of others around him.

Week 5 – 20th Century Literature

1/ following the advice and example of Ezra Pound and his followers (eg HD) compose a few short imagist poems.

To be the Imagist Poet.

Do not deviate from the plot.
Make the use of words so few,
Don’t change the meaning of the word.
Yet offer the solution for all to see.

Do not write the breeze,
But tell it for what it is.
And see the wind in words,
As nothing more than speaking.

Do not waste.
And always show.
So as not to let the poetry flow.
Be the Imagist
not the poet.
You’re not to be the prophet.

Week 4 – 20th Century Literature

1/ Describe in your own words how reading and hearing the poets of the first world war has made you feel about war.

Poetry to me has always been a dangerous zone. Whether writing or reading poetry, I feel that I should always approach it with caution, its easy to be caught up in words and find yourself at the other end asking yourself “what just happened?”or “how did it get here?”. So the reading of the First World War poets, has me interacting with them in the way that they were intended to be read. Whether it be the patriotic propaganda of Rupert Brooke or the emotion of death through Charles Hamilton Sorely. These poets to me evoke the feelings I am supposed to be feeling whilst reading them, yet I am constantly aware of what the cost of war has brought. Whilst I feel it is right to say there need not have been such carnage, I still find myself thinking there was a need. There are horrors in the world and those that have faced death know these best, but they also know that the world has much to give. My views on war have changed often; to the points when I considered joining the army, to leading soldiers as an officer, to where I have looked at my parents as nurses, and valued showing people how to live over taking away another’s. War to me was the presence of death as I walked about the emergency department as a 10 year old. What I saw rolling in through those sliding doors, was the aftermath of what man could do to man. But the taking of life, even of an animal which I loved, and hearing its cries and feeling it struggle under your hand, trying desperately to end its misery, is something I will never forget, and something I see through the writing of these poems. War to me is a horror, but is also necessary, its just that there is still that struggle to end it.

Week 3 – 20th Century Literature

Everyman, a play about the sin of man, and the mortality of life, was presented to us on Wednesday in the form of a play recorded from the National Theater. What was originally church propaganda has been turned, in Carol Ann Duffy’s adaptation, into a scathing assault on the myopic materialism of the modern age and a reminder of our own mortality. As Everyman, Chiwetel Ejiofor graphically traces the protagonist’s progress to spiritual enlightenment, he presents the rich tosser that cares little for the world and is in himself extremely materialistic, we see in the first scene of the play his degraded state at his 40th birthday bash where he partakes in alcohol, cocaine and some some lusty movements in the choreography. Overall the contemplation and the progression to humility was well executed as Everyman confronted his life’s misdeeds, and the ever  looming possibility of Death made for a play which found me wondering at my own life’s progress and which direction I was heading. What was more surprising to me however was the lack of religious propaganda which was the core moral of the original play, in this factor alone I found the play was more compelling to the modern mind and gave the audience the understanding of mortality instead of being discouraged by the influence of religious fervour. Overall I enjoyed the play immensely for the modern adaption of the play and the pure enjoyment of being drawn into the story of the play without feeling disconnected from the actors or the screen.

Week 2 – 20th Century Literature

Write a short paragraph re-imagining the last event of Heart of Darkness.  In your version, Marlow tells Kurtz’s intended the truth.

‘His end,’ said I, broiling with anger, ‘was worthy of his life.’
‘And I was not with him,’ she whispered. Allowing for an instant, pity to wash over me.
‘We tried..’ I mumbled.
‘Oh, but I believed in him more than anyone on earth—more than his own mother, more than—himself. He needed me! Me! I would have treasured every sigh, every word, every sign, every glance.’
The steel hand of pity gripped my heart, ‘don’t,’ I said in a muffled voice.
‘To the very end, I heard his last words…’ I said quickly without speaking.
‘Tell me’ she said with the soft words that are associated with things of such importance that could make and unmake any person. The weight of those two words spoke more than the words themselves.
I was close to telling her… So close to telling her what she wanted to hear… But she must have justice as he needed himself. The world around were the words that he spoke, how could she not know this?
‘His last word—to live with,’ she murmured. ‘Don’t you understand I loved him—I loved him—I loved him!’
Pausing, I looked long into her eyes to see the heart beneath and the heart I was about to break. I whispered slowly his final words… ‘The horror.’

Week 1 – 20th Century Literature

Creative: In imitation of G.M. Hopkins write a poem that celebrates the arrival of spring. Try to use some of the amazing language devices that are at the fingertips of every speaker of the English language. Be conscious of what Conrad says about the purpose of finding “the very truth” in the “forms, in its colours, in its light, in its shadow…”

To gaze upon a flower, Is to gaze upon Spring.
To smell and feel the petal is to feel the heart sing.
The Winter before felt much like a glower,
Now I feel more, as I sit in the bower.
The bud so small, the bud once sad,
Now reaches and reaches, for want to feel glad.
The blooming so slow and delicate
Now fills the glade with colour once desolate.

That is how Spring is.
The renewal of the heart.
It is the making of art.

Spring is a flower.
So delicate.
So Beautiful.
So soft.
So full of joy.

Spring is the beginning.
You can see now
The start of spring.
Once the flower blooms
And the birds begin to sing.