I am not a teenaged girl!

Can the Twins get a Cullen to bat cleanup next year? (photo by Peter Sorel)

Yep, I saw "Twilight" (and Mitch C. and Cullen N. from 1st hour) last night at the Southdale AMC Theater. I actually enjoyed it, though my expectations were fairly low. I have spent the last month or so teasing my wife for being a "Twi-mom," and more or less bagging on the swooning of Bella Swann. There were also a few occasions when I laughed out loud at the over-the-top melodrama, as when Bella's eyes went crossed when Edward was sucking her blood at the end to keep her from turning into a vampire. I know it was supposed to be dramatic, but she just looked kind of silly to me. The baseball game scene also felt like a Moutain Dew commercial on steroids. Give the storytellers credit for this, though, they followed the hero's journey quite closely. If you consider the world of the vampires to be a new threshhold that Bella crosses, then the whole story of "Twilight" offers many of the ingredients of the monomyth. For instance, her Belly of the Whale moment is when Edward makes her say "vampire" aloud. Once she acknowledges that she knows who and what he is, there is no turning back. The elixir is when Edward sucks her blood at the end. It is a magical moment that saves her life. Edward himself is a supernatural guide. When Bella survives her near-death experience, she has returned from the land of the dead and become a master of two worlds. There is also reconciliation with the father and a whole bunch of helpers in the whole Cullen family. See? It's not just a bunch of random note-taking. Hollywood really believes in this stuff.

Mr. Cheng says, "Are you not entertained?"

(photo courtesy EW.com; body courtesy Russell Crowe and "Gladiator")

I've heard the grumblings and I understand that The Odyssey is a challenging text. Hey, I didn't have to read the epic poem until my first year of college. But trust me when I say that this translation is much more readable than the one I had to read, and if you give it time, the story will yield many rewards. It's a terrific adventure with many wonderful archetypal elements (we will get into the definition of archetype more in class). We'll spend most of the coming week (Oct. 27-31) practicing strategies to make the poem more comprehensible. Foremost among these strategies is understanding that the poem was intended to be performed for its listeners. Try reading it aloud, and really make a point of understanding how it is to be read. Don't worry so much about the names as you do the pauses and the ebbs and flows of the lines. Imagine being at a campfire and having the story told to you. It can be very rewarding. Just give it a chance, and you might find yourself enjoying it. People have been for nearly 3000 years. (Besides, you don't have a choice : )

Siddhartha Vocab Definitions

Definitions and pronunciations taken from Merriam-Webster online.

ablutions: (noun) \ə-ˈblü-shən, a-\ the washing of one's body or part of it (as in a religious rite); bathing

onerous: (adjective) \ä-nə-rəs, ˈō- \ involving a burden; troublesome

samana: (noun) \sə-'må-nə\ a wandering ascetic in India

exalted: (verb/adjective) \ig-ˈzolt-əd\ raised in rank or power; praised

atman: (noun) \ˈät-mən, -ˌmän\ the innermost essence of each individual; the supreme universal self

asceticism: (noun) \-ˈse-tə-ˌsi-zəm\ practicing strict self-denial

erudition: (noun) \ˌer-ə-ˈdi-shən, ˌer-yə-\extensive knowledge acquired mostly from books; booksmarts

courtesan: (noun) \ˈkor-tə-zən, -ˌzan ˌkor-tə-ˈzan\ a prostitute with courtly, wealthy, or upper class clientele

equanimity: (noun) \ˌē-kwə-ˈni-mə-tē, ˌe-kwə-\evenness of mind, especially under stress; calm, mental balance

engendered: (verb) \in-ˈjen-dər-əd, en-\ caused to exist or develop; produced

ennui: (noun): \ˌän-ˈwē\ weariness or disssatisfaction; boredom

expiation: (noun) \ˌek-spē-ˈā-shən\ the act of atoning; making up for something

pallid: (adjective) \ˈpa-ləd\ lacking in color; unlively

pyre: (noun) \ˈpī(-ə)r\ a combustible heap for burning (usually for a funeral)

samsara: (noun) \səm-ˈsär-ə\indefinitely repeated cycles of birth, misery, and death caused by karma

exhortation: (noun)\ˌek-ˌsor-ˈtā-shən, -sər-; ˌeg-ˌzor-, -zər-\ the act of urging; making urgent appeals or warnings

entwined: (verb/adjective) \in-ˈtwīn-əd, en-\ twisted or wrapped together

om: (noun) \ˈōm\ a mantra consisting of one sound in contemplation of ultimate reality

venerable: (adjective) \ˈve-nər(-ə)-bəl, ˈven-rə-bəl\ deserving respect due to age; honored or revered

intrinsic: (adjective) \in-ˈtrin-zik, -ˈtrin(t)-sik\ having internal or built-in value

This is my example for how to post a photo

This is the picture that I created at Simpsonizeme.com.

Let Mr. Cheng POINT you toward Barbara Kingsolver's official website!

http://www.kingsolver.com/home/index.asp

On Animal Dreams...

Hi folks. This is the third time I've tried to make this post, so just know that you're not the only people trying to figure this blog thing out. Harumph. This is my first time reading and teaching the book, and I just finished reading it. I have found it to be absolutely lovely. Now, I'm an old softie at heart, with a particular weakness for love stories with happy endings - I'm partial to romances and so-called "chick flicks," so you'll have to pardon my sentimentality, but I could practically hear orchestra music swelling when (spoiler alert!) Codi and Loyd reunited on that train platform. It's like a scene out of a movie. In fact, the whole book reads like a movie to me. It gets me thinking who I would cast as Codi, which is not unlike the scrapbook assignment that we did a couple weeks ago. The actress would have to be tall and slender and beautiful, so the obvious choices would be Angelina Jolie or Gwyneth Paltrow (whom I once heard Robert Downey, Jr., describe as "naturally about 8 feet tall) or Keira Knightly, but I picture her more dark complected. The person I pictured when reading was more like Irene Bedard, who was the voice of Pocohantas in the Disney animated movie (first photo, upper left corner). Or a friend of mine from my Los Angeles days, Nina Revoyr, who is now a novelist. She's a former basketball player (self-described 5 foot 13 inches) and really looks exactly how I pictured Codi except for the Billy Idol haircut that she keep describing that she has (upper right corner). Do you kids even know who that is? I'll have to find a picture of him, as well (lower left corner). And then there's Barbara Kingsolver herself (lower right corner), who sounds like a hybrid of Codi and Hallie, a biologist by education who lives a very environmentally conscious life. Her latest novel has metaphors for ecological systems and whatnot. I'll post a link to her website elsewhere on this blog. (Photo credits: Irene Bedard, sunzoftheeaerth.com; Nina Revoyr, blognetwork.poynter.org; Billy Idol, photobucket.com; Barbara Kingsolver, depauw.edu)