A Room of One's own

Virginia Woolf wrote this essay just after women achieved the right to vote. Woolf brings up an interesting point that there has not been a female Shakespeare in British history, even though during the 18th century mass printing was available for the citizens of England for the first time . I believe with the addition of mass printing press available to the public, there should be a woman who ranks up there with Shakespeare. Her answer to this question is, even if there was a woman with the talent, women are educated differently. They are educated to become homemakers and proper wives.
Shakespeare's sister tried to follow in her brother's footsteps, but the problem at the time was women could not act in the plays. Women started to burn their work because it was looked down upon to write and be faced up to men's writing. That notion is just ludicrous and people believing this idea were bigger fools than the women they looked at negatively during the 19th century. The sad part about this essay was for me is I know men who believe women should stay at home and be a housewife. The question I ask is how sad is it that some men still think women should not work outside the house. Blasphemy is what I call it.
The room of my dreams to help create ideas is a room that is bounded by bookshelves on all sides. The bookshelves would contain a fiction section. The fiction bookshelf would hold volumes of literature from the European continent; including Shakespeare, John Donne, John Milton, Beowulf, Friedrich Schiller, Goethe, E.T.A Hoffman, Alexander Dumas, Edgar Allen Poe, and H.P Lovecraft.

Paragraph on Rape in Cyberspace

I believe that Bungle did commit rape. Bungle committed rape while playing a game, which is still considered rape, even though there is nothing the police could do about it because it is in a fictional setting, with no merit in real society. The fictional world of the MOO is comparable to the world of a novel in which a character commits rape. The character in the story actually does commit rape but it happens in the world of fiction and depending on the story is whether he will come to justice. Bungle did commit rape even though it is in a fiction setting, but at the same time the victim is an avatar figure, with not standing in real life. I hate to say it but Bungle committed rape, but there was no real victims because they were all "created" characters.

Notes 2/2/2009

There is an emotional investment to the characters being tortured. Is there a different investment in being a character as an avatar? Could the investment be stronger if it is your character? From my experience from playing Role Playing Games (RPG) I would feel sad just because if something happens to a character in an RPG, your character is reloaded at the last save point, when your character dies. Now if my character died and i could never retain my character i would be upset and mad, because my beloved character I've created, would no longer "alive."

Mary Wollstonecraft January 26th Quiz

Because her father was an alcoholic, Mary Wollstonecraft took over caring for her family when she was young. She educated herself. Wollstonecraft tried writing for a living. Edmund Burke attacked the French people for revolting against their King. Wollstonecraft wrote the first response to Burke's attack, Vindication to the Rights of Men. In it she defends a Republic as opposed to a Monarchy. Her term "man" mean humans. Wollstonecraft used "manly" to mean "rational." Her Vindication of the rights of Woman explains sexism as systematic and

structural.

Through education society trains women to be immoral and irrational. Meritocracy the rise through merits and talents. Soldiers are like women, because both are disciplined and educated in the same way, following orders when they are given. Wollstonecraft argues that, no matter what gender a human being is, he or she can be educated in the same way as the opposite sex and then will act the same way as a person of the opposite gender. Wollstonecraft argues for a revolution in Women manners. Women take advantage of the power inequities because it is easier than working hard. Wollstonecraft says that women should not behave as if they are inferior to men but should instead behave as equals. I have never understood why people have fear women playing major roles in business. How free can a person be if he or she cannot chose how to live?

Cinderella in Fable II

The Video game Fable II is an RPG game for the Xbox 360. In the beginning of the game, the person playing the game is able to choose between being a homeless boy or homeless girl. After playing the game I realized that, when a person chooses the girl as their character, the story line resembles Cinderella tale in a way. The way this game resembles the Cinderella fairytale is that the little girl starts out with nothing as an orphan on the street, but as the storyline progresses she becomes a hero who is able to achieve what ever she wants.
Even though the story line does not match exactly with the Cinderella story, the part about a girl coming from nothing and achieving great riches mirrors the Cinderella story.

Another example of the fairytale Cinderella is Knut Hamsun's novel Victoria. This novel reverses the gender roles found in the conventional Grimm story. The woman in this story is the rich one with the man being from a poor; he does not have the social status to catch the eye of the royal woman. Although she does fall in love with him, she tries to live aqs an elite woman would. Nonetheless, in the end she kills herself while the man in the story lives out his life. Hamusen flips the conventional Cinderlella stort upside down.

Carter's Bloody Chamber book of Fairytales

In the the "Courtship of Mr Lyon," Beauty is fascinated by Beast and at the same time she is scared by his claws which kill meat. Beauty finds the Beast intriguing and repulsive because he is so different from "normal" men; he is an other. Angela Carter bases her story on the Grimm brothers' story The Singing, Springing Lark. Beauty finds the Beast attractive and obscene because he has animal qualities which relate to humans' animal instinct. Sometimes animal instincts are expressed in dreams or imagination, which is the basis of Fantasy stories. Fantasy stories make the unreal seem real by incorporating them into a believable story. Beauty's fascination is just like our fascination with Fairytales: we can come terms with our own animal desires in an imangitive way.

Cinderella Complex and introduction to Weight

It is interesting to think that someone like Colette Dowling who was ambitious enough to write books like the Cinderella Complex would take a one eighty in her lifestyle, to go from being self-sufficient to depending upon a man. She got remarried again, and expected to get taken care of. This makes me think that, once a human gains a state of comfort, they lose their drive to become successful and become complacent.

Now turning to the introduction to Weight written by Jeanette Winterson. Art does help counteract ideology when one retells fairy tales. Winterson writes that humans have a gigantic appetite for the "real" yet they turn to reality T.V. However, the only way one will experience reality is to live one's own life instead of watching others live theirs. The Introduction to Weight asks us to face "isolation, loneliness, responsibility, and burden" with Atlas by reading her revised story as a way of preparing us to do so on our own.

Angela Carter's Ashputtle is also an interesting story because the mother sacrifices a great deal for her daughter. She gives milk and as a bird she gives blood. She sacrifices everything for her daughter. As a result, the daughter does not have to overcome obstacles and becomes passive.