Paper Topic...Possibly?

So I have been toying with different ideas that we have discussed in class trying to come up with a topic for my paper. This has led me no where except back to where I began and unlike the Alchemist I did not find what I was looking for and I sit here empty handed. Yet, while I was working on another blog earlier this evening I came across some lines in the Four Quartets that really stuck out to me. They are "What we call the beginning is often the end and to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from. And every phrase and sentence that is right (where every word is at home, .....) Every phrase and every sentence is a end and a beginning, every poem an epitaph." I think that I would like to base my paper around this idea of our beginning being our end and that we must start from where we ended. I was thinking that I could relate this idea to that of the theme of Dolce Domum and the book the Alchemist (for all his ends lead to all his beginnings). I am not really sure if this idea will work or if I will stick with it, but for now I think it sounds like a good place to start.

The Following Story....

So I just finished reading The Following Story for the second time and I have to say that I definitely understood it a little more the second time around. Yet, there are still parts that have me running circles trying to figure out what is going on. Rereading it I have come across the different themes that we have been studying in class. I really liked how he ended Part 1 "I could see that the man in Amsterdam wanted to wake up, he was thrashing about, his right hand groping for his glasses, but it was not he who switched on the light; it was me here in Lisbon." There were many good parts throughout the book that often surprised me and caught me off guard. He makes a lot of references to time which I found interesting. For example on page 32 he is talking about the building with the clock on it and how it is the law. "that my magisterial hands indicate the ephemeral, nonexistent now, as they always do." I like how he says "nonexistent now", and how he goes on to say that his is the "only true now." This makes me think of the theme Life as Fiction and Language in that he is the one in control of the now and what is and what is not, or at least he is for the time being. To be honest, the first time I read this book I did not like it very much. And although it is still not my favorite book I have ever read, I feel like I am able to take more away from it this around then the first time I read it.

Eenie Meenie Miney Moe

So I have been slacking with my blogs and decided today would be my catch up day, here it goes. One of our blog assignments was to talk about which blogger was most helpful for me. I would have to say that every one's blogs have proved helpful to me in some way or another in that each person has their own unique understanding and pondering about each of the texts we have read in class. It is interesting to be able to look at each one of them and see and compare how other people in class understood or thought about a text to how I understood and thought about it. It really adds a new perspective to discussing the texts. This is my first class where I have had to blog about readings and I have found it to be quite helpful. I would have to agree with Bizz and Christina, there is no way to pick just one favorite when each blogger has something unique and special to offer to the discussion table.