"A Defense of Poesy"

One of the disadvantages of being the youngest child in the family for seven years of your life is that, in many cases, you're the last to learn how to do something. Before I started grade school, I wanted to learn to read so bad. I didn't understand why a pharmacy would hang a huge sign that said "24 horse," or why our SHARP TV would tell us to "shut up."

This one time when I was just four and a few months old, I was alone watching that same TV set when a commercial for Hooked on Phonics came on. They sell books and, I think, cassettes that teach children how to read. I can remember how excited I was seeing those kids read with their books and phony smiles. Heck, I still remember the number I dialed to order it when I just couldn't wait till my parents got home: 1-800-ABCDEFG. Of course, the lady on the other end asked me my age and then told me I had to get an adult to call.

We never ordered those books, but it wasn't too long that I was able to read my first book with chapters: Dear Mr. Henshaw. I grew up reading various kinds of books, a few in Arabic but mostly in English. Reading books of fiction provided escapism for me as a teenager (although, I'd say music was my ultimate getaway). It doesn't come as a surprise that I chose to major in English literature after finishing high school (English literature and linguistics, to be precise).

It was during my college years that I truly began to understand my fascination with reading literature. It was no longer just a fun hobby and an indulgence of a girl with an eager sense of imagination, but I began to see that it is an active and continuous process of understanding, interpreting and evaluating fundamental issues about yourself and the life that surrounds you, as fiction creates space for the reader to view life from different angles. I began to understand the importance of studying it, for literature as a discipline encompasses various studies, i.e philosophy, psychology, sociology, history, politics, race, gender... you name it.

While what I learned concerning these studies is invaluable, I am most appreciative of what I've learned about myself. In literature I found an articulation of all the thoughts I had that I didn't know had words for. At the top of my head, one of the important texts that really contributed in shaping who I am is Emerson's "Self-Reliance," and his talk about the importance of individuality. As a sort of passive teenage rebel, I loved this quote he says: "Society is a joint-stock company [...] The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion." Emerson tells it!

I now have an MA in English literature and I plan to continue to study in the near future inshallah, and many times I get a confused response from people when I tell them my major. I know there are those who are not exposed enough or who simply lack depth to understand the point of it all, but the number of times I've met with that weirded out face confounds me.

Book I'm reading: To the Lighthouse by, currently my biggest girl crush, Virginia Woolf

Song I'm listening to: Take you on a cruise - Interpol (a band I can never ever get sick of)

"Twenty-nine different attributes, only seven that you like" -Julian Casablancas

This is to share seven of my favorite stuff.

1- I'll start of with an excellent TV series called Dark Shadows that I've been watching lately. It's a gothic soap opera from the mid 60's that features vampires, witches, time machines and all that jazz. It's over a thousand episodes, so I only watch the ones that involve vampires. If you've watched The Vampire Dairies on CW or have read the book, you'll see where the writers of that show/book get their ideas. And wait till you here this, the main vampire's name is Barnabas Collins... Collins! ring a bell? There's also a short lived remake of only the vampire's story that was aired in 1991, which I think is also good but definitely not as good. It was on for only 12 episodes.

2- Dior Hydraction Tinted is my current favorite cosmetic product. I'm not usually up to date with these things, but this is an item that could be useful to many people. It's essentially facial moisturizer that is tinted, which works as an immediate skintoner, so it's a great substitute for skin foundation and/or powder. And that's not all, it also works as sun block with SPF 20! Very natural look, and very, very useful.

3- If you treat your hair like I do and you abuse it by frequently dying it, blow drying etc etc then Aussie Miracle Moist hair conditioner is the product for you. I treat my hair so bad; if my scalp could leave me and run off with someone else's head, it would leave in a second. So sometimes it looks awfully too dry and this is the only conditioner that's ever worked for me when my hair was acting out. Problem is, I got it from the UK and I don't know if it's available in many places. The one that's sold in the states (comes in a purple bottle) is no good, and it's coconut scented. Bleh!

4- Since we're still talking appearances, my top favorite clothing lines are Marc by Marc Jacobs and Alexander Mcqueen. The first is quirky and playful, the other super edgy. Both very far from normality.

MARC

These are two of items I have by Mcqueen

5- Organic almond butter, berry jam, and fresh, sliced strawberries in toasted whole wheat bread --best sandwich ever! And if it's for breakfast, then I'll also have a mix of fresh blueberries and raspberries in a bowl of vanilla yogurt --best breakfast ever!

6- No fav list by Seuss would be complete without a book recommendation. The book I am favoriting is not the most brilliantly written nor intellectually stimulating book I've ever read. It's a short, simple book that had a deep impact on me, and it's called The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. When I started reading it last month, I was waiting in the car for my mother while she was at a doctor's oppointment, and I had a mixed CD playing. Sitting like that made me realize how much I felt I related to the protagonist, even though I'm certainly no genius. It was a very emotional book and it hit me where it hurt.

7- And I'll end this with a song. I don't think I believe in favorite songs, since I like different songs in different ways, but I've always believed that The Strokes' Heart in a Cage (album version here and live version here) is one of the best songs ever written, musically speaking. This is my idea of an excellent song, in which every element stands out and hits hard. The guitar riff at the beginning and middle, the way the sharp drumming is used as transition to each part, and then the heart-melting vocals make it superb. Julian Casablancas writes all their music. Everything from guitar solos, bass lines, drums and lyrics, which is why he is one musical genius. He says it best when he sings, "I've got music coming out of my hands and feet and kisses." I saw him on his solo tour a couple of weeks ago with Mochness and he was great live. Although, I didn't think his album was as great as any of the music he writes with The Strokes.

Album Review

Humbug by Arctic Monkeys:

I bought Arctic Monkey's third album a couple of months ago and it's been a current favorite ever since. If you're already a fan of the band, then you'll find that it's different. This album veers from the double-speed aggression of their previous two towards heavier and, generally, slower tempo songs. An eerie sound permeates the album, as the music takes on a darker tint, making it -I'll admit- less funky and upbeat. Though their new material lacks the propulsion I've been used to hearing from these chavs, it trades it in with a mature and sophisticated sound, reflected in Alex's low husky croons and in the turn toward experimentation, with the use of instruments like the haunted-house organ. The bitter witticism that majorly characterizes this English gutter-rock band has mounted into a "twisted and deranged" outlook that I, perhaps sadistically, appreciate. I think one of the band's major strengths lies in Alex's observational story-telling and cryptic style of wordplay. In the previous albums, his detail-rich tales are generally situated in the scum-ridden streets of England and it's working-class bars, depicting a uniquely British experience. This Dickensian realism is consistent in Humbug, but is imbued with a phantasm reminiscent of Edgar Allen Poe's nightmarish sketches. Here's a song that directly comes to mind:

(Jeweler's Hands)

Fiendish wonder in the carnival's wake

Dull caresses once again irritate

Tread softly stranger

Move toward the danger that you seek

In the moonlight they're more thrilling those things that he knows

As he leads you through the grinning bubble blowers in the snow

Watching his exit was like falling off the ferry in the night

Another one of my favorites is this sweet love ballad:

(Cornerstone)

I thought I saw you in The Battleship but it was only a lookalike

She was nothing but a vision trick under the warning light

She was close, close enough to be your ghost

But my chances turned to toast when I asked her if I could call her your name

I thought I saw you in The Parrot's Beak messing with the smoke alarm

It was too loud for me to hear her speak and she had a broken arm

It was close, so close that the walls were wet

And she wrote it out in Letraset

"No, you can't call me her name"

Tell me where's your hiding place

I'm worried I'll forget your face

I've asked everyone

I'm beginning to think I imagined you all along

I saw your sister in The Cornerstone on the phone to the middle man

When I saw that she was on her own I thought she might understand

She was close, well you couldn't get much closer

She said "I'm really not supposed to but yes, you can call me anything you want"

Alex Turner at the show I attended a couple of weeks ago (got the pic from a website)

Book I'm reading: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Song I'm listening to: Cornerstone by Arctic Monkeys

Ulysses- my thoughts

Finally done reading Ulysses for class. This has been a slow process as I thought I would stick with the weekly readings instead of finishing it all at once. Loved the book, except I wouldn't recommend it to just anyone. It's a tough book to read and requires some level of familiarity and expertise. Joyce's dealing with narratives styles and character complexity is at its best. Each of the 18 chapters takes up a different writing style, eg. one is done in play form, one in questions and answers, one in tired cliches, and one in parodies of the different literary styles throughout the centuries. It's pretty fascinating the way he does it and how it reflects the subjects of the chapters and events.

Read the book if you're in for some twisted humor, witty and philosophical insights, and an extremely dull plot.

Before each class, we are required to pick any favorite quote from the book and comment on it, and so I've chosen to copy one of my entries here in hopes that will give you an idea on what to expect, and, hopefully, a push into reading it.

"Wait. Five months. Molecules all change. I am other I now. Other I got Pound.

Buzz. Buzz

But I, entelechy, form of forms, am I by memory because under everchanging forms."

(Stephen, 189)

In the middle of his intellectual debate, Stephen remembers the money he owes A.E. and attempts to justify why he still hasn't paid off his debt by arguing in an interior thought that he is no longer the person he was when he took the money, and that in five months he won't be the same person he is now. Though it may seem like a cheesy way of escaping his guilt, Stephen makes an interesting point about his existence, or rather his "actuality." Stephen's first sentence presents a view of time as linear, in which his existence is bounded by the limitations of time. Stephen immediately presents an apposing idea based on Aristotle's "entelechy" concept that existence or "actuality" is perpetuated by a "form-giving cause." The idea of the continuity of the self that transcends the boundaries of time, for some reason, brings to mind the concept of the Unity of Being as formed by W.B Yeats-- one of Stephen's (and Joyce's) influences. In his poetry, Yeats aspires to reach an organic and unified existence through art. In"Among School Children" Yeats writes:

"Or else, to alter Plato's parable,

Into the yolk and white of the one shell."

Interestingly, Yeats, as Stephen, apposes Plato and argues that his past, present, and future are as unified as the yoke, the white and the shell that formulate the existence of the egg.

--Sara A.