Fun Home

H part 1+2+3

This book was really interesting to read. At first I thought it would be a very simple read since its made up of all letters, then I started to read. So many questions come up during reading, that I had to answer for myself soon creating an interesting job for a reader like me. I liked how each letter head gave an indication of the personality of the one who was writing the letter. For example how the camps was very kid friendly. It was interesting how the letters were divided into the the three parts. I felt the most important part was the second since you see how Benjamin interacts with Elliot. To me what stood out was how Elliot is a female, and not a male. He resonated more with a female personality more then male. The father figure gave me the creeps from the start. Jeffrey Sherman seems like such a horrible father. From always comparing Benjamin to his peers and almost belittling him could not have made for a healthy atmosphere at home. Hannah, his little sister, and Benjamin in their letters consistently mention the phrase "Don't cry over split milk" that their dad has taught them. It seems like this has a significant meaning that the reader needs to figure out. Peggy Sherman seems so overbearing and smothering almost. I feel as though Benjamin got caught up in all of his parents shortcomings. I love the job that Dr. Dysan did because he was able to handle Benjamin and withdraw him from Elliotville back into reality. Part Three was intense because no one knows the reasons why Benjamin landed in the mental hospital or when it happened. That was a frustrating aspect but as a reader made me think. I just want to give Benjamin a hug.

help with paper

Im having trouble understanding the difference bettween Disinter/est and Screen memories.Any suggestions?? Also i kinda feel that i dont have much to go on if i use Disinter/est for my paper...it leads me to talk about the questions given in the assignment...I feel like I can start on talking about the novel being a collective memory...and also making the parallel to archaelogy and the narrative as you you help us understand in the blog. but once i name a few examples of the bigger picture which is the problematicc???(right??) what happens next??? I feel like i wont go more than two pages. Then i thought maybe once i discuss certain parts of the problematic i can relate them with the Fort/Da theory...how benjamins deals with certain absenses...but i dont know..it seems a bit empty...im saying these things because??? I feel like i have no real point.Hoping you can help.....

Fun Home

Fun home for me was very enjoyable. I really enjoyed the fact that it was a graphic novel, being that i read a lot of comics when i was younger. What was actually kind of annoying was the reactions i got reading this novel. I don't know why..but people always seems to think graphic novels are immature. I usually follow there smirk reactions by asking them if they've heard about Freud's Screen memories..and how it plays a huge role in this novel...the answers are usually a no. Not that I have perfect understanding of Screen Memories....but that usually shuts them up,haha. But about the novel,one thing that I really connected to, is when Alison was taking like a pre-english trial i guess and she wondered whether the authors meant to connect their readings to certain philoshophers.I've always wondered about that but never asked. For instance we are reading all these novels and making connections to Freud but do you think these authors have actually researched these ideas and intertwined them with their work on purpose?? Another sad but true story that I related to,and we discussed in class is when the Dad tells Alison tough titties.My mom has said that to me way to many times as a child...I'm pretty sure i was about her age too...i thought it was pretty funny because I never thought other people said it. I was also pretty shock about the Dad having these affairs with young boys.. being that it was such a small town I'm surprised he didn't have worse allegations besides the whole buying a beer for a minor. What was interesting about that scene though, was that the older brother called the cops but the younger brother ended up apologizing to the father. I also wondered about the relationship between the dad and brothers..whether they shared the same sentiment or didn't get along...not too much about them but they look a bit more content then the mother,she seemed pretty miserable throughout the novel...which is understandable. But overall it was a good book, very funny....although i didn't necessarily catch on to any graphic meanings that added to the story as we begun to look at in class.

Fun Home

The fact that this story was a graphic one helped a lot when it came to reading and making sense of it. Since the novel tells the story of Bechdel’s childhood memories, and skips around a lot, the pictures help me to piece it all together. It’s interesting that we are able to see what she saw instead of just reading her retelling her story.
After our class discussion on Wednesday I looked more into the pictures in the novel, as well as their placement. I like the juxtaposition of certain photo. The pictures on the bottoms of pages 16 and 17, that we're pointed out in class show a lot about the Bechdel family. It goes well with the idea that the father treated his family like furniture. He wanted everything to be perfect. His attention was clearly always on the house and its components and never fully on his children or wife.
I reread the story of Deadalus and Icarus since Bechdel chose to use this Greek myth in regards to herself and her father. After reading both stories, I can see some and why Bechdel would use this comparison. Her father is Deadalus because they are both shut out from society, her father because of his hidden sexuality. But he was also so into his project of the wings, like her father an the house, that, as Bechdel questions on page 12, it is unclear as to if Deadalus really mourns Icarus or the wings.
Even though the story brings a main focus onto Bechdel's father, this helps to shed a lot of light on herself in my opinion. By looking at her fathers life, we are able to see the similar and dissimilar qualities that Bechdel and her father possess. Obviously they both struggle with their sexuality, but in different ways. Whereas Alison is open about it, her father is very secretive. They both turn to the idea of books, but her father buries himself in them while Alison goes out and finds people she can relate to as well.

Just some thoughts so far.

H

I found H was much easier to read than our previous works and I enjoyed reading it. Aside from The Sandman I had never read a work that was written through a series of letters. I liked how it started out by introducing Benjamin to us through the eyes of people who interact with him. Benjamin is clearly a troubled child and it seems as if the way he is treated by his parents troubles him even further. After reading Benjamin's letters to Elliot in the second part, and the letters Elliot writes to him, it becomes clear that there's a misunderstanding between him and his parents. They want him to to participate in the things he doesn't enjoy, and they list drama as a shunned activity. As it turns out drama is one of the things Benjamin likes. Mrs. Sherman seems like she is worried about him, sure, but she has no clue what to do about it. Where is Mr. Sherman through all of this? I'm convinced even when they call Benjamin, he doesn't speak to his father. In part 3, in a letter to his Mom, Benjamin can be quoted "Dr. Dysan said if you come with daddy next time we can make pizza bagels." It's clear that his Dad rarely visits. It seems a lot of Benjamin's problems may be due to neglect.

The alternative reality that Benjamin has created could have been something that he eventually grew out of. 12 might be a little old to be living in another spacetime, as Benjamin would say, but it might be harmful that he was forced out of it. His final few letters from Elliot are upsetting, and it's possible he is writing them like that on purpose in order to give himself a reason to faze out the Elliots. Benjamin seems a little desperate to get out of the Michaels Center and he starts complying with Dr. Dysan's tasks, such as writing letters to humans. It could be that he thinks the fazing out will be the only way to get himself out of there. The final page isn't 100% clear that the alternate reality is fully fazed out, but it could very well be Benjamin's final interaction with Elliot and Elliottown.

Fun Home

I found it pretty interesting how Bechdel was able to relate her parents lives and their relationship with different literary works that they were interested in and involved with throughout different stages of their lives. The parallel between literature and the reader's life is often very uncanny.

Also, Bechdel and her father parallel each other in numerous ways.  On the one hand, they are very much alike (interests in literature, homosexuality, crappy childhood). On the other hand, they are very much not alike. They are complementary to one another. Alison and her father portray the characteristics the other one should be but isnt (according to society)

Fun Home

So, I started reading Fun Home and got about 20 pages into it realizing how much more of a challenge it is to read a comic like book rather than something similar to "H".

I found it interesting that for some reason when I read the first page I assumed the narrator was a male, but then realized it was in fact a woman. It mostly describes her fathers obsession with restoring their home to it's natural glory. I could tell that there was some tension between the two characters. The father was very demanding and didn't seem to show any sort of affection or even any sign of him being a parent to his child.

The narrator is constantly bringing up how the father has this ability to create something beautiful out of nothing, which ties into him obsessing over the issues in his house. I think the father has some frustrations and therefor it causes him to come off angry and abusive in a way.

Also, at first I didn't see the pattern of why the narrator kept mentioning greek myths, but when I looked into it, I started to understand the book is structured on this type of literature.

H

"she wrote the name lemon on her door, and Daddy and i punished her for writing on the walls. Now her room is lemon everything-stickers and erasers and posters and bubble gum! I don't know why she chose this name" (pg43). "Home sucks, daddy broke, my hair-do jesse doll and i hate him" (pg104). I think these lines clearly indicate that Benjamin's sister also has similar but less sever porblem. "Hanna really likes him(Dr. Dysan) now because he said it was fine for her to play with her hair do jessie doll." it means they were trying to get medical help from Dr. Dysan for Hanna. Both kids are living in same environment with same parents and have similar problems. Moreover, there is more than enough evidence in the novel which indicate that their parents have very high expectations from their kids but they don't seem to be very caring. The parents pay no attention to the interest of their kids. I think it is a natural tendency of a child to look outside whatever he or she need if they are not able to get it from the people they are close to. it is true in case of Benjamin and his sister. Benjamin's problem could be handled in much better way. he was improving while he was with Eliot in the camp. There were other things which were occupying his time and he was getting interested in lot of other activities. I believe the better way would be to replace his obsesion with some other more intersting things like the ones he did at the camp.

Hey Prof,

Random question about next semester. what class did you say you were teaching?

Question on FunHome!

Just wondering Fun Home is a book of pictures right? Looks kind of like a comic book?
I ordered it online so I just want to make sure I am getting the right thing !

Dial H for Elliot

It is clear that Benjamin has created an alternate reality for himself, however what is left more vague is the seperate realities that each member of the Sherman family has constructed for themselves as well; he is not the only one who lives in his own fantasy world. Benjamin's uncanny object is of course his stuffed letter H, onto which he projects the figments of his imagination. Each member has some sort of object onto which they can project a part of themselves. Hannah's object is John Lennon. She is obseesed with John Lennon and even names herself after (somewhat incorrectly). Mr. Sherman has several objects which are left vague (as uncanny objects are meant to be) but extractable from the context. Theseare respectivelly work, we can see from the heading on his letter that he is a partner at an accounting firm where he undoubtedly spends a great deal of time at; Benjamin, whom Mr. Sherman views as a child who keeps to himself and does not want to be bothered with or even spoken to; and at times even Peter1, who it is revealed that Mr. Sherman "liked so much." Mrs. Sherman also views very much in terms of his undeterminate illness. She thinks he is not intelligent and treats him in a very babyish way, instead of understanding him for the very complex and certaintly not unintelligent child that he is. Furthermore it is clear from the gender ambiguity with which the children have assigned their objects (i.e. Benjaman's object Elliot, which is also a prodominantly male name, and all elliots are female yet Benjamin at times says he himself is an elliot; Hannah takes the identity of John Lennon, male, and superimposes it over herself) that they have some real issues with their parental units. This is proved further on page 81 where we can see Benjamin showing the Oedipal complex.
"When you do mean things you can't tell Dave or Chris or the directors because you deserve to be gotten back... And if you lie and Dave catches you he will get really mad and it is scarey to see Dave really mad...they might go through your stuff and take my letters away and hide them." It is obvious from the way Benjamin treats Dave, and even the drama lady, that he views them as substitute parents. Here he projects his fear of the father figure comming and specifically taking away his letters to Elliot. The letters symbbolize his genitals for they are the way he remains connected with Elliot, his uncanny object and the source of his identity.

The Human Centipede

I thought I'd put this here so you all would see it.

I guess I'm most interested in the testimonials which claim that such "fun" paraphernalia has increased lodge attendance.

Perhaps our college is missing something by not having a few secret societies with such lighthearted hi-jinks!

The Uncanny

i'll admit that it took me a while to understand what was considered to be Uncanny, even after reading the book with Freud's interpretations and examples. Everytime I thought I got it, I was off track, but after many class discussions, reading more into it and following his interpretations of the Sandman I started to get the hang of it. The more I understood the Uncanny, the more I saw it around me. For example in the media there are many forms of the Uncanny, especially in the movies. I previously discussed how I found the Uncanny in the "Paranormal Activity" series where the director and writer for the movie used his own fears of ghosts and the paranormal in order to create one of the greatest and scariest thrillers of all time! Using security style camera angles, he turned what seemed to be a familiar everyday house into a strange "unhomely" death trap. I also found a feeling of uncanny in the news, UFO sightings that are becoming more common in today's world. Many videos and pictures of strange lights or blurs in the sky give me a sort of Uncanny feeling. ( I think, if what i'm saying is correct) This is because to me, aliens and the extraterrestrial, have always been unreal, mostly because of hollywood movies and shows that depict aliens as either friendly or hostile creatures trying to take over or destroy our world. Now, in the real world i live in that is all to familiar to me, there is a possibility that the aliens i've always thought to be fiction, may actually exist! When I first read the article, i wasn't exactly happy or scared, but I did feel sort of uncomfortable. What if they do exist, what if they come to earth, what do they know, what do they want etc. Many questions come into play, and I know i'm getting a little off topic but i had to post this because I wanted to know if what i'm feeling toward the topic is in fact, Uncanny.

Anyway more toward the book, Jenstch mentions in The Uncanny that "One of the surest devices for producing slightly uncanny effects through story-telling, is to leave the reader wondering whether a particular figure is a real person or an automaton and to do so in such a way that his attention is not focused on the uncertainty..." I think this quote explains best, what the uncanny is and what's funny is that  I think I just discovered that the uncanny isn't just a tool that authors use to catch the reader's attention, but its also found in the real world that I live in. That makes me feel uncanny just thinking about it.

The Sandman

Well when i first picked up this book, lets just say I was not ready for what was going to happen. I wasn't sure how the setting of how the story was going to take place. What I mean by that was which form of reality was the author going to use, was the story going to be more realistic in the sense that what is possible in life is possible in that story or was it going to be more of a fairytale where the sandman himself was a real person who came to childrens homes to make sure they fall asleep and not some made up fictional character used to scare children. It was kind of funny to me because there was a character's perspective for each possibilty, Nathaniel's mother at first gave the Sandman a real but not harmful sense in that she would just say, "go to bed, the Sandman is coming" then soon after, he would hear heavy footsteps coming into his father's room. The other more threatening perspective was that of the house maid who told young nathaniel that if he didnt go to bed, the sandman would rip his eyes out. But as the story progressed we found that Nathaniel's Sandman was actually a mean lawyer named Copelius who threatened to put hot pieces of coal in his son's eyes once he caught nathaniel eavesdropping.

 The video that was posted on the blog was about a real Sandman who snuck into a little boys room and gauged his eyes once the boy saw him, then fed the eyes to his children. This video was surprisingly horrific and perhaps gave me my first real sense of uncanny, when i first saw it i did not expect anything to happen to the little boy. He was so young and innocent,  his mother sending him to bed seemed all to familiar, the boy being hesitant to go, while the mother reassures him everything is okay and he has nothing to fear. What shocked me was that the boy ended up losing his eyes to the Sandman! That was strange to me in that it wasn't the typical fairytale ending that everything was going to be okay, even though that was my initial feeling toward the video.

First Of Many

Hey,  this is going to be the first of my posts, I have been writing them down in my notebook because I was sort of nervous to put out my stuff online but here goes nothing!

"H"

I enjoyed reading this novel, I kind of do enjoy reading a set of letters and seeing the characteristics of characters through their writing.
I believe that Elliot and Elliotville is definately a creative way of Benjamin to express himself, and he is definately misunderstood but at the same time I do think he is losing a sense of reality because he is a 12 year old boy who is depending his life on a fiction world. A lot of the elders in this novel such as the doctor and Bejamin's parents look at Benjamin as he is sick and needs help, which is really just inabling him because Elliot can definately be helpful and a tool because it seems this doll is really the only way he does express himself, as in the begining part Benjamin is constantly described as quite and that he likes to be to himself. I believe that a lot of these pyschological issues brought up in class or seen in the novel have a lot to do with his lifestyle at home and his relationship with the parents and I think this can have a really big impact on some of the issues we are discussing, so I do wish this novel had some more information and we could maybe be able to see the real issues. None the less Benjamin is not the wierdest boy just as said in class, there are many other weird children at camp. He does have some knowledge about what is going on about him and does participate in camp and ends up liking it. It is funny how everything his parents forced upon him he really does not like to do, such as swimming.
I believe that the fact that Elliot is a girl is also interesting because like I mentioned in class, and like Freud says that usually children are known to be closer with the parent of the same gender and internalize their behaviors. Clearly the father does not really participate in Benjamin's life and far as I can tell he doesn't really have the son he wants. And I believe that this can cause a lot of the reasons for why Benjamin can not express himself and has relied on Elliot to talk to which is a female.
I definately enjoy getting the different perspectives of everyone rather than just one narrative.

H

I liked this book, It gave a very good example of how life can be with a child who has psychological problems. I found myself getting very attached to Benjamin, not feeling bad for him but it just seem in this book he wasn't really understood. I just think alot of his efforts were channeled inappropriately. For such an elaborate world, I mean it goes to show he has some grasp of the world that he is living in. It was also interesting to to see the interactions between him and Elliot, whatever happens to him happens to the little Elliots. I also thought that Elliott was kind of his alter ego. Elliot was him being someone different else rather than the person he is now. Kind of like we discussed in class but being his super ego. I was happy to see Benjamin get better but i think his parents needs to be a bit more involved in his treatment to understand how to relate to him.

House of Bly

I loved this version of The Turn of the Screw. I did because it was like the answer key to the story. Alot of the questions i had were answered in this story. I loved the twist and how well it fit. i could definitely see the Master being kind of homophobic for some odd reason and i did get the feeling Miles was gay in the Turn of Screw when he told the Governess that he said some things. I was shocked that Jessel, aborted her baby in the lake, and that was the reason she killed herself. I thought it was funny that it was alleged that Quint might have had his way with Ms. Grose and how he also ended having his way with the Governess too. It was good to see the other side of the story though, it made me think that the Governess wasn't so crazy, actually very fearless and strong. I like her character in this light...although the infatuation with the kids on both parts is still a little weird.

The Turn of the Screw

What a psycho!..That was my thought when I finished reading this novella. I hope im using it correctly but I got this very uncanny feeling when i realized the Governess suffocated Miles to death, i kinda quivered a little. I also thought the Governess relationship with Miles was a bit odd. I thought she was way too taken with him, always embracing him and harrassing him all the time about the ghost that she was alledgely seeing. i think in the beginning I believed that she saw the ghosts but after taking Ms. Grose on that joy ride around the lake looking for Flora and Flora's reactions. I had to rethink my opinions about her...my opinions which consisted mostly of thinking she was a bit of a lunatic. I did get a weird vibe from Quints and Jessel relationship with the kids, i thought there could have been an inapporiate relationship there..but it was moreso with Quint and Miles than Flora and Miss Jessel. I also felt bad for Ms. Grose because she was like the governess's unwilling sidekick half of the times. But then i thought living in that big house so secluded anything is probably entertaining for them.

Hello!

Hi! This is just an introduction for a few past blog that ive kept in my notebook, being that I havent had to much access to a computer since my motherboard failed on me.

Genevieve

H

I loved H, I think it's my favorite book we've read so far. I like Benjamin's character a lot. He is clearly extremely misunderstood by all of his authority figures, I don't even think that his issues are so severe. For a 12 year old boy, I think he is rather normal.. minus his extreme fantasy life and relationship with the Elliots. I read the book The Perks of Being a Wallflower a while back and Benjamin's fantasy life kind of reminds me of it. At one point in the story I read a teacher tells the main character that he watches life instead of participating in it. I think Benjamin's fantasy world allows for him to not participate in life, and similar to Benjamin it has a lot to do with a warped family life.

I find it hard to relate Freud's theories to this story though. I understand the Fort Da game and it's relation, but are there connections from previous readings of Freud that can really relate to this story?