Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Blog Post #9: Creative Project Explanation
Text: The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
Essence: No matter how we see the past on the outside, whether it be clear, with attitudes and emotions that differ over time, or with some events completely forgotten, the past itself is constant and does not change.
Summary of text: The novel follows Anthony Webster and his life. The novel is split into two sections. Part One deals with his reflections of his early years, and Part Two is his rediscovery of his past as parts of it reconnect with him.
Prompt: 1977. A character’s attempt to recapture the past is important in many plays, novels, and poems. Choose a literary work in which a character views the past with such feelings as reverence, bitterness, or longing. Show with clear evidence from the work how the character’s view of the past is used to develop a theme in the work. You may base your essay on a work by one of the following authors, or you may choose a work of another author of comparable literary excellence.
Thesis: In Julian Barnes’s The Sense of an Ending, Tony Webster’s rediscovery of his past acts as an important reminder that no matter much we wish to change it, in due time our past becomes an unchangeable part of who we are.
Explanation: From the very beginning of Julian Barnes’s The Sense of an Ending, Tony Webster, the narrator, recalls the events of his past. The opening line is “I remember, in no particular order: - a shiny, inner wrist; steam rising from a wet sink as a hot frying pan is laughingly tossed into it; a river running nonsensically upstream, its wave and awe lit by a half a dozen chasing torchbeams…” (Barnes, 3), which is Webster first introducing us to a few moments in his past that will become much more meaningful later on in the novel. He then goes on to explaining his feelings towards time, which are that “there is an eventual point when [time] really does go missing, never to return” (Barnes, 4). Webster’s first explanation of his concept of time and its effects on memories and the past are what inspired me to make my project into what it is.
Throughout the novel, the philosophy and beliefs of Adrian Finn, a friend of Webster’s, are mentioned, most specifically a quote by Patrick Lagrange explaining that “history is that certainty produced at the moment where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation” (Barnes, 18). Later on, Webster stresses that “this [the recalling of his past] is my reading now of what happened then. Or rather, my memory now of my reading then of what was happening at the time” (Barnes, 45). This foreshadows the self analysis and questioning of the memories of his past in Part Two.
The entire novel is a recollection and analysis of Webster’s life. While he tells it chronologically, it is him telling the reader his memories of the past. Part One brings us up to speed on the beginning of his life as a young adult and continues up until Part Two, which is him describing events closer to the present moment. This is worth mentioning because the events that Webster recalls in Part Two are the same as that in Part One. This ties into his sense of the meaning of “time” because as he describes it, there is a sense of individual, personal time, which is “the true time, measured in your relationship to memory” (Barnes, 133). His idea of true time and its relationship to memories is also supported by his theory on emotions related to past events. Webster states that “our attitudes and opinions change, we develop new habits and eccentricities, but these are something different, more like decoration” (Barnes, 113). As time goes by, Webster has realized that while attitudes and emotions change, and even though those attitudes and emotions can change our views on our past, our past itself does not change.
I decided to make a physical representation of Tony and also the general idea of the past. Tony and the past are represented by a Rolling Stones record that has various aspects to it. The outside is an actual album cover from an old Rolling Stones vinyl. This represents the outside of Tony, items that are simply interests to him, but are still part of his history and past. He mentions the Stones three times in the novel, two of which involve their song “Time Is On My Side,” and the other describing his record collection. The physical record is protected by two layers: one being tissue paper and the other being a collage of images that are associated with Tony’s past.
The tissue paper represents the parts of his past that have been shrouded off in some way, events that have been obscured from the way they originally occurred whether it’s because of his emotions or attitudes towards them. The second cover, the collage of images, represents certain parts of his past that either played a huge part in the novel, were underlying themes throughout, or were mentioned in the very end of the novel: events that appeared and disappeared from Tony’s memory. The final portion of the product is the vinyl record. This represents the past itself. No matter what protective covering is placed over the past, no matter what shrouds of emotion of attitude obscure it from us, the past is the past. It will not change. This “record” of events is constant. For an added bonus, the vinyl itself contains the song “Time Is On My Side,” which is the song mentioned by Tony. However, I believe it also has a deeper meaning, because in the end, Tony realizes that time is in fact on his side, as it helps him remember and come to terms with the events of his past. He realizes that no matter what happens to his thought process, the song remains the same. The events of his life are set in stone.
Essence: No matter how we see the past on the outside, whether it be clear, with attitudes and emotions that differ over time, or with some events completely forgotten, the past itself is constant and does not change.
Summary of text: The novel follows Anthony Webster and his life. The novel is split into two sections. Part One deals with his reflections of his early years, and Part Two is his rediscovery of his past as parts of it reconnect with him.
Prompt: 1977. A character’s attempt to recapture the past is important in many plays, novels, and poems. Choose a literary work in which a character views the past with such feelings as reverence, bitterness, or longing. Show with clear evidence from the work how the character’s view of the past is used to develop a theme in the work. You may base your essay on a work by one of the following authors, or you may choose a work of another author of comparable literary excellence.
Thesis: In Julian Barnes’s The Sense of an Ending, Tony Webster’s rediscovery of his past acts as an important reminder that no matter much we wish to change it, in due time our past becomes an unchangeable part of who we are.
Explanation: From the very beginning of Julian Barnes’s The Sense of an Ending, Tony Webster, the narrator, recalls the events of his past. The opening line is “I remember, in no particular order: - a shiny, inner wrist; steam rising from a wet sink as a hot frying pan is laughingly tossed into it; a river running nonsensically upstream, its wave and awe lit by a half a dozen chasing torchbeams…” (Barnes, 3), which is Webster first introducing us to a few moments in his past that will become much more meaningful later on in the novel. He then goes on to explaining his feelings towards time, which are that “there is an eventual point when [time] really does go missing, never to return” (Barnes, 4). Webster’s first explanation of his concept of time and its effects on memories and the past are what inspired me to make my project into what it is.
Throughout the novel, the philosophy and beliefs of Adrian Finn, a friend of Webster’s, are mentioned, most specifically a quote by Patrick Lagrange explaining that “history is that certainty produced at the moment where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation” (Barnes, 18). Later on, Webster stresses that “this [the recalling of his past] is my reading now of what happened then. Or rather, my memory now of my reading then of what was happening at the time” (Barnes, 45). This foreshadows the self analysis and questioning of the memories of his past in Part Two.
The entire novel is a recollection and analysis of Webster’s life. While he tells it chronologically, it is him telling the reader his memories of the past. Part One brings us up to speed on the beginning of his life as a young adult and continues up until Part Two, which is him describing events closer to the present moment. This is worth mentioning because the events that Webster recalls in Part Two are the same as that in Part One. This ties into his sense of the meaning of “time” because as he describes it, there is a sense of individual, personal time, which is “the true time, measured in your relationship to memory” (Barnes, 133). His idea of true time and its relationship to memories is also supported by his theory on emotions related to past events. Webster states that “our attitudes and opinions change, we develop new habits and eccentricities, but these are something different, more like decoration” (Barnes, 113). As time goes by, Webster has realized that while attitudes and emotions change, and even though those attitudes and emotions can change our views on our past, our past itself does not change.
I decided to make a physical representation of Tony and also the general idea of the past. Tony and the past are represented by a Rolling Stones record that has various aspects to it. The outside is an actual album cover from an old Rolling Stones vinyl. This represents the outside of Tony, items that are simply interests to him, but are still part of his history and past. He mentions the Stones three times in the novel, two of which involve their song “Time Is On My Side,” and the other describing his record collection. The physical record is protected by two layers: one being tissue paper and the other being a collage of images that are associated with Tony’s past.
The tissue paper represents the parts of his past that have been shrouded off in some way, events that have been obscured from the way they originally occurred whether it’s because of his emotions or attitudes towards them. The second cover, the collage of images, represents certain parts of his past that either played a huge part in the novel, were underlying themes throughout, or were mentioned in the very end of the novel: events that appeared and disappeared from Tony’s memory. The final portion of the product is the vinyl record. This represents the past itself. No matter what protective covering is placed over the past, no matter what shrouds of emotion of attitude obscure it from us, the past is the past. It will not change. This “record” of events is constant. For an added bonus, the vinyl itself contains the song “Time Is On My Side,” which is the song mentioned by Tony. However, I believe it also has a deeper meaning, because in the end, Tony realizes that time is in fact on his side, as it helps him remember and come to terms with the events of his past. He realizes that no matter what happens to his thought process, the song remains the same. The events of his life are set in stone.
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