Reflection

Well, since I seem to be the only student in this class who doesn't seem to be majoring in any type of English, I will confess that I randomly took this class because I am waiting to get into the Nursing program and have already taken everything I needed to.  I also have always enjoyed English and writing my own fictional stories.  Overall, this class was not at all what I expected.  I'm used to the more traditional text book version of interpreting literature.  I guess I was pleasantly surprised.  It definitely helped me to grow because I have never looked at literature in this light.  

I found that the text I responded best to, and did my best response paper on, was the hardest one.....Shakespeare.  I don't know why I like his plays because I don't understand them most of the time.  For some reason it just provokes a lot of thought from me.  There weren't really any works that I absolutely hated that we read.  If I had to pick I would say I struggled the most with the poetry.  I've never really been a big fan and certainly can't write my own.

As far as graphic novels, I honestly didn't know they existed until now.  I knew of comic books but I didn't know there were novels that were all in pictures.  While I do enjoy them and they are a very quick read, I still have to say I prefer to read regular novels because I like to use my imagination as far as what the characters and settings look like.

I have never blogged in a class before and it was definitely something I enjoyed.  I like that I can just write what's on my mind.  If I had to pick one thing I didn't enjoy, besides being here at 8:00am....was speaking in class because I don't like to.  I try and I have gotten better but I would rather not. :-)

Like I said earlier, I feel as if I did do a lot of growing in this course.  I would say I feel better prepared to think critically about literature because now I am familiar with doing it the textbook way and the way I experienced here.  I can't really say I was hoping for anything in particular when I came out of this class so I guess I can't say I was hoping for more. :-)

Dream Country and A Midsummer Night's Dream

After reading the excerpt from Dream Country, I formed a few different opinions about A Midsummer Night's Dream.  First of all, I used to like Puck.  After seeing this image of him I think he looks scary and that is not what I pictured at all.  Secondly, there was a particular quote made by Titania that read, "We thank you shaper.  But this diversion, although pleasant, is not true.  Things never happened thus."  It seems as if Gaiman is almost challenging Shakespeare and saying to readers that these mythical creatures do exist but they have a different story.  I kind of wish he would have gone into more detail about really happened.  So, in a way, Gaiman's interpretation destroyed the classic.  It forced readers to look another direction and wonder what his version of the story was.