Notebook of Quintessense

The quintessential notebook inspires one to flood its pages with thoughts and ideas about any subject you would like. Binded by a precise wire coil, the quintessential notebook has many clean sheets for taking. Thin blue lines guide the letters or drawings in a perfectly proportioned manner, with a red margin to keep it nice and fresh. Coming with a three hole punch and perforation, the pages are ready for storing or tearing depending on your time schedule. The cover of the notebook is a solid color as it has to protect your precious text from harm of the outside world. Be careful, as the sturdy cover protects from smudges, wrinkles and scratches, it holds no candle to the attack of liquids that will blend the colors and writing into an educational smoothie. Make sure you are prepared for thought, perhaps with the quintessential pen or pencil, but be aware that Sharpie lurks close by, a top predator of those thin, translucent pages.

Orleanna prICE (cold)

Psychological Critic: In this post, I will try to reason with Orleanna as she leaves her children in the Congo. What was her motivation?

When I read that Orleanna had left two of her kids in the Congo, I decided that both the Price parents are oficially insane. The Dad is one story as he shuns his family and runs around in the Jungle. Orleanna, the other. I really thought that she had some sense in her mind, even though I knew that she was a little shorted out/crazed from EVERYTHING that happened in the Congo since the day they were there. When she left with the kids, I thought finally, the end of the hell thats been going on with them in Africa...wrong. She leaves most of her kids their and flys away with Adah. W0W. This surprised me. They really fell apart into nothing. Why did Orleanna leave them? Did she think that she would get them back? Or me up later? She leaves Leah pretty much dead in the land of Malaria. She lets Rachel jet off to South Africa? Keep an eye on your kids before they escape to other countries why don't you. The only thing I can think of is that she actually thought they would meet back in the states when everything was better? I think that's crazy. She obviously knows that she is running the risk of tyhem being killed. A BIG risk. How could you think they would really get back safe and sound? Leah heres helicopters and gunshots at night. That isn't quite the Bethelehem, Georgia setting now is it? Orleanna is totally messed from what has happened to her in the past few years.

Delicious Words

In this Lit Circle post, I will be playing a little bit of each of these roles, Narratologist, Musician, New Critic, maybe one more than the other (musician mostly).
The first few paragraphs that start off Bel and the Serpent was some of the best writing I have ever seen. I felt like I was in the room witnessing the tension and mood in the damp air with both the American and the Belgian. Kingsolver painted a work of art, not just a picture. Making a movie out of these lines would be simple. Here is the passage:

"While they talk of labor and foreign currency their hunger moves apart from the gentlemanly conversation with a will of its own, licking at the edges of the map on the table, dividing it between them. They take turns leaning forward to point out their moves with shrews congeniality, playing it like a chess match, the kind of game that allows civilized men to play at make-believe murder. Between moves they tip their heads back, swirl blood-colored brandy in glass globes and wacth it crawl down the curved glass in liquid veins. Languidly they bring their map to order. Who will be the kings, the rooks, the bishops rising up to strike at a distance? Which sacrificial pawns will be swept aside? African names roll apart like the heads of dried flowers crushed idly between thumb and forefinger-Ngoma, Mukenge, Mulele, Kasavubu, Lumumba. They crumble to dust on the carpet."

The language in bold is pleasing to the ear since it is almost instantanious that you read the text and get the most detailed scene imprinted into your mind. It was such a smooth and detailed transition from eyes to mind, that it complemented the scene at hand. You could focus in and feel the tension in the heavy air, taste the wine they drank (then again I don't know what alcohol is), and worry for those Africans that they would crush to dust. It was such a tense scene because of the stakes at hand. I got the impression of two world leaders that played chess carelessly with their own puppets and countrymen. Kingsolvers words I didn't have to think about, it just happened. This is a key for many things. Sports for example, you don't what to think, just make it happen.

Litaphorically

Here is a passage that I will explain literally and metaphrically.

"Between moves they tip their heads back, swirl blood-colored brandy in glass globes and watch it crawl down the curved glass in liquid veins."
So here is the literal setting, these two men are sitting in this room talking and strategizing about the soon to be murder of Lumumba. While talking, they sit back and swirl their red wine in their wine glasses, and after sipping, watch the wine on the side of the glass suck back to the bottom in a vein pattern.

Metaphorically: Between talking and strategizing the killing of Patrice Lumumba, they lean back and think in their transparent glass brains about the blood of Patrice Lumumba, swirling with different ideas on how to execute the process of the murder. They see these different execution options in their mind and see them all play out as the blood thoughts finally settle in their minds blood veins.

LAX

A few weeks ago I was flying out of LAX airport. The security line was outside and ran along the sidewalk for about 50 yards (lots of people). I was worried about missing my flight and kept checking my cell phone to see how much time I had. Time was running low as the line seemed to grow in front of me. Worried I would miss my flight, I asked a few people what I could do in order to make my plane. I didn't really expect them to chauffeur me to the front of the line, but what were my options? I hoped at least for a little reassurance or someone to say, son't worry, we'll get you on the flight or keep an eye on you, whatever. Every response I got from each of the people working around the security checkpoint area said hey...it's not my problem or it's not my job or I can't do anything. I realize this is the outside world, your on your own, and its a busy LAX day, yet I thought to myself, if a kid came up to me and was worried or needed guidance, I would try to help the kid and not shun him off like a beggar. An esential question I have come up with is How can I help other people in this world, and I think that this is a good example of what some people choose to do. What I would do is different as I have noted, just becasue of the way I feel. Now days, people really appreciate if you reach out to them to try to keep them on track or to just offer a little help. You would be surprised how thankful people are when you assist in a situation that seems small to you becasue usually, it means more to them.

Raychill

In an older post, I talked about how Rachel decides to put an extra flourish on some of the words she uses. The first time I noticed, she changed execute into executrate and I didn't realize what or why she has done this for. I let it go, filing the fact that she changes and uses some wrong and weird words regularly. For me, I group all of the Price children around the age of 12. It's my general age that I picture when I am reading from each character's point of view. Recently, it hit me that Rachel was the oldest, and was even older than me! I think that using different and made up words to make yourself sound smart is pretty childish, especially for a 17 year old. I have asked myself, is Rachel immature? Does she not know better? I don't know how they were brought up, but I am sure they don't really get any kind of school education in the Congo, were they've been for about 2 years. Leah and Adah are younger, around 15 I believe, and come to think of it they are smarter than Rachel, and they know their words fine. With the years in the Congo and her regular personality, Rachel almost acts as if she is 14 or so (educated wise). I thought that I could relate to Rachel in some way since I am around that same age, but I think that relating to Leah or Adah would be more practical.

Mosquito Wood

I saw the first part of the film in class. (Mosquito...something) We have been reading the Poisonwood Bible (PWB) in class which is similar to the plot of the film we watched.
The two stories had a few things in common. One was that the family took off and lived in some "in the middle of nowhere" African country. They didn't have much resources, and lived harshly. Although what I noticed was that in the film, the family worked and pretty much built their own little town. Their house was almost like a log cabin while in PWB they haven't upgraded from their mud-hut. Something different I noticed between the two was that the moral and attitudes toward the whole thing was exactly opposite. In PWB, they really lived harshly and dreaded everything, when it seemed like the family in mosquito ridge made the best out of the situation. I think that the story lines veer off in different directions as the two stories continue on, but the general idea is quite similar.