| A big thank you! |
[Dec. 6th, 2004|10:24 pm] |
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I'd like to post a HUGE thanks to Bridgett and Michelle for posting all their class notes this semester. You guys rock! They helped so much and I'm blaming my decent grades on your journals...without them I would have done much MUCH worse!
Thanks guys! |
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| Term Paper thus far.... |
[Dec. 6th, 2004|10:17 pm] |
As of now (~10.19pm 12/6/04) this is how my term paper stands...I shall be writing the rest of it tonight and tomorrow in an effort to have a polished piece to turn in. Hope all the other papers are going well. I'm looking forward to everyone's presentation tomorrow!
Hali Camper
English 304—Children’s Literature
December 9, 2004
Term Paper
Hobbes in Boots
Bill Watterson, the creator of the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes said “I’ve never understood people who remember childhood as an idyllic time (Tenth Anniversary book, pg. 84).” Watterson may not reflect on his childhood as a time of peace and perfection, but he does seem to get to the heart of childhood in his strip. Watterson also makes use of a very iconographic figure in Calvin and Hobbes, that of the “Shrewd Cat” in the form of the beloved stuffed tiger Hobbes. Hobbes is a continual reminder of how irrational Calvin can be, and uses wit to try and tell his “master”/best friend exactly how irrational he is being. Another writer who used the figure of the Shrewd Cat is Charles Perrault in his story The Master Cat; or, Puss in Boots. Instead of being a reminder of how irrational his master is, the cat in Puss in Boots uses his wit to ingratiate his master with the local king. Both Hobbes from the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson and Puss from Puss in Boots as told by Charles Perrault, are both Shrewd Cats because each uses their wits to help their masters, and in this light one can see that Hobbes is really a signature on the archetype of the Puss in Boots character.
To start with the wit—meaning both smarts and sarcastic remarks—of both Hobbes and Puss in Boots is far above what one would expect even in a talking cat. To start out with, Hobbes appears to be a math genius—at least he is to Calvin, as is illustrated below (Yukon, pg. 106). Though the personification of Hobbes—in the eyes of adults—is formed in Calvin’s head, it is obvious that this cat has some how gotten a hold of information that his master has not—through instinct Hobbes argues here—and tries to apply it, even if it is not in a mathematically correct way. Calvin cannot do math to save his life but his feline companion knows about imaginary numbers. Also throughout the comic Calvin can be seen ranting un-halting manner and when he pauses for breath Hobbes interjects a witty remark. For instance Calvin says, “Everything is so darn hard! I wish I could just take a pill to be perfect and I wish I could just push a button to have anything I want,” to which a listening Hobbes replies, “the American dream lives on (10th anniversary, pg. 185).” This is an obvious display of Hobbes wit.
Puss in Boots also displays knowledge and wit, though his is not classroom mathematics or sarcastic remarks, but rather knowledge of the world which he uses for the benefit of his master. Puss in Boots realizes that his master will get to marry the king’s daughter if he can get the king to believe that his master is the Marquis de Carabas, who has riches and land, instead of being the youngest son of a miller (Zipes, pg. 397-8). The cat uses his cunning to first gain an audience with the king, then to convince the reapers to convince the king that the miller’s son is the Marquis, then finally to gain a castle and riches from an ogre. Obviously this is a brilliant animal using world knowledge and wit to gain for his master what his master cannot gain for himself. While this does not exist on the same scale that Hobbes’s supposed mathematical knowledge—as it is a bit off—it shows the same type of thinking that produces Puss in Boot’s comic strip counterpart.
Perrault’s version of The Master Cat; or, Puss in Boots is by no means the only fairy tale containing a shrewd cat. In fact it appears that “hundreds if not thousands of oral versions of this tale…have circulated in the Mediterranean region, the Orient, Europe, and North America (Zipes, pg. 390). Four versions appear in The Great Fairy Tale Tradition displaying this characteristic for multiple variations on the same story. As stories move further and further from their source in the sea of stories and their colors dim, they get more and more displaced and their characters no longer stick together. In this case the character of the shrewd cat is no longer attached to a peasant who seeks advancement, but rather to a precocious little six year old boy who remains the same age for ten years—from 1987 until 1996. |
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| New thesis |
[Dec. 4th, 2004|11:49 am] |
Ok, alright, I'm not all that on top of things. In a last minute change I've decided not to write my term paper on King Kong and Beauty and the Beast. Really I don't have the time to afford to watch all the versions of the movie. So in light of that I picked a subject I'm far more familiar with, Calvin and Hobbes. SO, here is my thesis which will probably be revised to CONTRASTING Hobbes to Puss and Boots.
"Hobbes from the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Waterson, is clearly a shrewd cat much like the cat in Perault’s version of Puss in Boots because each cat uses their wits to help their masters as well as to survive, and it is in this light that one can see that Hobbes is a signature on the archetype of Puss in Boots."
Please leave me any comments you have! Just hit where it says "post comment" on the bottom right of this entry. Thanks! |
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| Innitiation rights? |
[Nov. 28th, 2004|01:28 pm] |
For Thanksgiving dinner my parents invited over some family friends (the Jones's) that have been attending this particular meal with us for nearly 12 years. They have a son, Derek, who is 10. I've known this kid from birth and he can be a royal pain, or the biggest sweety on the plannet. Every year my dad comes up with something new to try out on Derek, in what must seem to Derek as his yearly tourchure trip to the Camper place.
This year my dad did all sorts of funny things to the kid that I would say qualify for our own "Camper innitiation rights, get a sense of humor or don't survive." I'm sure we could market this as a summer camp program. All of the things my dad pulls on Derek he tried out on me first many years ago, and I turned out relatively normal. Well I guess that could be argued. Each task dad sets Derek to has character building elements, with a touch of nastieness that if it were carried further would be evil.
For instance, this year dad had Derek bend welding rod around his neck which got flux all down his shirt. We all laughed as he did it because we knew what would happen. The amazing thing is this: Many years ago Derek would have ran off crying because we were laughing at him. Now he just laughs with us. This is a huge step for this 10 year old.
So I guess Derek and I are lucky, we are getting continual innitiation rights from my father. I'm sure when he is 20 and I'm 32 dad will still be administering his particular brand of innitiation. |
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| Term paper thesis |
[Nov. 28th, 2004|01:18 am] |
I realize that any of you reading this will also get this via email but I thought I would post it here for all the world to veiw.
The comparison between Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont’s version of Beauty and the Beast, and both the 1933 and the 1976, as well as speculation about the 2005 release of King Kong, will illustrate the diversity of stories and show that the same tale can be remade from a classic literary form into a pop culture icon. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 31st, 2004|10:31 pm] |
Monsters under the bed and other scary things are abound tonight, and it really takes me back to when I was a child being scared of things under the bed.
Tonight is the night of horrors like that of Bluebeard which I have begun looking at for our group presentation. My god the man was horrible! He killed his wives for being disobiedient! Then kept the bodies! Yuck! This is hard to believe that this is children's lit... |
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| Don't have much time today... |
[Oct. 26th, 2004|03:03 pm] |
OK I don’t have much time to do a proper journal entry today, but I found this silly internet quiz that reminded me of class. With the primer being so closely related to religion I though I’d figure out what deadly sin I am most possessed by and as such find out what I could hope for the primer to correct me on.
I don't remember the site...I just closed the window, but I was Gluttony then Lust. Apparently I'm doomed. |
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| Frog Prince |
[Oct. 24th, 2004|01:18 pm] |
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So Thursday we heard some fairy tales that the class had written. I was really impressed with Emily’s story. After hearing hers I realized that I was one of the ones who misunderstood the assignment. Oops! But as the story was read to us I never even thought of “The Frog Prince” being at the heart of it. Perhaps I’m just too dense. But perhaps it was fortune, because as I was driving to work I heard a song on the radio that was perfect for this class. I probably would have missed how it relates if we hadn’t been talking about “The Frog Prince” earlier. So without further adieu the song that I heard on the radio.
Kiss That Frog Lyrics
Artist: Peter Gabriel
Jump in the water....
Sweet little princess, let me introduce his frogness
You alone can get him singing,
He's all puffed up, wanna be your king
Oh you can do it, c'mon c'mon c'mon c'mon c'mon c'mon
Lady kiss that frog
Splash, dash, heard your call,
Bring you back your golden ball
He's gonna dive down in the deep end
He's gonna be just like your best friend
So what's one little kiss, one tiny little touch?
Aah, he's wanting it so much
I swear that this is royal blood, running through my skin
Oh, can you see the state I'm in
Kiss it better, kiss it better
Get it into your head
He's living with you he sleeps in your bed
Can't you hear beyond the croaking
Don't you know that I'm not joking
Aah, you think you won't, I think you will
Don't you know that this tongue can kill
C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon
Lady kiss that frog
Let him sit beside you, eat right off your plate
You don't have to be afraid, there's nothing here to hate
Princess, you might like it, if you lowered your defence
Kiss that frog, and you will get your prince...
Jump in the water, c'mon baby jump in with me
Jump in the water, c'mon baby get wet, get wet, get wet
Kiss that frog, lady kiss that frog
Get wet, get wet |
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| Displaced fairy tale. |
[Oct. 20th, 2004|09:34 am] |
I really have no fear of anybody trying to take this and publish it so here it is, a day late and possibly a dollar short.
Somewhere out in the depths of Western Montana there lived a well-off logger—Mr. Smith—and his wife—Mrs. Smith. Now the happy couple had been fighting over their lack of small little children running around in lumberjack outfits playing with saws, axes, and felling the neighbor’s ugly pine tree that was starting to disturb their fence. Specifically Mr. Smith wanted a herd of healthy young boys that could take over for him when they were old enough.
After much fighting, and many frustrations the Smiths decided to fly out to LA and go to a fertility clinic. Sure enough, a few weeks later Mr. and Mrs. Smith were pregnant, well only Mrs. Smith was pregnant but Mr. Smith was glowing just as much. After a few check ups and some ultrasounds it was discovered that Mrs. Smith was going to have octuplets.
As Mrs. Smith was coming closer to her due date, she began craving things such as pickles and orange juice. And like clock work every night at 12am she would send Mr. Smith down to the Conoco for these items. And every night at the Conoco he would buy his lovely wife the foods that she craved from the old woman behind the counter. Should he buy the wrong brand of pickles or the wrong brand of orange juice he would be sent back to get the correct items forthwith, or be admonished to the couch for the night. In light of this the old woman would give Mr. Smith tips on what he should take home, all the while joking that should the products be correct she wanted the first born child.
Not long after all this Mrs. Smith gave birth to seven girls and a single boy child. This was more than what the Smith’s had wanted (and not exactly what Mr. Smith wished for with his idea of “a heard of healthy boys.”) All of the children were exceedingly healthy, save for the boy who was the smallest child.
As the children grew up Mr. and Mrs. Smith doted on their girls who were growing up to be quite stunning and began ignoring their son, whom they had named John Doe Smith. It was apparent as the boy grew up that he was not going to take after his father and go into the logging industry, but rather he was going to be a computer tech support guy. This added an innumerable amount of grey hairs to his father’s head and made him very upset.
One day John came to his father and said, “Father, buy me a new hard drive for my laptop and I shall leave the house forever.” And his father did so and was quite glad to be rid of his son who was more interested in new fangled technology than he was in trees.
John began his journey away from the woods of western Montana and towards the cities of the west. On his first flight from Missoula to Salt Lake he encountered a business man having large problems with a power point presentation. So John said to him, “I shall fix your power point presentation for you if you allow me to go on a single date with your daughter.” The business man agreed and gave John a business card, after which John then fixed the presentation perfectly. However, the business man did not want his daughter to be dating a computer tech support guy and instead of giving John his card he gave John his business partner’s card.
On the next plane John boarded, which was going to Ontario California, he encountered another business man having presentation problems as well. John struck up the same deal with this man, and the man agreed and was so thankful that he gave John a business card where he could be reached.
After a few months of being out on his own, John emailed the first business man and asked if he could have the promised date. After much confusion (because you will remember that the business card that John got was the man’s partner’s) the man replied “no” and as a result his company’s email system was attacked by a very nasty virus. Not giving up, John emailed the second business man, who swiftly agreed to allow John to date his daughter.
When the daughter met John she was astonished to tell by the sight of his 3 day old beard, that this man was a computer tech support guy. However to make her father happy she agreed and went on a date with John. They went to a movie and she was very nervous as she had heard that computer tech support guys had a tendency to talk through all movies referencing other movies. She tentatively voiced this to John who told her to place a piece of duct tape over his mouth at the movie and only remove it once the movie was finished. She complied and after the movie she swiftly removed the tape with a flick of her wrist and was astonished to find a normal, cleanly plucked, handsome young man underneath the scruff.
After many happy years of marriage John took his wife to meet his father, who was astounded to find out the handsome young man who looked like he could chop down any tree was his very own son. |
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| A comment on Michelle H’s journal |
[Oct. 7th, 2004|01:50 pm] |
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I cracked up when I read about her fiancé and father’s response to the Little Red Ridding Hood story! I totally relate to the way these men responded to her telling of the earlier telling, as my dad and boyfriend respond nearly the exact same way when I tell them about this class. Or instead of saying anything they just stare blankly at me.
Alright, about class today. We talked about Wind in the Willows today. I love, LOVE this book! I read it outside in the backyard of my apartment and I took my pet rabbit Phoebe out with me. I have to say this was the perfect setting to read this book in. Even though I could still hear the cars on the street, it was quiet and peaceful and I could really get into the book. I think reading Wind in the Willows outside really drove home the “moral” that one needs to be receptive to the world. Even before this was articulated in class being out in nature as Ratty and Mole were drove this home for me.
I had to laugh, because at one point the book was describing how the rabbits are dumb and are always washing their faces looking cute but there is no thought in their heads, and I look up and Phoebe is cleaning her face in the exact manner that was being described in the book. I made some remark to Phoebe about this (I really do think she understands me) and she sort of stared blankly at me and then thumped much like Thumper in Disney’s Bambi would have. Mr. Graham really knew his animals when writing this work. |
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