#willfang

Stepping into the conference building was a lot more intimidating than expected. The reception area was a pretty cramped place with people pushing against each other in order to get a nametag or to check in. There were no visible signs pointing out the different rooms which made navigating and trying to find a friend a challenge. However, after overcoming the initial confusion, the night went amazing. The food was great, venue was beautiful, and the presentations were spectacular. I was amazed at how many people were presenting, each with a unique idea and a unique twist on it.

I had the fortune to attend the “Rock the Boat” presentation, and let me tell you, it was one of the most depressing hours I have ever been through… in a good way though. The panel’s ideas were all united by the fact that something extreme needs to be changed for the better. The topics ranged from robotic revolutions, to the importance of silence and everything in between. The reason why the panel was so sobering and somber was the fact that all of these presentations brought out the thought provoking questions and took worst issues presented in the primary text to try and fix them. For example, in the paper Silent at Sea it explores the slave narrative or the lack of by explaining the power of silence. It was brutal and shocking how entire generations of people could be wiped completely from history, without a single trace of the slave narrative while the only thing remaining of them is the absence on something, silence. It was a powerful paper that supplemented the extremely abstract idea of silence with handouts. Additionally, along with the depressing lack of narrative of the slaves were the two conflicting ideas presented in the conference. One being, the singular focus on morality causes someone to be absent from life. That someone who spends their whole life trying to leave a legacy, focused on that singular topic will not have lived in the first place. This singular mindset presented in a paper is contradicted by another paper who stated that “only when we accept death is when we start to live”. Life is meant to be lived out in its fullest and death should not be obsessed over.

Chick was one of the most interesting characters in the book for me especially after his explosive finale. He provided a stark contrast to the rest of his freakish family members. He was not insane like his parents, nor freakish like his siblings. In fact, he was a seemingly normal goody-two shoes boy who had the misfortune of being born and raised by a freak show. This contrast followed by his drastic personality difference help ground the absurd situations going on in the novel and brings out the horror of Arty’s actions.

The "Uncanny" is a concept developed by Freud and support through the example of a lot of literature of an instant where something that is familiar to us becomes foreign and frightening. It is the little details that causes us to feel such eeriness and dread in what was normally amicable and normal. However, what really interested me was the way about Freud took to research and how they fit in with his theory of psychoanalysis.  

This book was nothing close to the story I thought it would be. Instead of a normal love story, it is a twisted dark fantasy of a family of freaks and their lives. However, the book does have one factor that all good love stories have, jealousy. Jealously is a theme that is prevalent throughout the book, especially in the children. As the children in the family grow up, they realize that their self-worth is directly related to how well their tent does. Everything in the children’s lives revolves around the freak show. They have to pull their weights as freaks in order to have a home and a job. In fact the more successful they are at being freaks and hosting successful shows, they not only have more value as a performer, but also more value under their parent’s eyes.

This book was nothing close to the story I thought it would be. Instead of a normal love story, it is a twisted dark fantasy of a family of freaks and their lives. However, the book does have one factor that all good love stories have, jealousy. Jealously is a theme that is prevalent throughout the book, especially in the children. As the children in the family grow up, they realize that their self-worth is directly related to how well their tent does. Everything in the children’s lives revolves around the freak show. They have to pull their weights as freaks in order to have a home and a job. In fact the more successful they are at being freaks and hosting successful shows, they not only have more value as a performer, but also more value under their parent’s eyes.

Throughout the novel, we are led to question the inherent value of in religious institutions like Catholicism. Religion starts out like faith; both include the belief in something that concerns a person's views on God and of eternity. After that, religion and faith takes two very different paths. Religion generally sets up a bunch of qualifications in order to “get on God’s good side” and the ultimate goal is to reach heaven. While on the other hand faith is, purely believing and listening to God without a reward in mind. There are too many rules in organized religion and not enough faith. This type of belief does not agree with La Loca or Caridad who both have a closer, more personal relationship with God.

Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit takes place during the Victorian period of the nineteenth century. Victorians were prone to the paranormal, supernatural and occult, of which the most popular forms in the late Victorian period included clairvoyance, crystal gazing, thought reading, and above all, spiritualism. People were fascinated with contacting the dead and deceased through mystics and séances. These upper-class households would host mediums for a thrill. These supernatural thrills were only accentuated through the mysteriousness of spiritualism. The basis of Noel Coward’s play is to satirize the people and the time.