21 July, 2008

Post - Uni Angst


This isn't just a normal erratic life, this is a specially selected colossaly erratic M & S post-uni life. Like my driving, life is rather erratic at the moment. What a corny metaphor I know but trust me, it is true. I must rant or compliment those M & S adverts sometime soon but now isn't the place or time. Now we're going to focus on the downhill slump into a shark-inhabited quayside: POST-UNI life. See the thing about post-uni life is that it isn't as bad as 'life' in general for lots of reason - for example, you go from a busy tight-schedule - a work and play oriented lifestlye to being a sloth. A couch potato. Far too lazy to even click a button to change the channel.


Ok, so perhaps I am exaggerating a little.

There is just far too much to do. And far too many expectations.

Boo hoo.

Take job hunting for starters. It would help if you knew for definite what you wanted to do. I have some ideas - become Prime Minister, astronaut, Cinderella ( I think this is an occupation) and so on. Nothing set in stone. Experience is the most important factor in all jobs I've come across. Now I've got my share of that with a proven track record that I can adapt and learn quickly. But there are those, like many of my peers, with limited or no experience mainly because they've been focusing on their studies. I don't see a problem with that. If employers won't give NEW graduates the opportunity to gain experience - well, in that case stuff the education system, you may as well secure yourself a job as a school leaver and work yourself up from there. But - there are jobs which require you to have a degree or a higher qualification. In which case we are stuck in a vicous circle where students are busy studying to gain qualifications to secure a job and perhaps doiing the odd job here and there - but only to graduate with no experience - but they can't get into that job without that qualification in the first place. What a vicious circle it is.


Post-uni life has its quirks - one being this huge portal of free time. I know, I know, I seem to be contradicting myself - there is so much to do, how can there be any free time. But there are days in this parallel world which is spent doing nothing at all. No job hunting, no commitments, no appointments, no one to see, no one to save, no one to mourn - hang on, scrap that. You get the point. All this free time means more time to think about life, how on the larger scale it is moving too fast and about to colllide with something, but on the simple day-to-day level it is moving too slow. And of course the devil makes work for idle thumbs.

'Go out, do something' I hear you say but with my bulimic bank balance it is best to stay indoors, that way I won't spend what I don't have. And everytime I seem to save a little, put a little in, it just vomits itself out.


I'm often reminded of a line in the incredibly-teen-romantic movie called Chasing Liberty starring THE gorgeous Matthew Goode. He plays some kind of secret agent looking after the first daughter (some girls just have all the luck). Anyway, there is she ranting about all the restrictions on her life, how the back garden of the White House isn't big enough, and how there aren't enough Gucci bags in the world (I maybe lying here). 'I want real life where real things happen' she remarks to our hunky hero. Who responds - witty as ever - 'REAL LIFE IS OVERRATED. IT'S A LOT OF ODD SMELLS AND DISAPPOINTMENT'. Bingo!

       

Crikey, forgot about this blog!

What a (pleasant) surprise, I knew I had an old dusty blog somewhere but.....well, life got in the way. But I intend to tell (bore?) you all about university (now that its over) and the joy (sarcasm?) of post-uni life (soon).




14 March, 2007

Book Review: Martin Amis - 'Money'

Can we call the title eponymous? I think so, money certainly makes many appearances in this novel and all that it can buy - namely sex.

(unfinished)

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13 March, 2007

12 March, 2007

Villanelle.


A rather shameful attempt at a villanelle but believe me its not easy at all! I was listenting to 'Asleep' by The Smiths as I wrote this yesterday evening.

Where have all the years gone, gone by?


Where have all those years gone, gone by?

Afraid of what is next, will I be

flown high, recycled in the sky.



I have come so far, from being shy

playing with dolls to drinking tea.

Where have all those years gone, gone by?



Sing me to sleep, Sing me to sleep

Won't you sing a last one for me?

Flown high, recycled in the sky.



We had moments, low and some high.

Here ends our long journey.

Where have all those years gone, gone by?



I'll die counting not years but sheep.

I will take with me your heart's key.

Flown high, recycled in the sky.



Hold my wrinkly hand as I lie

here, dry your eyes, let me free.

Where have all those years gone, gone by?

Flown high, recycled in the sky.




14 February, 2007

Short Story: Theory


Normally when people are asked to write short stories they rush out and buy as many short story anthologies as possible and assume reading all the short stories ever written (impossible) will enable them to write better.

Naturally, the more you read the better you will write. But it also helps if you know about the recipe behind the writing. You wouldn't perform a surgery without knowin the different parts of the human body, so why expect to write a good short story without knowing the 'ingredients' to a good short story?

Fortunately for me in my first year at university one of the modules I did covered short stories. In my first year I had the enthusiasm of a bull charging at a red flag (totally lost it now!) and so I read everything in the library on short stories. I've been meaning to put my notes up on this blog since last year but I never seem to have the time!

So, below you will find different short story theorie and ideas and using these same ideas I've attempted to analyse a few short stories. Much easier to comment on other people's short stories than write my own. Besides, I'm far too sensitive about my own work...:-)

Incident v Character

M.H. Abrahams in his infamous 'Glossary of Literary Terms' identifies two types of short stories. The 'Story of Incident' and the 'Story of Character'. The 'story of incident' focuses on plot, the course and the outcome of events whereas the 'story of character' focuses on the psychological and moral qualities of characters.


Opening Sentences

(The passage below is from 'The way to write Short Stories' bu Micheal Baldwin, published by Penguin Book.)


Opening sentences should suggest one of the following three things: -

a. Something of moment is about to happen or is already happening.

b. We are being initiated into a fascinating world.

c. Suspending need for a or b because this writer is so engagingly witty.


Difference between Short Story and Novel

According to Charles May in 'The Short Story: The Reality of Artifice', the difference between the short story and the novel is that in the novel characters develop through time 'as they are conditioned or determined by their milieu' but in the short story the characters are already developed and 'are brought into conflict that reveals them'.

So if you're writing a short story you need to know your characters inside-out, they need to be developed already in your head and you need to reveal their characteristics and qualities to the reader by showing their reaction against a conflict. You don't need lengthy commentary like in a novel if you manage to do this well.



(unfinished)


12 February, 2007

Existentialism

Can you believe in God and yet be an existentialist?

I don' think there is an answer to that question. I believe in God but am madly in love with existentialism. Ever since I discovered it during the first year of my A-Levels I have been obsessed with the ideas and the works of this branch of philosophy.

I find it so exhilarating and mind blowing. I love the close affair it has with Absurdism the 'Thatre of the Absurd'. Ever since the discovery of the existence of existentialism I have tried to read as much as possible about it. So below is various bits of text that I have found both enlightening and elusive.


First, some 'existentialist paintings'.


Phyllis Bramson

'The Existentialist Witness'








Andrew Baines





Above: The Existentialist.

Below: The Existentialists.




I will try to comment on the above two paintings but be warned- I am not an art critic!

What strikes me is that black suit and the bowler hats. The bowler hat was worn by men of all classes and to me this reflects the ideas of existentialists such as Sartre who believed that each individual is 'condemned to be free', that 'existence precedes essence', human being just exist and each man regardless of material things like his social status and occupation must find his own meaning to life; he has no great destiny and must choose freely.

In the first painting, 'The Existentialist' depicting just one man on his own, the sky is much brighter- more 'bluey' and less menacing than the sky in the second painting, 'The Existentialists' where there are several men. In the second painting the sky is much greyer and darker and

(unfinished)




Below: Whats the point




Is it me or does this strongly remind you of Beckett's 'Waiting for Godot' ? Two men in bowling hats, they appear to be waiting, similar environment to that in Beckett's play although there is no tree. I wonder if there is any relation, I've read a little about Baines on the internet but there is very little on him and also no mention of a connection in anything I have read so far.

(unfinished)