Please report on your research. Include two links to sites you find useful, or, if you’re not using the web, a link to the bookstore page of a book, or the library catalog page, you get the idea.
Here are two links from me:
BLDGBLOG is one of the coolest web sites ever. Here’s that story about the giant eddies I was talking about in class today.
We haven’t yet talked about the artist Joseph Cornell, subject of Octavio Paz’s poem “Objects and Apparitions. Cornell was recently the subject of a traveling art show–amazing images available here (need Flash, I believe.)
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: charlotte, cornell, eddies, research
My piece is in response to Brian Doyle’s “Joyas Voladoras,” the first essay we read in class that discussed all of the different kinds of hummingbirds and other creatures’ hearts.
Since Brian Doyle is a modern creative nonfiction writer, it’s difficult to find extensive biographical or analytical writing about him, as compared to research about an artist or a famous author or poet. But I did come across this website:
http://etude.uoregon.edu/autumn2006/qanda/index.html
that has a very thorough interview with Doyle, and it covers his style, his inspiration, and it’s obviously all his own opinions explaining this. I found it really interesting that he recently wrote a book, The Wet Engine, that is specifcally about hearts, in this case, pertaining to his son’s heart surgeries. I think I can use the ideas he talks about there to connect with my piece, since it also focuses on the capacity of the heart, as a physical and metaphorical entitiy.
I also found another interview, a rather unique one, in which Doyle interviews himself. It can be found here:
http://www.smokebox.net/archives/interviews/doyle1202.html
The other main source is a review of some of Doyle’s work by a man named Patrick Madden. Here’s the link to his review:
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/fourth_genre_explorations_in_nonfiction/v009/9.1madden02.html
He reviews the content, the style, and talks specifically about Joyas Voladoras and The Wet Engine, that convergence and the meaning behind it.
My piece is in response to Brian Doyle’s essay Joyas Voladoras, the one we read on the first day of class that was about hummingbirds and the capacity of the human heart. I felt particularly drawn to his piece because it addressed the heart as a physical as well as metaphorical entity. Researching Doyle was difficult; although he’s a modest but fairly well-known creative nonfiction author, it’s hard to find biographical information or extensive criticism like you could find with an artist or more famous author. But in any case, I did find two helpful links. Here they are:
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/fourth_genre_explorations_in_nonfiction/v009/9.1madden02.html
http://etude.uoregon.edu/autumn2006/qanda/qanda2.html
The first is a review of many of Doyle’s works, and it addresses Joyas Voladoras specifically (if only briefly) and its connection with a recent novel of Doyle’s, The Wet Engine, in which he writes about the experience of his son’s many heart surgeries and medical issues.
The second is an interview with Doyle, and this was a really unique interview because he goes into great detail about his personal style, his inspiration, his books. I found it interesting to learn that he is an Irish-Catholic, and his faith has been a major source of inspiration for him in his writing. In fact, most of his other collections or essays are spiritual or religious based. The current magazine he is an editor for at Portland, Oregon University, is in a spiritual publication.
Sorry I accidentally posted twice; after the first one, it didn’t show up so I just wrote another one. But you now have TWICE the amazing information about Brian Doyle!
For my final project, I am responding to Arundhati Roy’s novel The God of Small Things. There is a decent amount of information about Roy on the web, and here are two links that I found particularly useful:
http://www.chitram.org/mallu/ar.htm
This link provides succinct background information about Roy. It even has a section written by Roy that describes how her novel relates to her childhood. This will be very valuable to understanding what inspired her to highlight the themes she established in her novel.
http://www.salon.com/sept97/00roy2.html
This link is to a website that has an interview with Arundhati Roy. The interviewer asks Roy about her novel, regarding how she exemplifies culture, her influences, her style, and the overall progression of the story. This information will really help to put together the pieces of why and how Roy came to create her novel.
I am responding to Rilke’s “Archaic Torso of Apollo” for my piece, so there is a lot of information available on the web, but I feel like a good percent of it is sort of dubious, but I think that these are legitamite, from more esteemed sources.
I found this e-book online, but I’m not allowed to post a link to it (technology?) but here is the bibliographical information:
Rilke, Modernism and Poetic Tradition
Cambridge Studies in German
Author: Ryan, Judith.
Publication: Cambridge ; New York Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Product ID: 55529
eBook ISBN: 9780511004049
ISBN: 9780521661737
Subject: Rilke, Rainer Maria,–1875-1926–Criticism and interpretation.
Modernism (Aesthetics)
Aesthetics, Modern–20th century.
Language: English
This looks at Rilke’s work through the eyes of Modernism. It will be interesting.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/lifeofapoet.htm
This is a biography of Rilke in a few parts. It’s a more succinct biography, so I’ll be able to conquer it all.
For my project, I found that using various interviews with Weschler concerning his life, way of writing, and different books were particularly useful. Here are links to two of the interviews that I found:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/02/AR2006030201538.html
The next is an E-book I found online
AUTHOR: Meredith Tromble
TITLE: A conversation with Lawrence Weschler, author
SOURCE: Artweek 29 no7 Jl/Ag ‘98
I was delighted to learn that Edward Hopper, the man who painted “House by the Railroad,” also painted a scene called “Nighthawks.” Under normal circumstances this would be unimportant in the greter scheme of my research but this painting, “Nighthawks,” was the first painting to ever make me stop and think (it was when I was in elementary school, I can’t remember quite when). I had never known who had painted that scene until I went searching for information on Hopper.
That aside, I am responding to the colors and themes of Hopper’s House. I mostly looked for biographical information but I came across a lot of stuff about his themes too.
http://www.artchive.com/artchive/H/hopper.html
This link is the one that had some stuff about his style but still had a lot of information about his life.
http://www.mfa.org/hopper/index.html
This link goes to an exhibition page but it still inferred a good deal of information.
My project is in response to the poem Musee des Beaux Arts by W.H. Auden.
One useful website is
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/120
from Poets.org by the Academy of American Poets. It provides a biography about Auden, a list of work as well as possible related works and recommendations.
Another site is
http://audensociety.org/index.html
This is a website devoted entirely to Auden. Here, you can find some of his work, criticism and even recordings of his work.
For my project, I am responding to “The God of Small Things” by Arundhati Roy–but instead of focusing more on the author, I’m trying to focus more on the world she grew up in which is the same place as the book: Kerala. I’m taking especial focus on the roles of the caste system, religion, and women–three factors that directly relate to my visual response (photographs portraying Baby Kochamma).
One source I’m using is this interview with Arundhati Roy, conducted by a leftist radio commentator named David Barsamian. I’m mainly using this interview to get some of Roy’s own perspective in my written piece:
http://www.the-south-asian.com/Sept2001/Arundhati_Roy-Interview1.htm
Another source I’ve come across is this first-hand account by a professor at Oregon State University on their experience in Kerala, focusing on the self-sustainability of the society there–the high literacy rate and the (at least, compared to the rest of India) ideal living conditions.
http://www.cof.orst.edu/cof/extended/sustain/kerala.php
Okay, I thought I’d posted my sources, but I guess it didn’t go through, so I’m trying again.
My project responds to “The God of Small Things” but for the written part I am focusing less on Arundhati Roy and more on the social aspects of the world she grew up in and the location of the book: Kerala. Specifically, I’m looking at Religion, the Caste system, and the role of women.
My first source is an interview with Arundhati Roy, where she talks a bit about life in India.
http://www.the-south-asian.com/Sept2001/Arundhati_Roy-Interview1.htm
The next is a brief first-hand account of a Oregon State University professor’s experience in Kerala, observing the social stability of the region compared to the rest of India.
http://www.cof.orst.edu/cof/extended/sustain/kerala.php
My project is to recreate a Georgia O’Keeffe still life reflecting my own unique interpretations.
http://www.artchive.com/artchive/O/okeefe.html
This website features a lot of text from Jack Cowart’s “Georgia O’Keeffe, Art and Letters”, featuring a personal reaction to her art, as well as providing some of her history.
The next site is more of a biography, as well including many of her writings and art pieces.
http://www.georgia-okeeffe.com/biography.html