My books for last week and this week were the rest of the Hunger Games series. I read both of them last week, but I'm still counting it... Haha. I just haven't had much time for reading this week. I had a paper due on Monday for Literary History of the Early Americas (I wrote in on captivity narratives in the early 18th century), and I had a paper due today on Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est" in Literary Analysis. Now, these essays were for Lit classes, so my typical high school write-it-in-two-hours-before-I-go-to-bed-and-get-an-A routine would not hold so well. If I was smart and organized, I would have drawn out the writing of these papers over several days. Did I do that? *shakes head, sadly* Sunday night and Monday morning were spent writing and re-writing my 800-1000 word essay on captivity narratives. And from 5 PM to 11 PM yesterday, I was living and breathing prosody for the four-page Owen paper. I also have to give a speech tomorrow, so Tuesday was spent writing that. Of course, I had reading assignments in ALL of my classes, so I had to fit those in during meals and going to the gym.
It may seem like a lot of work, but I actually really enjoyed writing about "Dulce et Decorum Est". It's a poem that I've seen every year since I was a sophomore in high school, and it was really fun to really pick it apart and find hidden meanings. I know that English majors get made fun of because it seems like they make stuff up for their own benefit. How do I really know what Owen meant why he wrote his paper? Did he really deviate from iambic pentameter on purpose? Mostly their analyses seem pretentious. And, I have to say, I don't care. I have no idea what Owen really meant. I can't just go talk to him about a poem he wrote about World War 1. Mostly because he's dead. But I do it for me. I do it because, for all I know, I'm the only person who's thought about his poem in a certain way. It may seem like I just make fancy stuff up to fit into the context, but, to me, I'm weaving a story. I'm making the poem come alive. Not for anyone else, just for me. The same goes with prose. There is a reason the English is not a science -- there are no exactly correct answers. And that's what I love about it. There are new things to say about a poem or a novel every time you read it.
Ok, my little rant is over. Haha.
They were excellent. The third one started off a little slow, mostly because it was laying the foundation for the ending, but it was still so good. I read Catching Fire in an afternoon and Mockingjay the next day. Haha. I got that sad feeling that comes after a good series. I wish that there were more books. But Suzanne Collins really wrote the ending well, and I am very happy with them. They deserve all the hype they're getting. (Not that I'm so knowledgable... haha. I talk about books like I'm the end-all critic. I'm apologize if I ever sound arrogant or snobby...)
Anyway. Happy Spring Break! Mine starts on Monday! :)
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