Nobel Speech

Faulkner, during his Nobel Prize awarding speech, mentioned that young writers should work on topics that is "the old universal truths…love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice.” That makes absolute perfect sense. Although these six themes are cliche, great works and lasting arts are only created with those topics. In the ultimate awesome Shakespearian novel, "Romeo and Juliet", covered all 6 of them. The love between Romeo and Juliet, the honor of the families, the pity of their death, the pride in their love, the compassion towards each other, and the sacrifice they made for their family. All those can also be seen faintly in "A Rose for Emily". Love with Homer, Pride of his father, Pity of Emily's misfortune, Honor of her family, Compassion toward Homer, and Sacrifice of her everything to him. It is evident that Faulkner is consistent in his ideas along the entire way in his literature career.

Eccentric or Crazy?

In "A Rose for Emily", the weird girl we read about is crazy.  We refer to people that's not acting normal but holds high position or attain great wealth as eccentric out of respect. However, since Emily is no longer a aristocratic girl, she doesn't deserve that respect. Honestly, why would anyone sleep with a dead man...especially when he is poisoned by one himself/herself? The obsession with Homer simply show that she is crazy. As story progress ( in chronological way), town folks only take Emily as a crazier and crazier person as things are revealed. She refuse to acknowledge her father is dead. She ignore all laws (wonder why didn't she get sent to prison). And then she bought poison, adding to her eccentricity already known to others. Finally, after she die, the revelation of her murder of Homer makes she a crazy person. Yes, rich people deserve more respect. They are more educated, and they contribute more to the society, thus should be better respected than serfs that barely changes anything in the community. However,  when one loses that status, such privilege should no longer apply. They will not be worthy of be denoted with extra respect from local folks.

The N word

Many awesome literature have been banned or edited in order to lessen the offense by some racial discriminating languages used such as the N word. Although I am not a literature guy, I find it offensive for governments and publishers to edit those arts in order to fit their standard. If those racial activists can not take it, might as well as not purchase it. Art is not created to please everyone. You can't say such art used too much red (bloody) lets ban this artist. Its just not how the way we treat art. In fact, I find it absurd for anyone to take insults from books. Those books were created to picture the time in the story. Sorry, but the sad fact is that not everyone back in those days know about equality and talk in such great manner that those people who are complaining do. Such ideas of banning works that contains the n word is ridiculous. By editing, not only the work of the author is no longer kept to its completeness, but also the description and projection of the era is no longer complete. To sum up, no literature should be banned or edited because of its racial contents and those who find it offensive should just suck it up and be a man/woman.

Retreat

In the story "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner, the main character decides to leave the society. People retreat from society to gain inner peace. Thats why there are mission retreats and stuff. The world itself is chaotic. It is known to be chaotic to provide so much little wonders, happy and sad alike, to people. after experiencing extreme events such as winning the lottery, losing a close friend and other stuff, we need peace.  People will withdraw themselves to rest and then continue on. Without these peaceful moments, one may be too pressure like an over- stretched spring, ending up crazy or some sort. This is only normal to retreat oneself from the society. However, it will deteriorate if one indulge in it too much. This became something addicting, some sort of drug. And thats where normality ends and problems begin. These people will soon become recluses or other crazy people, such as serial killers. In the end, this is a pleasure that should be used once in a while. Overdose and Underdose makes one....different, the good or bad will not be for me to decide.

Free Write

I don't know is this just me but it seems like the world is getting more and more rigid as we develop. The very introduction of civilization begin human's limitation. The realistic goals of making money throws us into a box and limit us. Many teachers, governments encourage students to pursue something that really interests them, and yet, those adults create a world that forces us to work for things we don't truly desire. I have a friend who wants to be artists but he have to get a second major simply to make sure stable income. Another guy is really interested in history and literature but those won't support his living. The world adults create builds became a cage for the unlimited potential of kids. Yes, creative people sometimes take chances and succeed. But how many people are discouraged because of the risk? How many attempted and failed, ending up starving in the streets?  For any discerning eye, this world is corrupted. Sentimentality is been stripped from many people because its unrealistic to have them in the 'adult' world. Parents pressure kids to pursue stuff that may not lay in the best interest of kids. Sometimes, I wonder if Western parents are the same as those strict binding Asian parents, who believe they are always right and will make the best choice of their kids. The fact that we have to get into good college, get into good company, earn good salary, live, and die in a coffin became a routine procedure now. In conclusion, our world is corrupted.

I Hate Poetry

I hate poetry. As simple as the phrase may seem, the abundance of reasons why I hate it is, to a degree, scary. To mention why I hate poetry, I have to trace all the way back to when I was a kid. I used to love poetry, back when I was still a kid. I allow imagination to run wild and allow my thoughts project themselves onto my paper, with vivid description and clip arts. Though it may not be the greatest deepest and most awesome poem ever written, it surely portrays my feelings and thoughts well. Now, you might wonder, why would I hate it when I loved it so much? Its like a break up, a divorce. It came as fast as lighting and as shocking as ...umm..earthquake? Anyway, since elementary, my English teacher hates me, or at least, hates whatever I wrote. The rigid regulations for poems discourages me. When I grow up, I realize why. I am just too good at poetry and my English teachers were just jealous. The interaction between poets and readers just never seem sufficient. One idea may be important to the poet but rather trivial to most readers. The randomness, longness (and sometimes shortness), deepness(find those meanings trivial) simply doesn't interest me. As an un-sentimal person anyone may know, the attempt to appeal to my emotions just won't work. The more I try to embrace poem, the more I feel betrayed. In the end, as many of you may know: I HATE POEM.

Horror

What do we pour so stories are scary? Readers are bored so they need something more.  Something abstract yet something so real. Something unusual, more like obscene.  What do we want? Blood and gore. We want opened chest and spilled guts mess. We crave for those just by impulse. This is where vivid imagery comes in. The details of such disgusting scenes excite us.

There is something interesting about us. We want to know, and crave to know. The absence of knowledge or the introduction of incomprehensible objects tend to arouse fear, tension and hatred. In literature, the art in manipulating this fear is known as suspense. Suspense make people suspect, and speculate what's going to happen. The insecurity of this kind is the fear we see in literature.

Humans are different from wild animals for many reasons. Among them, there is imagination that entertains us, educates us, and fill our life with more meaningful abstractions. Imagination works really well when constrained, but when its unleashed, it goes wild. To base imagination out of something we do not know entirely can be catastrophic to our mental peace. Fear of the unknown projects what we are scared the most. Such speculation is how horror movies, stories, music work.