Sunday, November 30, 2008

Final Blog

Of all the readings we have studied this semester, my two favorites have been A Streetcar Named Desire and Atonement. Although I usually don't like reading plays, I found I had a hard time putting down A Streetcar Named Desire. I really enjoyed William's writing style and loved the story line. I also like the plot of Atonement, although I found the story to be kind of sad. I also thought McEwan wrote excellent descriptions.
I did not really enjoy reading the short story Snow and most of the poetry that we read. I could not find a plot in Snow at all, and I am sure there were more interesting stories to read in the Anthology. I also had a hard time understanding the poetry, and I thought it was kind of dull and difficult to analyze. We read so many interesting stories out of the anthology, and I am sure there were some more great stories in there. Instead of reading Snow and some of the poetry, I think we could read other pieces from the anthology book.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

The Watchmen

My experience reading The Watchmen was similiar to Isabelle Burtan's experience in several ways, although I never would have thought to describe the "experience" like she did. Burtan compared her reading the graphic novel to a girl losing her virginity in the article titled "The Comic Book Virgin Reads Watchmen." I found the article to be humorous and also insightful- I never thought of reading The Watchmen as such a significant experience, although after reading the article, losing my "comic book virginity" definitley seems like a bigger deal than I ever thought!
I knew that reading a graphic novel was very different than reading any other kind of novel, but I did not take time to analyze how it was different, or why it seemed so much more difficult to get through a graphic novel. Part of it is because you have to absorb both graphics and words, and I really related to how Burton simply described that: "At first I read and reread the pages to gather where my eyes should go, not knowing whether to look at the pictures, the words, or both." When reading a graphic novel, I have now learned, the pictures are not just there for enjoyment. They contain information that is significant to the plot and must be looked at closely.
To be honest, I have never really been a big fan of graphic novels and I am still not, although losing my "comic book virginity" to The Watchmen was certainly a positive experience overall. It was definitley different, and it required me to pay close attention to small details which I would not normally do.