I have a writing assignment. A literature essay. Well first of all, I’m seriously no good at essays. Blame it on the lack of experience. I dont know why but I just dont seem to manage to get a grasp of the idea what they exactly want me to do. But well, I’m gonna have to give it another try, as the deadline of this assignment is the end of this week. And if I don’t do it I’ll feel guilty and depressed.

So! I’m gonna post my essay here when it’s finished, for feedback and things like these. And just for fun ofcourse.

The Kiss

Literature 2 2010
Writing Assignment

As we saw in week 2, the early modern sonnet tradition that began with Petrarch often idealizes female beauty, while also portraying women as cold and distant. Examples are Petrarch’s ‘Rime 90’ (quoted in the lecture, see also Blackboard) and the sixteenth-century English versions of Petrarch’s ‘Rime 140’ which you read. Write a 1200-word essay in which you investigate how William Shakespeare and John Milton deal with these conventions in ‘Sonnet 130’ and ‘Methought I Saw My Late Espousèd Saint’ respectively. In doing so, consider the following related questions:

1. How do the poems portray or discuss female beauty (what imagery do they use, for example)?
2. How do the poems represent the relation between the speaker and his ‘mistress’ (how distant or intimate is the female party, for example)?
3. What do your answers to questions 1 and 2 imply for the way the two poems make use of the sonnet conventions outlined above? For example, do they confirm or undermine these conventions, or use them in new ways?

You are encouraged to draw on ideas discussed during lectures and tutorials. Make sure you have a clear, concise overal thesis statement (in which you summarize how the two poems deal with the sonnet conventions described above), a clear basic claim for each paragraph. Always support your observations by means of quotations and close textual analysis. It may be useful to include brief quotations in your introductory paragraph from the Petrarch poems/translations referred to above. Make sure you observe the MLA Stylesheet conventions in layout, references, quotations et cetera. The 1200-word limit does not include quotations and references.

The essay should be handed in printed form during the tutorial in Week 8, and in electronic form via the Literature 2 Blackboard module. All essays will be checked electronically for any plagiarized passages.

Enjoy!

Received card from Norway

My mood isn’t any better. Though I have a week off, I have completely no idea what to do with my sparetime. Besides that im nervous. Very nervous. Why? I have no clue. Perhaps it’s my new medicin. A while ago I started taking new medicin for my ADHD. Some of the well-known side effects of these meds are feeling sick, headaches, dizziness and being nervous for no apparant reason.

So I’m cruising on the couch, laptop on my lap. My mom has a visitor. They’re talking loudly. Im being nervous. I already had coffee today. Oh yes. My dog smells weird. And today I finally wrote a new card. Yes, a postcrossing card one might say. Though it’s not adressed to another postcrosser but someone special. A dear friend of mine living in England.

This afternoon at four o’clock my psychiatrist will call me, to ask me how I’m doing with the meds. I’ll probably be allowed to up my doses. Maybe then I’ll notice even more side effects. Who knows.

And it’s still cold.

Typical Tourist Postcard from my Hometown

I got a whole lot of spare cards. I put them in a folder. Everytime I come at a store and I see some cards I like I just buy them. So if anyone wishes to receive a silly card from a silly dutch girl, feel free to request one.

Au revoir mon amies <3
Goodbye my friends <3

Yesterday I couldn’t really fall asleep, and  if there’s one thing I REALLY hate it’s laying in bed and getting frustrated ’cause you cant sleep. So I decided to (even though it was already 3am) watch a movie. A while ago I saw a commercial on the TV about the movie ‘Case 39′, and it got my interest. Yes! Even the Mailster likes her horror every now and then (:

So, late at night, all alone in bed, wind howling around the house, laptop on my tummy and I watched horrific scenes about some demon slash kid or whatever it was! I have to say I liked the movie to kill the time, but the story itself wasn’t really strong if you ask me..

***

The plot went as follows: Emily Jenkins (a social worker with a heart for kids) is assigned to look into a case (number 39 ofcourse) of a family with a daughter, that shows signs of abuse/neglect. When the parents try to burn 10-yr old Lilith in the oven, Emily temporarily takes custody over the little girl. After a while strange things start happening, and people in their close environment die. The people have been called by someone from Emily’s house, shortly before they died, and Emily finds out that Lilith isn’t the sweet little girl she seems to be…

Case 39

It could’ve been a really great movie, if they didn’t hop from the one feeling into the other. Emotionally, the main character (played by Renée Zellweger), wasn’t really convincing. Ofcourse, Renée squeeled like a slaughtered pig after she saw her adoptee turn into a blue, fishlike demon, but apart from that… Let’s take the fact for example that, Emily Jenkins is already convinced the innocent, blue-eyed, darkhaired girl is a demon after 2 murders happening in her close environment. Ofcourse, it would be a coincidence. But any true human would just shrug, possibly be scared, but wouldn’t in the first place think of a on-kindness-feeding-demon that manifests itself as a cute little 10 year old. Emily Jenkins, does, however. This really, really bothered me. Apart from that, the special effects are nice.

I would certainly recommend people to watch this movie if they are in for an evening of no-thinking and excitement. If you look for the deeper, more intellectual movies however, I wouldn’t watch  Case 39.

Overall grade: 70%

As you all might have noticed, I have been quiet for quite some time now. This is because I’ve been going through a hard time of my life, and to be honest that time isn’t really over yet.

Everyday seems to be a struggle for me. A struggle to get out of bed, a struggle to go to school (a struggle which I often lose by the way), a struggle to take care of myself in a proper way. A struggle to achieve something that day, to DO something that day other than sitting around and wondering what I’m doing with my life.

I don’t feel like going out and see the world. Yet at the same time I often feel lonely and depressed, just because I don’t do anything that day.

What will my future bring? Where will God take me? How do I get there? How will I manage to ever finish my school? These questions haunt me on a daily bases.

Chaos - received from Germany Girl

As you can see this is the reason why I also dropped my hobby, postcrossing. Hopefully temporarily. Maybe not.
Who knows? At least I’m gonna try to update my blog a little more often. I’m dreaming of one day writing a book. And you gotta start somewhere, right?

Some exciting things happened since I last blogged. Good and bad ones.
I’ve had lots of fights with my parents, and now I’m going to visit a psychiatrist. She’s gonna research if I have ADHD. Personally, I think I have, but you can never be too sure. As usual I’m nervous like heck for anything UNusual in my life, so its a bit of a hard time for me. (:
Apart from that: Russia. My card to the UK arrived a few days ago, and Mr. Airplane-man loved it! He put the card amongst his favourites, so thats the biggest compliment so far! Yay! Anyways. You know what it means when a card arrived? Exactly, it means I get to send a new one! So I requested the adress, and there came the Russia-girl!
She likes dogs, rock, theatre, books, jazz and traveling. Hmm. Makes it a bit hard. I don’t wanna go for a dog card, yeah I’m weird like that. I have to personally like the card I’m sending aswell, its half of the fun! ;P

Any suggestions?

Pretty Peasant

Must be okay right? And on the back I wrote a little dutch lullaby for her kid.

Slaap kindje slaap
Daarbuiten loopt een schaap
Een schaap met witte voetjes
Die drinkt zijn melk zo zoetjes
Slaap kindje slaap
Daarbuiten loopt een schaap

Sleep little child sleep
Outside there walks a sheep
A sheep with little white feet
That drinks its milk so sweetly
Sleep little child sleep
Outside there walks a sheep

It was a young girl, who loved cute cartoons such as Hello Kitty. So, I grabbed my bike and cycled to the bookstore. There I bought 3 cards. I don’t only collect received cards, but also unwritten ones. Everytime I’m at the stores and I see a nice card, I buy it! Oh yes, I’m addicted.

USA Kitty

The day before that I sent my card to Taiwan. I already bought the perfect card for it a while ago! Since I save all my ‘clean’ (unwritten) cards in an organizer, I grabbed my organizer and started searching for that cute, wonderful one. And yes, there it was, screaming at me: ‘Pick me, pick me!’ So I smiled, took it out and started writing! I hope the little princess will make her smile as much as it made me (:

Princess Taiwan

I posted the one to USA today. At least, I wanted to! But there was a problem: STORM! There’s a huge storm going on over here in little cold Holland! Lots and lots of rain and wind! And very very cold ofcourse! So I’m walking around in my big oversized sweater all day, enjoying my big warm safe house (: But then all of a sudden..! I heard a really, REALLY loud noise! So! I turned around, and you’ll never guess what I saw… A TREE FALLING DOWN RIGHT IN OUR GARDEN! Lol. At first I was like.. eehh.. huh?!! And then I kinda had to laugh. It was looking so silly! Luckily no-one got hurt (:
Anyway, after that, I was a wee bit scared to go outside to post my card. But, brave as I am, I went anyway! Through storm and wind, there the mailster went, aiming for her target: THE MAILBOX! Everything went okay (: But it was quite an adventure on this normal, average day!