Nicole be Thinking...

The same text can elicit different responses from different people. Reader response theory can help one understand how a text is created by the interaction between that text and its reader. First, one must examine how the text works to the affect the reader. According to Dobie, "readers come to a work with a certain literary competence," meaning readers have some expectations based on what they already know about a specific genre (135). My previous experience with short stories made me expect simple characters, dialogue, and a clear moral. "The Night in Question" was a small departure from that. The dialogue between Frank and Frances does push the story and there is a moral, but the characters are complex. The story's structure is also familiar to me. Flashbacks often provide background information about the characters as it does in this story. My understanding of the story's plot is controlled by the narrator's point of view. I have to trust that the na...

Last week, Future and Sir Lazenby decided that Overnight 6 wasn't good enough to be released, that it needed to be better. A week late, we finally have The Overnight Mixtape, Volume 6. Back in 2001, an Usher album leaked. And it was HORRIBLE. Folks like me, who see no problem downloading albums before making that major purchase, listened to the album and decided Usher had lost it. Somehow, this news got back to Usher... He went back into the studio and redid his album... We fans? Oh, we got 8701 . Definitely a win. That's sorta what's happening here... Except Future was his own slew of downloading fans, criticizing his own work. Volume 6 is solid. How I missed a good Sir Lazenby intro! I love "Overnight Celebrity." I'm surprised Future didn't rap over it sooner. (Btw, what's your GPA Harold? lol) Also... um... If you said what I think you said, I am NOT random... But I'll let that go... =] I liked "Superstar Status." Listening to it, I wa...

I am supposed to be doing homework right now. I have a lot of work to do, actually. But I can't do it. I've been distracted by a few things… First it was Top Chef. The Quick Fire Challenge was mesmerizing and cool. And… the Elimination Challenge is Restaurant Wars. RESTAURANT WARS!! How can I NOT watch that?? Then I discovered Microsoft OneNote. Idk why I'd ever need this. Idk how I'll ever use it. But for now… I'm enjoying my new discovery. Twitter. Facebook. Music. Texting. Sigh... I have an 8-page paper due. I need to read all of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by tomorrow so that I can discuss it in Adolescent Lit. I have to read a hefty chunk of Kindred (Octavia Butler… ROCKS) by Friday. I have another journal for Critical Approaches due Monday, I think. I'm hungry. For junk food. Sigh… I'm gonna watch the rest of Top Chef… Then… homework? A hot pocket? Sonic? Who knows?

French feminists apply Lacan’s psychoanalytic theory to their readings because it can provide the “basis for resisting the idea of a stable ‘masculine’ authority or truth” (Dobie 119). The primary focus is on Lacan’s concept of the Imaginary Order, the pre-linguistic phase of development that is free from the Law of the Father, or language (Dobie 119). According to Lacan, the Imaginary Order is a state characterized by “wholeness and fullness” wherein one is “unaware of its separateness from the mother” (Dobie 65). This state exists before the Symbolic Order in which the Law of the Father reigns (Dobie 66). Lacan asserts that gender is constructed and it is the father who “enforces cultural norms and laws” (Dobie 66). Because of this, girls must recognize their father as superior and realize that their claim to the phallus isn’t as strong as the claim of their male counterparts (Dobie 66). French feminists reject this idea and instead assert that the “voice of the Mother [is] the sourc...

If you read this blog, by ALL means, COMMENT ON THE POSTS! I like feedback... Well... About that... 2 things. First... When I was in still in San Francisco, I kept my blog on Myspace (those would be the posts between April 2006 and August 2006, if you want to look...). I didn't think anyone really paid attention to me but then people would see me on campus and talk to me about my posts. Everyone at my job read them. Everyone I knew was reading my posts and wanted to talk to me about them. It was really weird to me. It was the first time in ALL the time I have been keeping this blog that I was writing for other people instead of just venting. I mean... I still vented. But instead of my thoughts flowing and going nowhere, I would confess a crush on a dude and then the next day FIFTEEN people would be in my face teasing me or some shit like that. I wasn't ready for it. I wasn't prepared for it... I thought I didn't want feedback like that so I stopped Myspace blogging and...

I woke up this morning to the news that President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. I love Barack Obama. I voted for Barack Obama. I know what his presidency means for the future. Do I think he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize? NO. Am I going to really gripe about it? Eh... idk. What I will say is this... Obama was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize 12 days after he took office. Maybe I'm not reading something, but I don't really see him doing anything Nobel Peace Prize-worthy. Our country is involved in wars that he's not actively trying to get us out of. Not to say he won't but he hasn't . Not to say he'll never deserve a Nobel Peace Prize, but he doesn't . I'll always be proud of him and his accomplishments. This is an extraordinary award. But I think they jumped the gun. Can they let him prove himself before they go throwing shit at him because it sounds good? It's starting to look like we think that we're entitled to special favors b...

Ah, yes... I know it's Monday... But we had an awesome Future Friday. Overnight Mixtape, Vol 5. First thing I notice about number 5 is NO SKITS. and I like it! Feels more like an album than a mixtape and I REALLY like that (remember... I don't usually do mixtapes...). Let's look at this one song by song... "Overnight" - I don't like "Good Life" but I don't know... Maybe I just have a soft spot for Har - um... Future because I like this. I liked the Sir Lazenby intros, though. I would have liked that on this one. "I'm Back" - Future's Kanye flow? It sounds nice... He sounds nice on it. But it doesn't stand out for me. "My Way" - Miss B is back. I love this song. There's not much else to say about it. It's one of my favorites on this one. "Freestyle To Ya" - Another favorite. The last "Freestyle To Ya" was on Vol 4 and it was kind of a sleeper... This "Freestyle To Ya" is sweeter...

Marxism, which is the belief that "the means of production control a society's institutions and beliefs," originated with Karl Marx in 1845 (Dobie 86-87). Marx was a philosopher and economist who believed that the workers of society would rise and overturn capitalists, take control of the means of production, and distribute wealth fairly (Dobie 87). Literature plays an important role in such a society. Some writer "use Marxist interpretations and evaluations of society in their work" (Dobie 88). Know that an author writes with this particular bias would make one question how a piece of literature fits into the Marxist ideology. One may analyze a work to determine whether is promotes the current hegemony or seeks to inspire change. Lydia Davis's short story "The House Behind" is the story of two sets of tenants--those in the front house and those in the back--who are in different economic classes. The two groups constantly clash and this conflict t...

The other day I was listening to Fresh Air on NPR. Nick Hornby, who wrote High Fidelity and he has a new book and movie coming out. That's not so important to me, though. I'm more interested something he said about death, dying, religion, and his kid. Read a piece of the transcript: GROSS: Did that change your life, that sense that you are going to get old and die? Mr. HORNBY: Not as much as it should have done, I don't think. But you know when you turn 20 or 30 or 40, you go around making all the same jokes about oh, my God, I can't believe I'm so old. And - but when you're 50, you don't say it anymore because you just are old. So it's not so funny anymore. And there is a lot about mortality and regret, I think, in this book, and Tucker's six-year-old son has a real problem with the idea of mortality. And that was lifted out of my own six-year-old and a stage he went through - which was pretty interesting and quite distressing, actually. GROSS: A ...

On his show, David Letterman told his audience that he was being extorted for having affairs with some of his staff members. The admission isn't really the awkward part. The fact that his audience finds this hilarious is extremely odd. Watch below: Thanks Miss Info !