I'm going to start with the topic that everyone seems to bring up during our daily discussions about Chaucer. Based on the Wife of Bath's tale, I'm going to have to say that Chaucer is not a feminist, nor is he trying to write about women in a degrading way. I like that he has created a character who seems to be a full fledged liberal feminist. If I had to analyze her deeper as a real person, I would say that she has some huge low self-esteem issues. Women don't just sleep around and marry one guy to the next for no reason. Plus she married three rich men which shows that she cared about money. What better way to cover up low self-esteem then with money? But that's not really what I wanted to discuss. I don't think Chaucer is a feminist because he doesn't seem to glorify the idea of a women being in command. The Wife of Bath seems flighty, does she not? She also contradicts herself in the prologue about being a virgin and about having sex. Also her "moral of the story" isn't a very strong point (I'll go over that in the second paragraph). With those things in mind, I also don't believe that Chaucer was necessarily using those traits and circumstances to belittle women. I think he's simply showing the view of what liberal, feminist women are like. I could easily see a modern Wife of Bath the exact same way. Interesting how feminism has been around for so long and yet they still act completely alike.

Going back to the "moral of the story" now, which is basically: Men, give women all control in a relationship and life will be better. I don't think it's a very good point mostly because I don't believe in the feminist views, but also because of the fact that the WB told the story as a fairytale. One could make up any crazy story if it were a fairy tale and slap on a lesson at the end no matter how stupid it was. Basically this lesson is "taught" by a story that could never possibly happen. There are no ugly old hags waiting for a knight to ask for the secret to a women's desire in real life. No one can just suddenly become both beautiful/young and faithful/loyal (I'm not sure they can exist together period, haha) by free will. It just doesn't make any sense to tell a lesson off of an ancedote that could never occur in life anyway. This takes away from the WB's view credibility, but she does seem like a believable character because of these flaws.

I found it interesting that the WB's prologue was so much longer than her tale. I also think it's good because it gives so much more to compare and contrast her personality to. She is obviously a stereotypical raging feminist. I'm surprised she didn't talk about sleeping with other women too. The rich old husbands that she loved the most seemed to be much more submissive. She had more freedom with them than she did the younger husbands. It was when she married the younger man that she actually got hit and beaten because of his book about the evils of women. She stood up for her gender, ripped out pages, and got punished. And after one last fight they somehow agreed on things and the husband ended up giving her a more equal voice and role in their relationship. I'm not sure how that worked, but apparently it did. I would argue that the WB was lying, but I have nothing to support the idea with. Just that, it doesn't seem likely that a man so into the opression of women, would suddenly just change his mind and completely live in peace afterward. Not buying it. All in all though, this is my favorite character of the Canterbury Tales. She seems the most realistic.

My Introduction to me:

First of all, I'm really excited about this whole "blog thing" for class. I happen to just love blogs. They are what I do. And with that said, I would also like to announce that I am an aspiring writer. Going hand-in-hand with blogs, writing is my most favorite thing in the entire world to do. I write short stories, reads tons of books on writing, and I am currently editing my first "novel" which isn't very good, but is a start. My main goal in life is to become an established author. If I can't do that, I'd at least like to entertain my friends with daily blogs on myspace. Could you guess that I am an English major? I would also like to declare a minor in creative writing, but since I just transfered here as a junior (from California) I'm not quite "in" yet.

Some of my favorite books (in no particular order) are Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen (she's the reason I found out about UNC), Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld, Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, and Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk. I have a guilty pleasure for chic lit and young adult books for girls. As far as movies and TV go, I don't really watch much but I am an avid fan for Arrested Development. When I first heard it was being cancelled, I wanted to cry. At least the third season comes out in like 2 days, I think. Thank God. I also enjoy Family Guy (who doesn't?) and most of my favorite movies are indie films. They are sooo much better than what the mainstream is feeding us. Just to name a few, I do like Donnie Darko, Broken Flowers, Lost in Translation, Mean Creek, Maria Full of Grace, Garden State, Sleepy Hollow, June Bug, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I am in love with Scarlett Johannsen (sp?) and Johnny Depp. Two of my favorite actors right now. I don't think I'll ever stop loving Johnny though.

Music. This has always been a huge part of my life. I grew up listening to my dad play classic tunes on his acoustic guitar, and naturally I picked up those cues when I got older and learned how to play a lot of them myself. Sadly I haven't picked up my Ibanez for about a year (I had no room to bring it to NC either), but I'm hoping I'll get back into it again. My favorite band of all time is Soundgarden and anyone who loves them, probably could guess that by the title of my blog. Chris Cornell is like my idol of all idols so anything with him in it I'll listen to. Recently I've found true love in the electronica band Zero 7 and um, I guess I love classic rock too because of my dad.

I'm very upset right now, actually because where I lived in California (near San Francisco) every band who ever went on tour in the US stopped in at least 2 cities that were near me. Because I moved to UNC this month I am missing both TOOL and Zero 7. They are playing at the end of this month and at the beginning of September. I have never seen Tool live before and I feel like I'm missing my chance. On September 3rd they will be 15 minutes away from my house and I'll be like 3,000 : ( Did I mention that I drove from Cali to get here? That was fun. With a couple of stops in Vegas and Arizona it took my boyfriend and I about five days to get to Chapel Hill. We arrived at night and spent 2 hours driving around campus completely lost. It was dumb luck that we even found a hotel with one room left to sleep in before orientation the next day.

What I miss most about California is being in close proximity to the beach. Well, that and my friends/family. They kinda are a big deal to me too. Yeah, and I miss Hardee's being called Carl's Jr. No, just kidding. But it's weird how so many places/things have a different name out here. And what is up with all the sour kraut? I thought that stuff was only sold at KFC. I think it's digusting quite personally, but I do like BBQ pork. It's a change up from all the beef in Cali. Really though, I love Chapel Hill/Carolina a lot so far. It's just different, to use the broadest adjective of all time. I really hope I get to see a hint of snow when winter shows up because that is something I never got to see much of where I grew up. That and thunder storms. The humidity I could deal without.


I miss my dogs too : (


So how's that for an introductory, Prof. Lupton? I probably got carried away, but I don't really expect everyone to look at it anyway. It was mostly for my own enjoyment. Sorry if I made you read this cuz it's so long : /

Love,

me

Weeeeee... This is fun.

Love,

Me