The Great Chessmaster 2009

Omar Khayyam's quatrain 69 from the Rubaiyat reads:

But helpless Pieces of the Game He plays

Upon this Checker-board of Nights and Days;

Hither and thither moves, and checks, and slays,

And one by one back in the Closet lays.

Let's first discuss Khayyam's quatrain. What is he suggesting? You may want to become acquainted with Khayyam--his poetry, his contributions to society, and his famous poetry.

Second, do you agree with Khayyam's view? Why or why not?

Ms. Coleman

Hey!

I've been trying to figure out a way of getting a hold of you, but I've lost all the contact info you had given us lost year (it may have ended up in an end-of-the-year bonfire, being overlooked as just scrap paper, I'm not sure). I've been waiting for months for this publication to open back up--it's a good one too, "Greatest Uncommon Denominator"--that I want to send Existing Parallels to. I was hoping you wouldn't mind taking one last look at it, any last input or advice or thoughts? It's a young, award-winning magazine, and quite prestiguous already. I want to make sure the story is solid and has a chance. If you're too busy I completely understand, I'm not far removed from your classroom.

Incase you don't have it anymore, my e-mail is minnesota9106@charter.net.

Either way, I hope classes have started well for you!
Kyle

Welcome Back to the Blog

This is a painting entitle "Work" by Ford Madox Brown. It was painted circa 1852-65. Here is a link to the painting as well. Please choose your lens through which to view the artwork. (Another visual avenue.) Bring your notes to share tomorrow.

Wuthering Heights
The story we have all been reading. Initial thoughts? surprisingly interesting. I don't know about you guys but this book is a really hard read for me and that's probably why it's considered such a great story. But it's not so much the story line but how it's written. I feel the author wrote this book in old 19th century style writing along with a lot of vague pronoun reference. Does anyone else feel confused and lost because often Emily B won't specify who is doing what? There is SO much he and she it's really hard to keep up! Don't get me wrong the story line it's self is fascinating. Heathcliff is one crazy character that I often wonder what I would do if I were in the other characters shoes living anywhere near the man! He is scary and enticing all at the same time. Catherine in my opinion is strong willed and weak at the same time. Her stupidity and immaturity is what makes this woman weak. It's funny how we talked in class today about love and how class rank takes a tole in the roles of marriage. My immediate thought was the difference between all of the couples. For example....take Heathcliff and Catherine, if they were to marry my best assumption would be they would take equal roles in accomplishing things that need to get done. I don't know why but it has to do with them both madly in love with each other thus both equally wanting to take care of each other. Then there is Catherine and Edgar. Edgar is WAY more in love with Catherine than she is with him thus he treats her like a princess where she hardly pays attention to him! Finally there is Heathcliff and Isabella. Before she knows the true Heathcliff she is madly in love with him while he could care less. The only reason they get married is because Heathcliff uses her as a slave and to make Catherine jealous of them. So I pose a question. According to the rules applied in the marriages in the centuries past, how woman are considered so called slaves as they do everything for their man in return for protection and providment, and how men are the dominant being as a woman are considered more like a thing, does that mean men possibly don't love their wives at least according to this story we are reading? Think about it. When ever a character loves another they take care of them, nourish them, and aid to them for anything while the ones that do not love the other pay little attention and treat the other one like crap and make them do things for them. Sound familiar? By the way I'm not saying men back then did not love their wives I'm asking is it possible that were the case for many of them back then using their woman and having marriage as an excuse to control them because apparently love was more important to some than others? But then does that mean now that more of us are treated equal that love has grown more strong and couples love each other more equally? I dunno what could cause something like this to help influence to make people think these ways but I'm just wondering.....

posted by jagzluv709

Psycopath?

Please read the following poem, brought in by 3rd hour's Matt Tharp,

We're the unmended, the untended,

Cold soldiers of the shoe. We're the neglected,

The never resurrected, agonies of the few.

We're the once kissed, unmissed and always refused.

Because we're the unfinished

And feared and we're never pursued.

And just that easily, on my behalf,

I come around. Because I'm buring.

the beasts of war feeds only on the meats of war.

And now I'm for the carnage.

Here's how my anguish frees.

Destroy everyone of course. Because I'm unwanted

And unsafe. And I'll take tears away with torments and rape,

Killings and fears not even the dead will escape.

Encircling the guilty, ashamed, blameless and enslaved.

Absolved. Butchering their prejudice.

Patience. Their value. Because I'm without value.

I'm the coming of every holocaust. Turning no lost.

Rending tissue, sinew and bone. Excepting no suffering.

By me all levees will break. all silos heave.

I will walk heavy.

And I will walk strange.

Because I am too soon.

Because without her, I am only revolutions of ruin.

Because I am too soon.

Because without you, I am only revolutions of ruin.

I'm the prophecy of prophecies past.

Why need dies at last.

How oceans dry. Islands drown.

And skies of salt crash to the ground.

I turn the powerful. Defy the weak.

Only grass grows down abandoned streets.

For a greater economy shall follow us.

And it will be undone.

And a greater autonomy shall follow us.

And it too will be undone.

And a greater feeling shall follow love.

And it too will blow to dust.

For I am longings without trust. The cyclodial haste,

Freedom from Hailey forever wastes.

Dust cares only for dust.

And time only for us.

Consider this poem while answering Kyle Burton's (3rd hour) question,

"With the loss of Catherine, Heathcliff becomes a cruel and vioent man, showing no remorse for his atrocities. Does Heathcliff truly have a conscience or is he, at heart, a psycopath?"

Dante and Bronte

Jason Dorn (2nd hour) wonders, as do I, in what level of Dante's Inferno would you place the various characters of Wuthering Heights?

Metaphysics and the Moors

Devinne Walters (2nd Hour) brought up the point that Emily Bronte's novel is metaphysical. The characters of Heathcliff and Cathy seem otherworldly, as if their love is archetypal. Have they been together in past lives? Are they, indeed, forces of nature, only comforable when they are outside on the moors? Please comment.