Mark Twain Quotation

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“Whenever I am rested and feeling good I can’t help being frivolous.”

--“The Begum of Bengal,” speech, 1907

Initially, I think that this quote’s short length caught my eye. I always like the quotes that are short and simple because it makes them easy to remember. Although it may appear very simple, I think that this little wisdom is something that is relatable and applicable to the reader. Everyone has had a time when they have just felt really good. There wasn’t any specific reason you just kind of felt that way. I think that Twain’s making a point to recognize these moments; moments that could otherwise be easily passed by unrecognized.  He is able to capture that inexplicable feeling and remind the listener of this feeling in all it’s complexity in just a simple little passage. The tone of this quote is very casual, almost childish which helps bring the reader or listener into the moment that Twain is referring to. It is an honest and succinct message.

The vernacular in this passage also contributes a sort of complexity to an otherwise simply stated quote. Frivolous. This quote had a definite advantage in being chosen as my favorite because this has always been one of those words that I have just really liked for no particular reason.  In this passage, however, I think that it really adds to the carefree vibe. It makes the speaker sound light-hearted and you can tell that they really do feel good. Although Mark Twain’s life was full of both profound and simple truths, this one just really spoke to me personally-especially as summer approaches. This was just one of those quotes that I read a few times, thought about and immediately marked it with the intention of looking back to remember it. One of those things that you just would like to remember as you’re walking through TCU’s beautiful campus after you finish your last final exam as you look around at the blooming flowers and blue sky and feel like you could do anything you wanted. A feel good, memorable quote.

Humor 4

I know it’s a while past April 1^st but I successfully executed the best prank I can ever remember completing and I have to brag about it. Although this started off as something small and over a text message it turned out to be a pretty darn good joke with larger implications than I had foreseen.

Friday night I went to a birthday dinner with a group of good girl friends. We were all eating and talking and being plain old girly so, naturally, we got onto the topic of wedding rings and styles. One of my best friends always wears her grandma’s old ring on her right hand and so we started looking closely at her ring and examining the style. I’m not quite sure what turns the conversation took but all of a sudden she was wearing the ring on her left hand and joking about being engaged. The whole table was in play mode and giggling right along with her. 

Now, before I go on you should know a little more about this friend. I think every friend group has that one motherly figure that watches out for the group. That’s Julia. She is the one who likes cats, staying in, routine and anything that eschews adventure or unpredictability. This being said, she definitely isn’t out on the social scene. This implies that she also doesn’t know very many people, especially guys.

So, back to the glorious prank, I was also in play mode as this was going on and had what I would now like to label as a brilliant idea. I was texting a friend of mine who also knows Julia pretty well and we decided to send them a picture of the ring on her hand just to elicit a response. This is a harmless prank right? I mean who would believe that this girl, the girl who barely knows any guys at TCU, is randomly engaged?

Not the text recipient. Ironically, we also have another good friend named Julia who just so happened to also be at dinner that night. The text recipient knows a little less about that Julia than Grandma Julia and sent a response that reads, “Julia Peterson? Congrats! How exciting!” When I read this to the table they busted into hysterics. I think that the play mode of the table as well as the irony of the situation are what made the responses so intense. A simple joke we thought would be quickly shot down and seen through turned out to be even trickier than we anticipated.

So, what was going to be an innocent one-text joke soon to be forgotten turned into an elaborate prank via text message. We thought that this claim would be quickly dismissed but since our expectations were violated by the response we laughed, and then we decided the joke must go on. We made up a whole story about Julia’s high school sweetheart surprising her and proposing at the restaurant, the whole 9 yards. Then, on Saturday morning I went to breakfast with the victim of this prank and the topic was brought up again. I played it off like a champ.

Having forgotten about the whole situation, I was sitting at lunch with Grandma Julia in the BLUU today and cramming for a test. I looked and checked my phone and had a text from Julia Peterson and from the victim of the texts. Julia’s text reads “I am sorry” and the victim’s text read, “Just talked to Julia, you are so mean.” Again Julia and I burst out laughing. This time it was not the play mode that made us laugh but the sheer surprise that these messages presented.

This prank got to an unforeseen level of joking. I don’t normally assume the trickster role as our friend Juha does, but I have to admit watching this small seed of a prank bloom into something way bigger was gratifying. Apparently these friends encountered each other casually and the victim of the prank congratulated Julia on her engagement. Julia felt so awful (and was taken so off-guard) that she told the victim it was all a joke. I think that this is so funny partially because of the relief theory, I wasn’t the one who had to break it to the victim of the texts and I avoided their awkward confrontation.

There were definitely a lot of comic devices at play as this whole prank panned out over the course of four days. From the play mode initiating it to the element of surprise to end it, there are many reasons that one might laugh at this situation. I think that the drawn out course of the prank and nature of the different environments that it occurred in contribute to the humor diversity present in this joke, especially since text messages aren’t somewhere you would expect to be pranked. I know that some may feel pity for the victim of this prank, especially when I tell you that they had told some of their friends that happened to be at the same restaurant Friday about the engagement, but the victim took the joke gracefully overall. I should probably watch my back for some sort of revenge though just to be safe because the magnitude of embarrassment…in multiple friend groups. Needless to say I’m still laughing.

Humor 3

It’s 5:45 a.m. and my alarm goes off so I roll out of bed and groggily throw on my gym clothes. Unsuspecting, I jump at the sound of angry mumbles and grunts coming from the other corner of the room. I hastily run out of the room before I burst into hysterics in the otherwise silent room.

I know that people do weird things in their sleep but this particular morning is quite hilarious for anyone who knows my roommate. She’s the definition of an introvert. She’s pretty quiet unless we are in the midst of conversation, which only occurs in the middle of the day. I’m a morning person (as you may have guessed by the time of this event) and she is a night owl (we are talking about up until 3:00 a.m. type of night owl.)

A little over an hour and a half later I come back from my workout and creep back into my room unsuspecting once again and innocently getting ready for class after my shower. Out of nowhere my roommate begins to not only murmur strange things in her sleep but also furiously toss and turn. She would probably hate for me to mention this part but she also proceeded to throw her San Francisco Giants pillow pet across the room. Are you laughing yet? No? Don’t worry. There’s more. The pillow pet hit her lamp on her desk knocking it over. I wish I had this on video y’all. This woke her up, finally.  She was dazed and confused to say the least. She couldn’t resist but burst into pure unbridled laughter in disbelief about the crazy act. What a great start to the day.

It turns out that she, unfortunately, doesn’t do these types of acts on a regular basis but attributes these events to NyQuil she had taken to help combat her 2 week cold. I can vouch for her on this account because I have also experienced terrifying and bizarre dreams when I have been sick and taken NyQuil. Nevertheless, this morning was a definite bonding moment for my roommate and I.

I whole-heartedly agree with the idea that laughter is an effective means for relating to others, especially in awkward moments like these. This is something that she and I still talk about, laugh about, and tell our friends about. Personally, I still wonder what she is secretly so angry about or what strange dreams the magic that is Nyquil unleashed from her subconscious. (That’s a bit Freudian I suppose.)

At the risk of beating a dead horse I think talking about the role of cognitive shift in this situation is fitting because, as always, it is applicable. When you are half-awake in a stupor looking for your left sock and right shoe to drag your tired self to the gym about the last thing I would ever expect would have been any sign of life from my resting roommate. Literally I would expect a hurricane (yes, I know that’s highly improbable in Fort Worth so please roll with the exaggeration) to hit my dorm room before I would expect for her to say anything at this time of the day. Boom, there’s the cognitive shift. I especially didn’t expect for this to happen more than once, and in the same day.

Although it was fun to think my roommate has these type of outbursts on a regular basis, our common bond in our bizarre NyQuil outcomes has become a bonding point for the two of us. It also enhances the humor factor for this situation because instead of thinking about it in a superiority theory manner I keep wondering what I am like in this state of mind/sleep. Although it’s fun to laugh at her, I don’t well superior at all but more bonded with her and curious. There are many humorous theories and forces at play in that morning’s events but as I look back on it all I really can do is kick myself for not having the state of mind to grab my phone and capture some of this glorious occurrence on tape.

Tales of Juha: Wit & Wisdom

Reading the reviews and preface of Tales of Juha made me feel like I was the one kid at recess in elementary school that hadn’t heard the latest rumor. After completing the first section, I definitely agree with the universal role and symbolism of Juha that was proclaimed in the preface and reviews, but I don’t feel so much like I have missed out on some well-kept secret to enlightenment. The morals of the anecdotes carry universal themes and are just represented in a different cultural context in this novel.

The format of Tales of Juha kept me intrigued. They were easy to read and flowed together pretty well. Although most people appreciate continuity and beautiful flowing novels, choppy and witty anecdotes all connected (and some even more disconnected) are fine with me, especially clever little tales about a clever little protagonist.

I expected Juha to be a pristine character, clearly defined and described by the author (after all, the book is his namesake.) This was not the case. While Juha is definitely esteemed and well regarded by his community he is not easily defined, classified, or put into just one category. The character goes from beggar to scholar and from foolish to cunning. This is one of the ways that Juha’s universality is manifested. This also kept my interest piqued after reading the first portion of the novel. You never can predict Juha’s reaction or advice, other than the fact that the outcome will be in his favor.

 Juha’s character continued to violate my expectations as his advice and wisdom went from traditional or customary to witty and offbeat. (The section’s title was definitely fitting.) For example, when asked why Juha was eating with five fingers, he replied, “I don’t have six!” This was one of the many moments when Juha violates your expectations (yes, cognitive shift) and you can’t help but giggle. This book, as with the others in this course, is definitely not a laugh out loud type of read but it provides some interesting cognitive shifts along with a few opportunities to appreciate Juha’s snarky comebacks. Juha’s ever-changing modalities and ceaseless success in any situation he encounters certainly is fun to follow along.

Another quote that I enjoyed that defied the stereotypic response that one may expect was when Juha was asked about the proper etiquette for walking in a funeral procession. Juha replied “as long as you are not in the coffin…you can walk wherever you like.” I appreciate these quotes because they keep the reader on their toes about what Juha will say next and integrate some light-hearted answers as alternatives for potentially boring or daunting rants about social norms.

As I mentioned earlier, I don’t think any of the truths offered by Juha are profound or unheard of by our culture. I feel as if every culture has their own Juha with the same tales and morals to share. It could be helpful to have more cultural context for some of the anecdotes, it’s a little hard for me to relate to a story about a stolen donkey, but the motifs global nonetheless.  

Eavesdropper

For Easter weekend I went to visit my family down in Spring Branch.  Not expecting to get much done in the realm of schoolwork I indulged in quality family time and good eating. Little did I know these things would eventually lead to the perfect eavesdropping situation. My aunt and I were in the kitchen cooking with the screen door to the patio open letting in cool spring air. My uncle, cousin and the neighbor were all having guy talk out on the patio and in just a few moments of quiet/alone in the kitchen I was able to eavesdrop on their conversation.

My findings? Guys are weird.

 The conversation was about 50% guns and airplanes talk and 50% random movie quoting. (You will not survive 5 minutes with my family if you don't have a huge repertoire of random knowledge and witty one-liners to throw out.) This bizarre family dynamic is even more amplified when the women aren't around to mediate (in other words dominate) the conversation or ruin the manly quoting banter with sheer confusion. I'm still not really sure what I eavesdropped on. Jason, the neighbor, went from talking about his golf game (laughing and making self deprecating remarks about his golf abilities) to talking about going to fly a plane this afternoon both randomly strung together making no sense. 

I was not the only one confused by this shift in topic. The rapid shift caught Jason's conversation partners off guard eliciting a chuckle. Laughing was interspersed throughout the conversation flowing from quote to random stories from the week. My cousin is the master of quoting any humorous movie in the last 3 decades and was just on fire, or at least my uncle and Jason thought so, for the few minutes I could hear. 

I don't know that this is a fair representation of what an average conversation is really like. My family considers Spring Branch a little slice of heaven with family, near perfect weather year round and great food. We are all so at ease on the weekends we get to spend together. The neighborhood that they live in is also extremely close-knit (Jason literally just walked through the front door and joined in on our afternoon.) I think these factors led to a very personable and laid back conversation where laughter is mostly expected and doesn't seem out of place, even to an eavesdropper. Other than the fact that guys talk about weird things, like pop-up backpacks and pawn shops they frequent, I wasn't surprised by my findings and the frequency of their laughter.

We have said humor is very contextual and social. My cousin's use of movie quoting made me think about these aspects of humor. Quoting things by nature takes something out of its original context and into a whole new element. Sticking these well-know witticisms into a new light is often funny and I think that this is for 1 of 2 reasons. (1) the quote actually fits into the current situation and the irony just makes you laugh or (2) it just reminds you of it's original context and you laugh thinking back about whatever the quote's source is. 

In my eavesdropping both forms of "quote humor" were exhibited. For the latter, my cousin randomly threw out a completely irrelevant Talladega Nights quote in a brief lull in conversation that led to a 30 second back and forth quote-a-thon with the 3 conversationalists.

Like I said, turns out guys are weird.

Reading 3

Vonnegut’s Slaughter-house Five is filled to the brim with instances of cruel irony and dark humor. After completing the novel, I still don’t really feel a sense of closure or an inclination to label the book as one thing or another. Vonnegut switches from war novel to allegory to science fiction and back again far too many times and in such and intermingled and delicate way for the book to be given one simple label. Although this makes the book a bit hard to follow and completely digest, Vonnegut really does employ some effective literary tools.

Perhaps the greatest example of irony is the passage when the Englishman is speaking to the Americans before they leave their camp about Dresden and proclaims, “You needn’t worry about bombs, by the way. Dresden is an open city….” This is very tragic and really made me cringe as I read on about the rambling of the elated Englishman. Going into the book almost every reader knows the fate of Dresden and there are many small instances when the reader and Billy Pilgrim alike are tortured by this foresight.

Another device that Vonnegut employs to help keep the readers cringing is simply his diction. There are many passages in Slaughter-house Five that are so saturated with description and vivid imagery that even though they may be immensely morbid or grotesque you can’t help but read them twice to really appreciate them. Descriptions like, “Next to Lazzarro was the poor old high school teacher, Edgar Derby, mournfully pregnant with patriotism and middle age and imaginary wisdom.” Pregnant with patriotism, both the alliteration coupled with just bizarre and not often associated terms made me really appreciate this passage. This type of passage is not in poor company. There are many grotesque war descriptions or other bizarre perspectives on the people around Billy to keep the reader enticed. One of my other favorite descriptions that Vonnegut used was the description of Dresden after the bombing as the moon. This image is utilized throughout the second half of the book and ties in the reality of what happened with the delusions of Billy’s extraterrestrial life. I think that although Vonnegut’s writing is undeniably scattered there are certainly passages and even whole parts of the novel that deserve recognition for skilled diction and imagery.

In my last post I talked about the effectiveness of the use of repetition in this novel and the last half and end of the book certainly upheld my belief that this is one of the devices that Vonnegut frequently and effectively employs. I noticed that there are two times in the second part of the novel (at least) where passive Billy talks about everything being all right. This repetition really drives the point home. On page 200 when Billy is being taken down the mountain from the accident and is looking at the chairlifts his delusional thoughts are narrated as this, “He supposed that they were a part of an amazing new phase of World War Two. It was all right with him. Everything was pretty much all right with Billy.” This shows both his passiveness in an extreme situation as well as his declining mental state. Later Billy tells Rumfoord in the hospital “Everything is all right, and everybody has to do exactly what he does, I learned that of Talfamadore.” He again is referencing the war. There is such tragic understatement in both of these instances, but I think that Billy simply feels that he is powerless to do or be anything but passive after his life experiences. As the story is winding down Vonnegut also uses the repetition of soot and chalk, which build some of the closing images, especially of Montana Wildhack. These images are a part of what I would call the final unveiling of Billy’s declined mental state which occurs predominately in the final detailing of his trip to New York.

You find out where a lot of the bizarre elements of Billy’s delusions, like Montana Wildhack and Kilgore Trout’s novels, in such a subtle yet not-so-subtle manner. Billy’s trip to New York therefore is really symbolic of the last of Billy’s sanity and dignity really being taken away from him. Dark is this book indeed. There are glimmers of humor but this novel is not something I would choose for a light and laughable read. I’m not sure that I am much of a fan of dark humor although I can appreciate the instances of irony that are used for such means.

My thoughts on Slaughter-house Five are still a bit disheveled, perhaps because of the book’s format itself. The ending with the repetition of ‘Po-tee-weet?’ was simple and honest and one of the things that sticks out to me in retrospect.  I think that this simple ending is just what the book needed. Vonnegut couldn’t have had an elaborate ending with the glory of the war’s end detailed. That would have been generic and mainstream. Instead, the use of the bird reference and repetition of ‘Po-tee-weet?’ end the book engaging the reader to keep thinking even though the novel has ended.

Conversation 7

Guilherme and I met for our last time yesterday and neither of us could believe it. Seven meetings have already passed by? This semester is moving by way too fast!

We used the majority of our last meeting discussing stories from break and catching up since it had been almost ten days since we last met. Guilherme is all moved into his new apartment and loves being able to be more independent now. His break consisted of far more than just moving into his apartment as he had originally suspected. He and his girlfriend’s 3 day trip turned into a tour of many stops in Texas including Abilene, New Braunfels and a few other smaller cities.  Guilherme was relieved that his girlfriend’s mother gave a couch and table to him for his apartment, saving him some money. He laughed as he detailed he and his girlfriend attempting to move the couch and table upstairs—needless to say it was not a successful event.

Guilherme is pretty much settled into his apartment at this point and was excited because yesterday the cable and Internet company was finally coming to install his cable and Wifi. Guilherme and I laughed about how hard it is for people our age to get by without these things and he told me about how he has been occupying his time with reading. He then proceeded to ask me about my Spring Break and laughed in his usual polite manner at all of my stories from Destin. He seemed to be shocked that I survived a road trip for 26 hours in a car with six girls, I can’t say that I blame him much because I was pretty surprised, too.

We both agreed that Spring Fever is in full force (after I explained to him what I meant by this) and got into talking about our plans for the summer. Guilherme bragged about his girlfriend’s internship that she got for this summer in Atlanta. She was one of five student picked for the program so I guess his bragging was within reason. Guilherme plans to volunteer more with Destination Imagination this Spring and Summer for the state competitions. He was not sure how long into summer IEP goes or if he even gets a break from the classes since he has to maintain the criteria for a student visa. This was mind blowing news to me- a student who isn’t counting down the days until summer...what kind of person is this?? I told Guilherme about my summer plans and he was delighted to hear that I was also going to be doing some volunteer work this summer in my free time.

Before we knew it the meeting was coming to an end so that I could make it to class on time. We left Union Grounds and walked together through the commons as Guilherme insisted that we become Facebook friends so that we can somehow stay in contact without our weekly meetings. I don’t know why neither of us thought of this earlier but he now has a friend request from me awaiting him once he logs in on his newly installed Wifi.

The conversation partner experience was an enjoyable component of this class for me. I was lucky to have a partner who was skilled in English as my partner, and who I feel probably taught me more than I was able to teach him. I normally love to use travel as a means to connect with a different culture but the opportunity to learn about the people of a different culture right on campus proved to be worthwhile and quite interesting.