Prior to the 20th Century, conceptions of consistent, mathematical pattern evident within the abstract aspects of the natural world were the subjects of frustration and anguish in the discipline of mathematics. While linear, Euclidean geometry was widely known and used in defining physical and natural phenomena, the more intricate pieces of geometrical presence in nature…
Author: Bex
A Brief Reflection on John Hawkes’ Travesty
Among the many monologue-like conversations that take place within the pages of John Hawkes’ Travesty, several eerie and continual themes arise, providing the readers insight regarding the absurd and mad mind of the speaker, as well as the overall intention of the author. The speaker touches on ideas of time and space—within the hour and…
A Brief Reflection on Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia
The storyline of Arcadia by Tom Stoppard centers on the scientific concept of thermodynamics. The Second Law of Thermodynamics is the idea that everything in nature tends toward disorder through irreversible action. Throughout the story, the author draws attention to certain aspects of life that illustrate this phenomenon, not only expressing the scientific interest behind…
An Exercise in Formalism with Larkin’s “A Study of Reading Habits”
A Study of Reading Habits When getting my nose in a bookCured most things short of school,It was worth ruining my eyesTo know I could still keep cool,And deal out the old right hookTo dirty dogs twice my size. Later, with inch-thick specs,Evil was just my lark:Me and my cloak and fangsHad ripping times in…
A Brief Reflection on Robbe-Grillet’s Jealousy
Jealousy, like many carnal vices, is a reoccurring sentiment which often manifests as the repetition of a painful scenario over and over again in the mind. As such, it requires a significant amount of willpower to overcome, a choice to let go of the sore longings straining every thought and rest instead in contentment. It…
A Short Reflection on Franz Kafka’s The Castle
The biblical book of Ecclesiastes is replete with statements exclaiming ideas that “all is vanity,” “chasing after the wind,” and “grasping for the air.” The reference of these claims is to all the natural and human work that can be done on the earth. The author of Ecclesiastes, which scholars believe to have been King…
A Brief Explication of Philip Larkin’s “The Trees”
The Trees The trees are coming into leafLike something almost being said;The recent buds relax and spread,Their greenness is a kind of grief. Is it that they are born againAnd we grow old? No, they die too,Their yearly trick of looking newIs written down in rings of grain. Yet still the unresting castles threshIn fullgrown…
An Informed Close Reading of Philip Larkin’s “This Be the Verse”
This Be the Verse They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do. They fill you with the faults they had And add some extra, just for you. But they were fucked up in their turn By fools in old-style hats and coats, Who half the time were soppy-stern And…
Shifting Ideologies of Sleeping Beauty through the Voices of Perrault, Grimm, and Carter
Morality, to the world at large, has always hinged on cultural perspective. In the western world, there is presently a widespread inclination toward more liberal ideologies like feminism, open and diverse sexuality, and universalistic faith systems, which is a shift from its generally conservative perspectives on morality that were common even 100 years ago. Through…
Re-Visioning Angela Carter’s The Erl-King Against Its Origin
The tale of the Erl-King originated from a popular Scandinavian folklore telling of a seductive and mischievous elf-king and his daughters. The tales were modified as they spread to various countries across northern Europe, and in the late Eighteenth Century, a German writer named Johann Wolfgang von Goethe pieced together a poem-version which he titled…