Here is my finished appropriation, the four letter/poems from Abelard and Eloisa.
To Abelard, my lord,
My love I write to you at last,
Although I thought these passions passed.
Like a phoenix from the cinder,
Love returns again to hinder
This process of forgetfulness,
And draws me from my dark recess.
This letter comes from painful tears,
Forgotten in these silent years.
Unsettled by your words and woes,
That stirred me from my sweet repose.
Sadness flows and blots the page
As I write from ho…
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Added by Will P on August 25, 2009 at 10:41pm —
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Abelard was a 12th century philosopher, theologian and scholar. He’s even described by the Chambers Biographical Dictionary as “the keenest thinker and boldest theologian of the 12th Century.” To me that is a pretty amazing achievement. He was able to think so far outside the box of his provincial society and extend how people thought about themselves and matters relating to religion and philosophy. He became one of the most respected and famous teachers of philosophy in Paris, if not Western Eu…
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Added by Will P on August 18, 2009 at 11:17pm —
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Ok, so I've got the draft for the first letter in my appropriatio. It's Eloisa writing to Abelard after their long silence, once she had read his History of Calamities, just as she writes to him in their original love letters.
To Abelard, my lord,
My love I write to you at last,
Although I thought these passions passed.
Like a phoenix from the cinder,
Love returns again to hinder
This process of forgetfulness,
And draws me from my dark recess.
This letter comes from painful tears,
Forgotten i…
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Added by Will P on August 18, 2009 at 2:05pm —
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So I've just finished the draft for one of the poem/letters for my appropriation. This one is from Abelard to Eloisa. My plan is to have two or three poem/letters from each other the two, and as they write back to each other each time they forget a little bit or their love in the process. I'm not sure where this one will fit in at the moment but I'm sure I'll work something out. Anyway, here is it.
My Dear Eloisa
Once considered sweet release,
Your memory gives my heart no peace;
A recollectio…
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Added by Will P on August 11, 2009 at 11:32pm —
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So in my previous blog post I talked about Eloisa, having previously only talking about Heloise. I feel I should make the distinction. Heloise, as I call her, is the 12th century nun, while Eloisa is the character in Alexander Pope's poem and the character I use in my appropriation. They're not really that different, though Heloise is the real life woman and Eloisa is how Pope saw her from his 18th century perspective. Therefore, this blog post is devoted to the exploration of Heloise.
Heloise’…
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Added by Will P on August 11, 2009 at 10:30pm —
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What causes a person to turn against their lover and retreat to the church? To renounce love and devote oneself to God is an admirable thing to do, though it also seems like such a waste of a life and a love. Eloisa doesn’t choose this life; she takes it out of duty for her husband. She doesn’t know it marks the final time she will see Abelard, she just accepts that he wishes to keep her safe, and to do so, for the time being, she must join the convent. She gives up her child and her husband, th…
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Added by Will P on August 9, 2009 at 8:38pm —
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I found this quatation from the first letter Heloise wrote to Abelard, in response to reading his History or Calamities.
I have made it an observation since our absence, that we are much fonder of the pictures of those we love when they are at a great distance than when they are near us. It seems to me as if the farther they are removed their pictures grow the more finished, and acquire a greater resemblance; or the power of lettersat least our imagination, which perpetually figures them to…
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Added by Will P on August 2, 2009 at 10:30pm —
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I just found another quote that goes "I'm just a fucked-up girl looking for my own piece of mind, I'm not perfect." It made me remember that Clementine says the quote twice, though slightly differently each time. Once is within a memory that Joel is revisiting during the procedure and once is after they meet again after they both had the procedures done. Maybe it's different because Joel's memory faded, or maybe people had the same problem as me figuring out whether it was 'piece' or peace. I sh…
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Added by Will P on July 28, 2009 at 10:48pm —
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I watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind again the other day (it seems I can't get enough of it) and I picked up an interesting double meaning in a line spoken by Kate Winslet's character, Clementine. The line goes:
"I'm just a fucked-up girl looking who's looking for my own peace of mind"
I thought this was really interesting because I wasn't sure if she said 'peace' or 'piece'. In fact I just looked up quotes from the movie online to find it written as 'peace'. So now I'll talk about…
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Added by Will P on July 28, 2009 at 10:32pm —
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I thought I'd make a change and write about text-culture-values in this blog.
I wanted to focus of the secrecy of the love between Heloise and Abelard. Abelard writes to his friend Philintus, expressing how he had become conquered by his immediate love for Heloise. Of course, he cannot proclaim this to her, so must infiltrate her home under the impression that he will become her private tutor to get close to her. I guess that makes it more romantic, the fact he would go to those lengths just to…
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Added by Will P on July 27, 2009 at 8:30pm —
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We are part of a world bombarded by fast imagery. We’re constantly searching for the next hot new thing so we can watch its 15 minutes of fame. We constantly move from one thing to another, never really stopping to evaluate what is around us. Yet memory persists.
Hard as we try, we cannot make ourselves forget. Realistically, all we can do to aid forgetting it wait. Time will fade memories, but what if we can’t wait that long? Can something really be that bad that we would seek out something to…
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Added by Will P on July 23, 2009 at 11:30am —
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I thought I would talk about my other appropriation, 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'. The title itself is a reference to the Alexander Pope poem. It is a line from the poem, said be Heloise I think, and it is also quoted within the movie within a larger quote of surrounding lines. I think they are so beautiful and so perfect for the themes of the texts.They are:
How happy is the blameless Vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot:
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Eac…
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Added by Will P on July 22, 2009 at 11:06pm —
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I felt like putting this up but I wanted to keep it separate from my more critical thinking blog posts.
I have started some initial stanzas that I hope to further develop into poems for my appropriation. I've tried to capture the problematic realisation that the two lovers must begin to let go of one another and forget their romance for a life of god. These are intelligent individuals who do not need the limitations of the church, but have been forced to resign to slavage what is left of their…
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Added by Will P on July 21, 2009 at 11:02pm —
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Term 3 has arrived, and with it we must get stuck into our projects, so here I go with my first blog.
I finally settled on the story of Heloise and Abelard about halfway through the holidays and then set about trying to find a written form of this amazing true story. I searched the internet and found various accounts of the story, which further informed me about the fascinating story I read on Wikipedia. Thankfully I have finally found a website with actual letters from Heloise to Abelard and v…
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Added by Will P on July 21, 2009 at 10:51pm —
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I'm just letting everyone know that I've settled on the story of Eloisa and Abelard for my third term text. I think the concepts of memory and love and how people love that it explores are very interesting and will make for good discussions and inspiration for my own appropriation.
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Added by Will P on July 4, 2009 at 11:43am —
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It seems like I haven't written a blog in ages but it also seems like we haven't really had an English Extension lesson in ages too. Anyway, here I go, back in the deep end once more.
I really liked this term of the course. Although I didn't particularly enjoy the Odyssey as a text it was very interesting to examine it and analyse it in comparrison with the Penelopiad and my own text culture values. I really think my understanding of text culture values has been greatly enhanced through this pa…
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Added by Will P on June 23, 2009 at 10:56pm —
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I have decided on my extract from the Odyssey for my viva voce. It's from the chapter where Odysseus is stuck on the island with Calypso. I wanted to a passage that showed Odysseus in a different light. And by different light I mean a passage that exposes him as an immoral character who's values seem all too lacking. This passage struck me bercause of the contradiction of Odysseus' actions. Calypso is trying to seduce him, but he assures her he has only for his wife. Although he can appreciate t…
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Added by Will P on June 10, 2009 at 10:45pm —
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One major thing struck me when doing my sections of the Odyssey project. My appropriation was the story of Polyphemus the giant trying to win compensation for his blindness at the hands of Odysseus. It was long winded and heavy in dialogue, as I was trying to emulate the style of the Odyssey. However I don't think it was very successful. To me it just seemed kind of boring. I just found myself not enjoying the experience of writing it. With my second piece however, I thought it worked a whole lo…
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Added by Will P on June 4, 2009 at 9:13pm —
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OMG! I finally finished my drafts for my appropriation of a minor character's perspective and the conversation.
My appropriation is the tale of Polyphemus, the cyclops, seeking compensation for his blindness and trying to put Odysseus behind bars for the vicious assault. I tried to make it very heavy in dialogue because this was the style of the Odyssey. It's also very long, like the Odyssey. Hopefully not needlessly long, but the Odyssey was a bit like that for me so maybe it's all part of my…
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Added by Will P on May 31, 2009 at 10:12pm —
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It was very interesting to have a session about the Odyssey almost completey through the eyes of another book, Ulysses by James Joyce. I have always been fascinated with this book but never had the courage to read it. It's such an interesting concept to incorporate the aspects of the challenges Odysseus faced in the Odyssey into the story of one man's day in Dublin. To me, Ulysses seems more appealing to people. It is real, it is mundane. There are no flying beasts or mythical Gods, just the mon…
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Added by Will P on May 24, 2009 at 11:11am —
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