IN WHICH The Girl Gets Poetic

If anyone were to ask me if I liked poetry or prose more, I would automatically say prose. When given the opportunity, I almost always choose to read stories and novels over poetry. However, it doesn't take much to remind me how much I truly love poetry.

For the first time in a while, I'm teaching a class with literature. As I started to prepare the poetry unit, I found myself going through the book exclaiming, "Oh we have to do this one... and this one too... and I love this poem... and how can they not be introduced to this one!" Needless to say, I had a list of way too many poems to cover in the time allotted. This is still a composition class, so we only have a few days to really focus on the poems before we revert back to talking about writing.

At the very least, I wanted them to actually listen to poetry and maybe appreciate the sound of it if nothing else. There were a few poems that I got really excited about in class. They probably just thought I was crazy. If you have never heard Gwendolyn Brooks read her poem, "We Real Cool," you are seriously missing out. It's probably my favorite reading of a poem ever. My own version of it never sounds nearly as "cool." Here's an audio version. She actually introduces the poem a bit, and that explanation is helpful. The poem itself starts around 1:45.




Some poems are fun to discuss because you can see students' faces as they realize what a poem is actually about. For example, most of my students didn't really get that "The Ruined Maid" by Thomas Hardy is talking about a girl who had sex before marriage and is likely a prostitute or mistress:

"O 'Melia, my dear, this does everything crown!
Who could have supposed I should meet you in Town?
And whence such fair garments, such prosperi-ty?" —
"O didn't you know I'd been ruined?" said she. 

That revelation was pretty entertaining to witness. We also read Shakespeare's Sonnet 130 - "My Mistress' Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun," and one student actually said, "Oh no, he didn't!" when he starts making uncomplimentary comparisons. You know you want to Alan Rickman read this poem (and watch someone's YouTube tribute to him):



Reading "anyone lived in a pretty how town" by e.e. cummings is also fun because it sounds so nonsensical when you first hear it. Then I'm like, "Wait, wait, there is some semblance of order and meaning here! I promise."



Lastly, there's my all-time favorite of "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot. I didn't actually make them do this whole poem because of time and difficulty. We just looked at one stanza as an allusion to Carl Sandburg's "Fog." There are multiple reasons I love this poem despite its pretentiousness. One is just the language itself and juxtaposition of beautiful imagery - "when the evening is spread out against the sky," with disturbing imagery - "like a patient etherized upon a table." Also, the whole thing is just about this dude's indecisiveness about making a move and fear of misinterpretation. I get that. If I ever get another tattoo, I want it to be the lines:

"Do I dare
 Disturb the universe?"

I found this really weird animated version of the poem to share with you. Not sure who thought this was a good idea:


Well there's a few poems for your weekend. Enjoy!

IN WHICH The Girl Goes Country

What a year? I think we'd all agree that 2016 has been a crazy roller coaster. While I've certainly been feeling those bumps along with the rest of America, I've also had quite a few changes in my personal and professional life in the last six months.

Last I wrote, way back in the spring, I was trying to catch my own heffalump of a college teaching position. Well that heffalump has been located, caught, and successfully trussed up with a bow! Does that sentence even make sense? It's finals week, so I'm down to about two working brain cells. In other words, I am now a tenure-track college professor. Yippie!

It's been quite the stretch of highs and lows. I spent all spring applying and interviewing for jobs across the country, swinging from hope to disappointment again and again. But then it happened! Someone wanted to pay me a real salary! With benefits! I was starting to think I'd be an adjunct forever. But getting my dream job also meant moving from bustling Chicago to a small town of about 12,000 halfway across the country. All the feels.

Come summer, I moved to the boondocks: a cute but very small midwestern town with lots of antique stores and no Starbucks. Yes, there are apparently places in the world without Starbucks. It's been an adjustment. It's possible I may have received an inaccurate picture of small town life from Gilmore Girls (did everyone watch the revival?) and Hallmark Christmas movies. It doesn't seem to be quite as quirky as I imagined and no cowboy has come to my rescue yet. Nevertheless, the portrayal of Christmas spirit seems on point. The main street, actually called Main Street, is adorably lit up and decorated. Plus, there's a big lighting display in the park that you can ride a horse and carriage through on the weekends. In the Hallmark movie, this is the time when I would accidentally trip while trying to step into the carriage and a strapping country boy would catch me and fall in love with me instantaneously.

As of yet, no Knitathon in Stars Hollow Style

But lest you think I've been wallowing in loneliness, the mad rush of new classes and students has kept me busy straight through to today. I'm very smart and decided that on top of learning all the intricacies of teaching new classes at a new school, I would also overload my schedule. When given the choice between a little more money and sanity, choose sanity.

In the midst of all this change, there's been little time or energy for writing. I have been reading though, and I'm actually closer to my Goodreads goal than I predicted. My reading has also reflected the chaos in that I've mainly only read light and fluffy books because I can't handle anything too dark and serious at the moment. If 2015 was the year of the young adult fantasy, 2016 was the year of the contemporary romance, both adult and young adult. Once finals are over, I'll post my favorites from the year.

Now, let me turn in this "What did you do this summer?" essay to my teacher... Heffa nice day!

IN WHICH The Girl Has Dolla Dolla Bling

Whenever the lottery reward reaches record heights, many people get swept up in the dream of suddenly rolling in the big money. I'm generally not a lottery player, but even I felt that need to put my two dollars in for a Powerball ticket. Unfortunately, I didn't get even one number right. At least give me the four dollar prize guys!

In the time leading up to the drawing, I did have a chance to play out multiple fantasies of wealth. Life with more than $10 in my bank account! Paying off those ungodly student loans! Food! A beautiful condo with a view! And books... books... books...

As a literary lover, I came up with several awesome things I could do with my millions. If you did happen to win the jackpot, here are some ideas:

Buy Things

Of course, now that I no longer need to worry about money, I can stop waiting on hold for the most popular books from the library. I can just buy them right away! What? That's crazy. I think I look at the library website every day to see if they have the new releases in yet. Yes, I know that I have a bazillion other books to read, but I want the pretty, new things. Plus, now that I won't need to work for a living, I will have all the time in the world to read all the books in the world.

But these are small potatoes. Why think about ten dollar books when you can think about ten thousand dollar books? Now is the time to start collecting rare books. For example, I could get a special first edition copy of Winnie-the-Pooh on Japanese vellum, signed by both the author and the illustrator for $51,941. 

Flickr/British Library

I'm a billionaire now - let's ignore the realities of taxes - so I can also try to get my hands on the most expensive books out there. Forbes list of the most expensive books ever sold lists the Codex Leicester of Leonardo da Vinci at $49.4 million and Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (1623), The First Folio by William Shakespeare at $8.2 million. Want to sell me that Codex, Mr. Gates?

Where shall I sit while reading Shakespeare's first folio? Why in Pemberley of course! For a mere $12.5 million - less than that Codex you might note - I can purchase Wentworth Woodhouse, which may have inspired Jane Austen's version of Pemberley in Pride and Prejudice and is currently for sale. I've already started auctioning off the 300 rooms to friends. I'm generous. 

Wentworth Woodhouse                Flickr/Allan Harris

For my additional homes across the world, there are several houses associated with famous authors that I could purchase. How about this lovely $35 million estate in California that once belonged to Thomas Mann and was in Scarface. Here's a list of additional literary housing options as well.

Visit Things

Real Gabinete Português de Leitura   Flickr/Mathieu Bertrand Struck

Now that I am comfortably settled in my Austen-style mansion filled with books, I can start traveling. There are hundreds of literary destinations. I could take a world library tour, for instance, including the Liyuan Library in Beijing, China, which apparently is built with timber to blend into the forest and sits on a lake, and the Real Gabinete Português de Leitura in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil that is just darn beautiful. 

Liyuan Library Outside         Flickr/LiXiaodong Atelier

Liyuan Library Inside         Flickr/LiXiaodong Atelier

Or I could travel around to the literary museums. Did you know that there is Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem where you can view the Dead Sea Scrolls? Bustle has put together a list of several more. From here I also learned that The American Writer's Museum will be opening up in Chicago next year! Yay!

Shrine of the Book                         Flickr/Christyn

After all this museum and library hopping, I will probably want to sit back and take in a good play. I could then attend some of the greatest theaters in the world. There's of course the Globe Theater in England, but also the National Noh Theatre in Tokyo that is made out of cypress trees, the Minack Theatre that sits on a cliff in Cornwall, and the Palais Garnier in Paris where The Phantom of the Opera was set.

Palais Garnier                                 Flickr/Jonathan

Learn Things

In between my jet-setting, I might actually want to take some literature classes. Don't scoff! Learning is fun (says the teacher). With my winnings, I can pay off all my student loans and get as many degrees as I want - from as many schools that will accept me at least. I'd still love to get my Ph.D. Even if I don't want to get a full degree, however, I can now afford to take a random class here or there. I could even take one while traveling. Did you know Harvard has an online extension school? I could take American Dreams from Scarface to Easy Rider or Masterpieces of World Literature for $2,400, though it's unclear whether that is for the whole course or per graduate credit. By the way, they also have a bunch of free courses of which anyone can take advantage.

That was a nice trip through fantasy land. Well, these might not happen at this point, but life goals! Since I do still need to make a living, I suppose I should get working on those syllabi then.

What would you do with a jackpot win?

IN WHICH The Girl Buys a Pronoun

"How may I pronoun you?"

Apparently, I'm fixated on gender recently. I read Rachel Hartman's Shadow Scale, the sequel to Seraphina, last week. While I enjoyed the story overall, the one part I can't out of my head is the treatment of gender pronouns by one of the book's nations. Who wouldn't obsess over an interesting grammatical innovation?

Gender identity has gotten a lot of attention lately as people start to talk more openly about what gender actually means. Many people today accept gender as something defined by society and tradition rather than sex. Our ideas about gender roles have changed, at least slightly, over time, and are likely to continue changing. As we come to see gender as malleable, we can also see why people may identify themselves as a gender different from their biological sex or somewhere on the spectrum between sexes.

This understanding and acknowledgement of varying gender identities is starting to be seen in colleges. It is not out of the ordinary for a student to request a different name and/or pronoun from what is on the roster sheet at the beginning of a semester. Many schools are introducing gender-neutral bathrooms, and campus groups have made more effort to bring awareness to the faculty and students. In the orientation at the beginning of this semester, one such group came and talked to the faculty about gender identity. One suggestion they provided was to ask each student what name and pronoun he or she would like to go by on that first day. This is why I was so struck by a country whose customs require you to ask each person you meet which pronoun he or she prefers:

"You use cosmic neuter for a stranger, Abdo insisted. And he's a stranger until you've asked, 'How may I pronoun you?'"

However, the issue in America is not just a lack of understanding and acceptance of different gender identities, but a lack of pronouns. The English language doesn't accommodate unknown or indeterminate gender. We have he for males and she for females, but no gender neutral pronoun for people. No cosmic neuter like in Porphyrian. We often deal with this in two ways; we use it, which is inappropriate - and insulting - for humans, or we use they, which refers to more than one person. We can use he or she, like I did earlier, but that is just bulky. Our language encourages gender to fit into distinctly masculine or feminine boxes and excludes everything else.

The Porphyrian language in Shadow Scale addresses this issue by having a variety of gender options:

"Sounthlanders can't speak it, said Abdo sleepily. Too hard for your flimsy foreign minds. There are six genders and seven cases. . . naive masculine, naive feminine, emergent masculine, emergent feminine, cosmic neuter, point neuter."

Vocabulary adapts to the modern world constantly. For example, words like hot mess and selfie have been added to the dictionary. Nevertheless, it is very hard to change the more basic structures of the English language, such as pronouns. I feel like if people can accept that literally often means that something is not actually true, they can eventually adapt to a new pronoun or two. It will be interesting to see how English does or does not adapt in respect to gender over the next decade or so.

In Shadow Scale, we also get to see a character who has changed her gender identity and, therefore, her pronoun choice as well. Seraphina, the main character, encounters Camba for the second time without recognizing her because she had appeared masculine earlier:

"I racked my brains for the Porphyrian verb Abdo had taught me, a polite inquiry that didn't even exist in the Southlands. 'How may I pronoun you?' I hazarded. Camba smiled warmly and inclinded her stately head. 'I pronoun myself emergent feminine,' she said in Porphyrian, then added in my native tongue, 'Or I do now, at last. On my Day of Determination, I declared myself naive masculine. I was already ityasaari; it embarrassed me to be even more complicated than that.'"

Interestingly enough, Hartman also implies that this culture allows people to pick their gender on a celebration day, Day of Determination. However, we can see that in any culture it is difficult to be different from the expected.

The pronoun question is just one intriguing and progressive aspect of Hartman's Seraphina series. Plus, it's about dragons. Go read it!

IN WHICH The Girl Needs a Man

You mean women can work, drive, and even open tough bottle caps??? Who knew? Apparently, not the 1950s. Not that this is surprising. It is, however, entertaining to see ads from the 50s and 60s.

So I was looking for a new paper topic for my class, one they might find semi-interesting - a treat for getting through my enforced discussion of free speech in response to terrorism. Granted, my idea of interesting is usually very different from a college student's. I was looking for an article about the abundance of phrases like "man up" or "be a man" in commercials. Oddly enough, I couldn't find a good news article about this topic. You'd think there would be tons. Get on that, The New York Times. In the search, I came across this article, "26 Sexist Ads of the 'Mad Men' Era That Companies Wish We'd Forget." I was tickled by all the ads. So we are going to write about whether gender stereotypes have actually evolved or not in the last fifty years. Yay! At least they might laugh at a few ads.

Now, I just need some ads from today that display current gender stereotypes for comparing and contrasting purposes. Don't worry; I have some ideas. I'm always up for suggestions though.

Coincidentally, while writing this post, I was watching the Parks and Recreation "Pie-Mary" episode, which just happened to revolve around gender stereotypes during elections. Hilarious! 

“Where are the Male Men? You’re ridiculous. And men’s rights is nothing.”

"There is no bigger defender of gender equality than Leslie Knope. And my husband Ben is a progressive champion of women’s rights." ---- "Babe, the oven’s ready. Chop, chop. Time to get baking. Daddy want pie!"

IN WHICH The Girl Returns From the Dead

Happy New Year everyone! To celebrate, I'm returning after several months of absence. This bear needed to hibernate for a while - just slightly early in the year as I know winter is just now hitting full steam. Last semester was crazy busy and sadly left little time for any extracurricular activities. Luckily, my new year looks bright. This semester I will only be working at one college near my house with fairly normal working day hours! This is a first for me in four years of teaching. Yippee!! As a result, I will have a lot more time to grace you with my wondrous tidbits of information.

The new year tends to come with all sorts of resolutions. I usually avoid said resolutions because I never follow through with them - Winnie-the-Pooh never could keep his promise not to eat the honey. However, there are a few new things I'm excited to try as 2015 gets started.

First, I'm pumped to use the Fitbit I received for Christmas, so I'm attempting to be slightly more active (I know I know. So stereotypical. But also needed). Ideally, my new toy will inspire more walking each day, especially when I'm thinking that taking the train home from work would be easier than the mile walk. For example, right now I know walking to the grocery store would be a good way to add a lot of steps to the day (plus I need to buy some kale for some foods that terrify me: see next paragraph). However, it's also snowing pretty heavily. So not quite yet.

I'm also doing that other super stereotypical activity of trying to eat healthier. Therefore, I'm starting a two-week clean eating challenge today. My morning involved chia seeds, which is certainly a first. I have lots more to say on this topic, so I will save it for a different post.

Lastly, I'm doing one other challenge - the Goodreads kind. While I've certainly looked at reviews on the booklovers' website before, I've never made much use of my own profile on it. Each year I attempt to keep track of the books I read on paper on in Word, but it never really works. Turns out it's fairly simple to log your books into the Goodreads website and it will actually connect directly to your Amazon account if you use a Kindle. I set my challenge for the year at 50 books. I'm really not sure what the appropriate number of books for me is because as I've said, I usually lose track of my books somewhere in the middle of the year. It also depends on whether I'm going to count all the ridiculous young adult science fiction novels I read and the romances I go through fairly regularly, or if I will just count the "sophisticated" novels. Ah who cares. I might as well admit to being as ridiculous as I am. I highly doubt the two friends I have on Goodreads care.

So here's hoping I stick with a few of these non-resolutions. Good luck to everyone else out there challenging themselves this year. And if not, drink a glass of champagne for me (no alcohol for two weeks - what was I thinking??). Cheers!

IN WHICH The Girl Grades Papers

So I'm a horrible blogger. I haven't posted in a few weeks. It's definitely not for lack of topics to discuss, but just for lack of time.

I passed another teacher in the hall today, and when asked how he was doing, he replied,"It's that time." My sentiments exactly. It's that time of the semester. It's almost midterms, and the "new year" excitement is long gone. Now there are just tons of papers to grade. Just this week I have graded over 60 papers, received another 30 to grade, and look forward to getting 60 more next week. Oh the joys of teaching five courses of college composition. When I see other teachers run sheets through the scantron machine, I want to start crying and severally regret my decision to teach English of all subjects. Why couldn't I be interested in math??

At about this point in the semester, the number of student excuses increases significantly as well. I can't make class because my car broke down, my sixteenth grandparent died, my cousin is sick, my boyfriend was being stupid, etc. etc.. I can't turn in my homework because my printer is out of paper, I never bought a book, I forgot what the assignment was, I lost my flash drive, I was in jail etc. etc. I had a student, whom I hadn't seen in a several weeks, come in one day and in one breath explain that he had missed one day because his grandparent died, the next because of the funeral, the next because he hurt his foot, the last because he was sick, and then state he had to leave early for a job interview. Say what?

The last thing that occurs about this time is that students start to think they can get away with disobeying the rules more. It's been awhile since those initial syllabus threats, especially about cell phones. Those little buggers start popping up under desks, behind books, under notebooks, or even outrightly on top of desks or held in hands. I'm starting to think the devil invented cell phones, and I would gladly give mine up if it meant never seeing another one in class. One day I'm going to follow the example of the lady in this video. And then I will get sued. It may be worth it.

Anyways, I'm done with my teaching rant for the moment. Despite my complaints, I do generally enjoy my job. I'll be back as soon as possible with some actual posts. Look forward to observations on female television characters chopping off hair, Neil Gaiman's fantasy novels and movies, the new fall seasons of television, my first experiences with comic books, the outside world in dystopian novels, and vampires. Be excited.

IN WHICH The Girl Discovers a Pot of Golden Lectures

And now a word from our sponsor... Kidding, but I am going to promote a website.

Several months ago, a friend introduced me to Open Culture, a collection of free course lectures online. It's wonderful. The site features hundreds of courses ranging from Hannibal to car design to game theory to the Lord of the Rings. At first I figured these would just be lectures by some randos who think they know everything about string theory, but they are all taped lectures by professors at legitimate universities, mainly elite universities like Yale, Princeton, and Berkeley. To top it off, this is the advantage of school without any homework or deadlines. You can randomly pick to watch one lecture on a topic you like - say The Birth of Jazz - or you can go through an entire course of lectures on Jazz and Culture at your own pace.

A few of us decided to start the course on Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Faulkner. While we were originally going to read and watch the lectures on the same time schedule, that plan quickly disintegrated. Now, we are all just going at our own pace (I'm definitely the slacker of the group). This set up gives some structure to my reading, which other than book club choices tends to jump all over the place. It also has forced me to try some new books, like Hemingway's In Our Time, and re-read others, like Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury. In addition, the lectures provide background and analysis by a Yale professor that I probably wouldn't search out on my own. So seriously, go check it out.

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming...

IN WHICH The Girl Remembers a Hero

It’s Thursday, and that means throwback pictures of childhood adventures are circulating social media by the dozen. I have decided to take a slightly different track: throwback television. Today, we will discuss Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Everyone has comfort foods. Well, my television comfort food is Buffy. She’s a kick-ass girly-girl fighting Big Bads with an odd assortment of friends. Love it.

The focus today, however, will be on Buffy’s heroic journey. You may have studied the hero’s journey, developed by Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1973), back in grade school. Campbell developed a monomyth of the hero – the idea that heroes from every era and culture share similar characteristics and develop their greatness though a series of parallel stages. The usual class will follow the path of Moses or Prometheus (or even Star Wars), but I always choose Buffy. I have done this presentation in class before with varied results (heavily influenced by this article). Most of my students are too young to really remember Buffy (“Wasn’t that on in like the 90’s??”), but there are always a few who have watched it on Netflix and enjoy it. They ALL think I’m a dork, and it’s true. But she's a hero, you see.

Stage 1: Separation/Departure

      The hero starts in an ordinary world, say a nice normal high school. The hero is called to become a hero, but he or she usually resists the call at first. Buffy’s first call actually happens in the 1992 movie with Luke Perry (I thought he was so dreamy as a child). 

Let’s focus on the television show though. Buffy receives the call again when she arrives in Sunnydale. She's just as unhappy about it the second time around.

Eventually the chosen one gives in, and receives some form of aid from a mentor. Buffy has a Watcher, named Giles, who serves as her mentor throughout the series. He’s part of the Watcher’s Council, a group that has trained and assisted slayers throughout history, though both him and Buffy eventually break away from the stuffy old council. He’s a lovable British dude who tries to keep Buffy and her Scooby Gang - her other helpers Xander and Willow - focused on the task at hand.

The chosen one crosses the first threshold, which is the first task of the hero, taking him or her from the normal world to the unknown land of danger and adventure. There could be a number of first tasks for Buffy, such as first killing a vampire in the movie, but for the show her first Big Bad is the Master, a very old and gross vampire who wants to open the Hellmouth below Sunnydale and take over the world. He’s also, incidentally, prophesied to kill Buffy.

Lastly in Stage 1, the chosen one must enter the belly of the whale, in which he or she usually faces an abyss – a dark night of the soul – and then a rebirth as a full blown hero. Buffy, understandably, quails at the idea of dying at 16, her abyss. She fights the Master, who actually does kill her, but Xander brings her back to life through CPR, the first of several rebirths for Buffy. Buffy, of course, then goes on to kick the Master’s ass. After this experience, Buffy becomes a little darker but more dedicated to her mission.

Stage 2: Initiation

The hero embarks on his or her quest, enduring many trials. I.e. Buffy fights a lot of vampires, demons, robots and even other slayers to protect us poor, vulnerable humans. Hiyahh!

The male hero usually meets the goddess who fosters love and inspiration in the hero. He also faces a woman who tempts him with lust and is a dangerous shadow figure. But Joss Whedon doesn't stick with those stuffy, old archetypes and flips everything around. Angel, Buffy’s vampire-with-a-soul boyfriend, fulfills all of these roles for our hero. She falls in love with Angel, but when they have sex for the first time, he loses his soul and becomes evil. Now if that’s not a lesson to all young girls about men, then I don’t know what is. Sadly, Buffy must kill Angel, performing a hero’s sacrifice for the good of the world. Don’t worry, he comes back later though. This is a supernatural world, after all.

Next comes atonement with a father figure or powerful force of life and death. There are a few possible options here. Buffy’s mother dies during this period, forcing Buffy to make peace with both her mother and her death. Giles also feels out of place as Buffy ages, sometimes feeling unnecessary and at other times feeling like she depends on him too much. Most of this tension comes in the next stage of the story, however. My choice of “father figure” is the First Slayer, who gives birth to Buffy’s superhuman qualities. In addition, she inspires Buffy to learn about the slayer’s history and forces Buffy to re-examine her role as a hero. She explains to our weary hero that she is still capable of love: "Love is pain, and the Slayer forges strength from pain. Love, give, forgive. Risk the pain; it is your nature. Love will bring you your gift." Oh and what is that gift? “Death is your gift.” Cheery.

At the end of this stage, the hero faces his or her ultimate challenge, usually victory over death. As a result, he or she is awarded some form of apotheosis – a heroic vacation where the he or she can rest in peace - and a reward. At the end of Season 5, Buffy fights an actual god, Glory, who opens a portal to a hell dimension that will bring all sorts of beasties into the world. Only one thing will close the dimension: Summers’ blood, meaning either Buffy or her sister must die. Buffy makes the ultimate sacrifice and gives up her life for the sake of humanity – death really is her gift. As a reward, Buffy goes to heaven. Now, if only her friends knew that.

Stage 3: The Return

After a nice rest, the hero returns home from the apotheosis and vanquishes evil. Most heroes resist the return, wanting to stay in their peaceful place forever, because who wouldn't? He or she is pursued by enemies on the return who must be killed. Thinking Buffy has ended up in a hell dimension, her friends bring her back to life with magic. Obviously, she is a little confused by the circumstances and wishes to be back in heaven. A demon also hitches a ride on her return, and Buffy must defeat it in her perplexed state.

After his or her return, the hero needs help adjusting to the new world and facing reality. Knowing the Scooby Gang brought her back out of love, Buffy refuses to tell them about her sojourn into heaven. She feels isolated from her besties and some resentment as well. Therefore, Buffy turns to Spike, a previous Big Bad who has become a reluctant ally to the slayer. He helps her in all sorts of ways - boom chica wah wah – starting a fairly messed up but entertaining relationship of fighting and sex. Eventually, the hero comes to terms with the return and becomes a master of two worlds, stronger than ever. Despite Season 6’s depressing tone, Buffy does eventually adjust to reality, accepting that she’s not entirely human any more, and continues to fight the good fight.

Ultimately, the hero ends his or her quest and obtains the freedom to live a peaceful life. Buffy fights one last apocalyptic Big Bad by creating more vampire slayers. After the slayers defeat the “first evil,” Buffy is no longer solely responsible for protecting the world and can do as she pleases. The series ends with Buffy smiling as the Scooby Gang discusses all the things they don't need to do tomorrow.

For anyone who is paying attention to details, this was a simplified and not necessarily perfect version of the hero’s journey. For more accurate descriptions, try this thing called a library. 

IN WHICH The Girl Falls In Love With a Paperman

By day (and often night), I work as a college English instructor, mainly teaching composition. Last semester, I was looking for a video to show in class that the students could analyze together in preparation for writing a film analysis paper. Usually I would use a television episode, but I knew there wouldn't be enough class time for a whole episode this time around. I went looking online for a short film to use instead.

Personally, my knowledge of short films is pretty limited, as I would guess it is for most people. We seldom see them in theaters unless you happen to go to the rare children's movie that shows one before the feature starts. Television does not show them often either. So, unless you go looking for short films specifically, the opportunities to see them are scarce. However, I found out that a lot of wonderful short films are available on the Youtube and other websites. For the purposes of my class, I wanted an animated short film that wasn't too childish. I ended up with a wonderful 7 minute film called Paperman. 

Paperman is quirky and adorable. The story follows George, an accountant in 1940's New York City, who meets a beautiful girl, Meg, at the train station when one of his business papers blows into her face, leaving her red lipstick on the page. Unfortunately, she boards the train before he can make her acquaintance. When George arrives at work, he happens to see Meg through the window in the office building across the street and tries, through hundreds of paper airplanes thrown at the window, to get her attention. No luck. Already in trouble at work, George makes one last attempt by forming an airplane out of the sheet with Meg's lipstick. The wind sweeps the paper away before he can even throw the last airplane, and George leaves work feeling defeated. But this is a Disney film, so both magic and fate intervene. The paper airplanes, led by the lipstick sheet, come alive and pull the two protagonists together. See for yourself:

Paperman by videobash

Beyond the cute story, I love that Paperman has an old-fashioned feel but is mixed with some modern elements. Everything is in black and white, which seems appropriate to the era, but the lipstick is red, drawing your attention and foreshadowing the paper's significance. According to what I've read (and barely understand), the animation is a mix of 2D drawings and 3D computer animation, which gives the film a more traditional look but with modern movement. Paperman also initially seems like a silent film because no one speaks. Nonetheless, you can actually hear sounds, such as the train, the papers swishing, and cars honking. In actuality, there isn't really any need for talking in this film. George's job requires him to work silently and he never gets a chance to speak to Meg. The film seems both black and white and silent without completely succumbing to those traditional elements.

The music really steals the show though. At first the music is light and in the background, but corresponds directly to George's mood. As the plot reaches its climax and the paper airplanes gain life, the music also gains momentum. The tune becomes happier and almost motivational. From the music alone, we know that George and Meg will meet again soon. The film also uses a mickey-mousing technique (look I actually learned something when I taught film); it is a Disney film after all. Mickey-mousing means that the music and the actions on screen are synchronized, just like in old Mickey Mouse films. When the planes start to come to life in the alley, the music parallels their actions precisely. This musical action adds another whimsical and traditional element to a lovable film. 

Now, I just need to go out and watch some more short films to expand my horizons.