Life in this house is finished now

Hello. (:

It's been a while since I updated what's going on with my studies or anything of any real value, I still have my Lord of the Rings book review in my drafts that I keep going back to, I still have my travels of China to get to, I just don't ever seem to find time for anything. I'm in week three now and have two assignments due on the 24th. But I have a hit a rut this evening after writing my introductions to both. Tomorrow is a new day and so I will tackle them then but as this section is coming to a close I felt this was needed and I haven't really explained what I'm doing aside from mentioning a book.

Texts books. Two of many.

In 20th Century I've been studying the play The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov, who is apparently quite famous in the literary world, I had never heard of him before. Like most of writers of the 20th century he was a pioneer, he broke the mold. His dramas are not really dramas but represent the realism of reality. Today I suppose this doesn't seem that odd, but what came before was stereotypical Shakespearean style comedy of tragedy (important genres as will come to pass) Chekhov's work seemed rather dull some audiences, whilst others praised his work for highlighting 'real life'.

The play is based around the estate of Madam Ranevsky, who is part of the old, aristocratic Russia and how she has no money and must sell her family home. It represents a changing social time in Russia where being born wealthy was no longer sustainable, hard work was what was paying off and the dramas between the different classes of people in the play. Despite the gloomy description, Chekhov intended it to be a comedy which can be seen, especially in some rather odd lines.

Personally I'm quite indifferent about The Cherry Orchard. I didn't find it hilarious, I didn't die of boredom. However the BBC Richard Eyre's production did actually make me fall asleep. Chekhov wanted a quick comedy and in some parts Eyre drags out scenes, on in particular triples in time to what Chekhov intended.

In Children's Literature we are looking at fairy tales and constructions of childhood which I'm quite happy about as my mum is doing her degree in Childhood studies. I remember reading through her essays on Locke and Rousseau last year. In particular we are looking at different versions of Little Red Riding Hood and how these show the constructions, obviously different time periods and cultures affect these.

This is not that Literature orientated, more contextual, which I find I'm enjoying more than Chekhov at the moment and the Russian contexts surrounding him aren't as interesting sadly. I'm comparing Roald Dahl's poem, Charles Perrault's tale and a film based on Angela Carter's 'A Company of Wolves'. It's funny, because we were talking about free indirect speech and someone said they still didn't get it, and I was like, read Carter, The Bloody Chamber it's really good for showing different types and bam here it is. I originally studied Carter at A level and it is probably one of my favourite books.

Everyone should read this. (:

I find I don't have more to say simply because I don't want the plagiarism detection software to pick any sentences I may re use from here, as despite this being my own blog I'd still be penalised. I have so much essay writing to do tomorrow. Waaaa :(

Nunight! Apologies for the long post.

(: