Inception spoiled me.

"Walton, in continuation.
You have read this strange and terrific story, Margaret..." p. 155

I feel like I'm stuck on Inception, but I can't really forget about it while dealing with frame story. am I the only one that sorta wanted another level or frame? I'm not sure who it would continue off of... maybe Elizabeth? she seems a little dull though. possibly De Lacey... or Clerval. yeah. he'd be good. I think it'd be really interesting to see what Clerval had to say about things. I'm not sure how it would fit in though. it'd be super trippy if maybe he was reading all the letters from Walton for some reason. like, maybe he's Margaret's husband or something? I mean, it couldn't be, but that would be weeeeird! right? I'm all excited about this now. boo. such a nerd. =D

it's a story within a story within a story....

are we in Inception?

"Strange and harrowing must be his story, frightful the storm which embraced the gallant vessel on its course and wrecked it - thus! ..." p. 14

yay for frame story! I'm still not convinced that the letters serve any purpose other than to create a frame story. awesome, Mary Shelly. so cool. I'm kinda nervous now about how deep this is going to go. I mean, after about two levels it's harder to kick out. right? I'm just not sure what purpose it serves yet. and there's probably more to come. great. I know that the frame serves to show parallels between Walton and Victor, but why? why not just have them in the same story in the same time period? why not have Victor tell his story all over again to Walton's "sister"? smh. I'm sure it'll all make sense eventually.

and yet again,

Inception comes into play in my blogs. in Dream Deferred, the dreams are of a different caliber, I think, but I hear "dream" and I think "Inception" (it's like those silly little word association games they have you do sometimes just for fun).

so what does happen to a dream when it's not allowed to come to fruition? I personally think that it does more harm than good. it's a good way to let frustration and regret and guilt build. this, of course depends on the severity of the dream being withheld though. obviously if a dream is ridiculously far-fetched and forgotten through a maturing process, it's not really a bad thing. oppositely, a dream that is created or thought of in a sensible way using logic and good judgment and then forgotten or smothered is likely to harbor some unsafe feelings. that is where the "drying up", "festering", "stinking", "crusting", "sagging" dreams come in: when they've been deferred and are of high-caliber.

another interesting aspect of this poem is the use of simile to describe/suggest all the other options save the separated, italicized, metaphor-ized (is that even a word?) last line. "Or does it explode? seems to suggest what the speaker really feels happens to these dreams that are allowed to fall to the wayside. in an indirect way, he urges the reader to avoid that. by using the image of a bomb (or other object that explodes), he provides a destructive, violent sense of the danger that comes with not chasing after a dream.

graceful exits in the newspaper business -TSAR

I literally just started The Sun Also Rises, and two things came to mind when I finished the first page (11). The first, "hey, that's kind of like me. I take comfort in knowing that I could out-argue nearly everyone I meet, but I find no reason to, generally speaking." The second, "If no one remembers him, why is he important?". But then I remembered that this is Hemingway. I'm sure I'm in for it.

"As he had been thinking for months about leaving his wife and had not done it because it would be too cruel to deprive her of himself, her departure was a very healthful shock." p. 12

The thing I find most strange is that this "frank and simple" person, Cohn, wouldn't leave his wife because he couldn't "deprive her of himself". This character, who is seemingly non-confrontational and likes to stay in the background also has a superiority complex? He felt that his wife would be devastated without him, but then she leaves him instead. And he's (seemingly) fine with it? The wording of that phrase seems like it's a coping method of some sort, but then the divorce is described as "arranged", not "settled", suggesting that there really are no hard feelings between the two... the next wife then seems to be completely controlling and "led him [Cohn] quite a life", suggesting that he doesn't actually do much on his own free will.

but now... he's going to start living his own life? maybe?

also, that talk of "idea planting" on page 20... Inception, anyone?