Monday, April 17, 2017

The Twelve Magic Changelings LOC

http://www.read.gov/books/pageturner/2003juv58052/#page/2/mode/2up

Alice on my bookshelf and Online

Exercise for FutureLearn free online course Literature in the Digital Age:


Can you imagine if there were only one edition of Alice? All mine but the pop-up and app are well-worn paperbacks in different shapes and sizes. All are illustrated by John Tenniel, except the facsimile (author's own illustrations), pop-up (Robert Sabuda) and app (Emmanuel Paletz).
I chose to use so many examples, because to me these are such very different reading experiences, some more obviously than others. The medium is most assuredly the message when it comes to Alice. And, I can't imagine it any other way.

 Alice's Adventures under Ground (facsimile of the Author's 1864 manuscript with additional material from the facsimile edition of 1886 with intro by Martin Gardner)
Alice in Wonderland (Norton Critical Edition)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass (New American Library Signet Classic)
The Annotated Alice (Penguin Edition)
The Philosopher's Alice's (intro and notes by Peter Heath)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (A Pop-up Adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Original Tale)
http://thealiceapp.com/ (Amazing interactive text, a sampling here:)
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.emmanuelpaletz.alice&rdid=com.emmanuelpaletz.alice

Because I can be a bit OCD about books and reading, I explored a few free online editions:
http://www.literatureproject.com/alice/ (boring, text only)
http://literature.org/authors/carroll-lewis/alices-adventures-in-wonderland/ (pdf text with Tenniel illustrations)
http://readcentral.com/book/Lewis-Carroll/Read-Alices-Adventures-in-Wonderland-Online (No illustrations but this site, strangely, lets you assess your reading time.)
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11?msg=welcome_stranger (This is where many sites get the text they use. Text is made available in multiple formats.)
https://archive.org/details/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland (click through pdf or epub)
https://www.adobe.com/be_en/active-use/pdf/Alice_in_Wonderland.pdf (Described as an all digital replica of the original. You can see the book's stitching and edges of the cover.)
https://librivox.org/alices-adventures-in-wonderland-by-lewis-carroll/ (When listening is reading...)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dq1T5c-_yaQ (read by John Gielgud)
http://www.storyjumper.com/book/index/14849392/Alice-in-Wonderland (This site lets you make your own illustrated and, conceivably, even narrated book. Child's drawings and text summary.

Saturday, April 15, 2017

MADNESS: a bipolar life by Marya Hornbacher

Author of WASTED: a memoir of anorexia and bulimia, Hornbacher, tells the rest of the story. A little precious, a bit self-indulgent, much as her life, there is good content here. However, I didn't feel the depression the way I felt the mania. Perhaps, unable to write during the lows affected the ability to convey them emotionally. Understandable. The mania was well represented, making for an engaging read of well-bred midwestern neurosis gone wrong.

Sort of like Orange is the New Black, I don't doubt the author's depth of experience, but there is some glamourizing of what must have been devastating consequences to self-destructive choices. I guess my main disappointmet is there doesn't seem like there was a growth in self-awareness other than learning to take the meds.

The links to mental health organizations was a nice addition at the end, as was the other research information. It's good that the subject is being explored. Silence continues to be one of the roadblocks to public acceptance.

Monday, April 03, 2017

LYING by Lauren Slater

Quote:
"I think secretly each and every one of us longs to fall, and knows in a deep wise place in our brains that surrender is the means by which we gain, not lose, our lives. ... We want to go down, and it hurts to fight the force of gravity."

Slater describes her memoir by its title. She has chosen metaphor over history, fiction over fact, as the only way to arrive at a narrative that describes her experience with mental illness.

In the quote above, we could easily substitute "letting go" with falling or surrendering. And, what, after all, is madness but an ultimate release of the self from reality.


Best poems of modernism

http://www.thehypertexts.com/Best%20Poems%20of%20Modernism.html

created from full text of Modernism Best Poems site using wordart.com

Haiku English poetry

http://pennyspoetry.wikia.com/wiki/Haiku_in_English