Email Notifications . . .

Hi all.

So, I thought I could have you all notified any time someone posted to the blog, but it turns out that I can only have a list of 10 people. I'm already listed, so that leaves 9 spots. I'll take 5 from the bigger class and 4 from the smaller one.

Those people can, if they so wish, take on the responsibility of relaying the information to the Facebook group so that everyone is kept up to date about what's on the blog. Of course, you can always just log on and check for yourself...but at least this way, if you forget, someone can give you the heads-up on what's going on.

I won't see you tomorrow. I'll be being held captive at Uni.

Monday!

Have a great class tomorrow and a cracking weekend.

Anon!

Simon

After the End...

Hey!

Below is the link to Zbigniew Herbert's poem, 'Elegy of Fortinbras'.

Thought you might enjoy it.

tiny.cc/8rmkk

Hope you all had a great weekend!
Simon

.
Simon McInerney
www.lacunaeandbrickwork.com

Tin Pot

Hey!

As per Florence's note to you all on FB, I'll be at the Tin Pot cafe tomorrow at 5pm if anyone wants to come along for some Danish Discussions.

Corner Scotchmer & St George's Rd, Fitzroy North.

If I don't see you there, I'll see you Monday.

Simon

Simon McInerney
www.lacunaeandbrickwork.com

Hamlet

Hi, I stumbled across this today: http://tinyurl.com/6yp6q36

There's an interesting reference to Hamlet in the interview, where Gunn says,
"all young men are unhappy, that's why they identify with Hamlet".

I was wondering what you guys think of this idea. Is Hamlet so unhappy that he has become a poster boy for tortured adolescent and early-twenties males? (and possibly females, too - covering bases here! :-) )

Also, if you haven't seen the post below this one, check it out now!

Simon

Simon McInerney
www.lacunaeandbrickwork.com

Hey!

Hi everybody!

Are the holidays magnificent? I hope so! Are you studying like mad, too? This I also hope!

So, would any or many or all of you like to meet up for a sort of roundtable Hamlet discussion this week?

We can pick a venue and get coffee and make it all very literary. Keen?

Let me know! (sandflowing@gmail.com)

All best wishes,
Simon :-)

A Passage To India

E.M. Forster uses foreshadowing regularly in A Passage To India. The very first chapter of the novel begins and ends with the "extraordinary" Marabar caves, suggesting their importance later in the story.

How significant is the use of foreshadowing in the novel?

Topics for SAC

Here are the prompts for Friday's SAC. (Yes, there are three)

SAC prompts for Outcome 2 Views and Values
Outcome 2
Analyse, interpret and evaluate the views and values of a text in terms of the ideas, social conventions and beliefs that the text appears to endorse, challenge or leave unquestioned.

Choose ONE of the three topics and write an essay of 800 words or more in response.

1.'' David's experiences of outward success but inner failure warp the view of life he gives us in 'My Brother Jack'."

Is this the way you read the novel?

2. "A distaste for roughness and mediocrity is an integral part of Davy's make-up. We witness the instinctive reactions of childhood as well as the considered prejudices of his adult perspectives."

Discuss.

3. "This is a sad, even tragic novel."

Do you agree?

Chapter 16 (hester)

Sorry gang,
i hope it's not too late to contribute something.

hereee we go!

here is something about david's isolation and stuff
( i have the newer book)

"I stayed in New Guinea, on and off, for about a year longer, evading or avoiding when i could.." p319

Here is some commenting on david's worldly success. i think it's fairly important. and worth noting that he distances himself from it by speaking of himself in 3rd person.

".. but victory did come out of it- and so did a greatly enhanced reputation for David Meredith."
there is a little more there too .. p319


"If you are given the privilege of having your name in the papers everyday, and on your own terms, deception and self-aggrandizement are easy arts to practice" p320

what a successful chap!


"through all these experiences i could feel my own growth, a development, a new sophistication , so that the casual conquests were never difficult"
p335

and

“Still, in your case brains have proved more than brawn, haven’t they?”
p341






Here is some Jack stuff.
" ' and i cant bear it, Davie! I can't bear to see him ashamed! Jack! ...'"


this is the chapter where we really see how the tables have turned. Jack now cant fight his own battles. Davie is the success.


that quote is said by sheila on p323

Here is just a little context. about the war time..

"we only give the privilege of dying to the physically fit, Mr Meredith"
p328


Here is an indication of jack's enthusiasm
" i had to turn to meet his eyes. They were shining"
p331


Jack's loyalty- highly regarded by davie

“In fact nothing would please me more than if my nipper Jack turned out as good a man, and as brainy a one, as his uncle Davie.”
p340


Hope that's of use :)
Hesterr

Marksheet for SAC 2

SAC Advice Part 1

This slightly artificial division of the criteria into marks out of 40 gives you a guide as to the proportionate weight given to different factors in the assessment. In practice, you will be fulfilling several, or all, of these criteria simultaneously in a good answer. They can serve as a guide or a checklist if you say, 'Have I demonstrated (or provided) ............... (insert criterion) in my essay?'

Literature Unit 3
SAC 2 My Brother Jack
Marksheet

Name……………………………..
Understanding of the context/s in which the text was set or created.[ 4 marks]

Analysis of the ways in which views and values are suggested by what the text endorses, challenges or leaves unquestioned. [10 marks]

Understanding of the ways in which the text provides a critique of human behaviour or aspects of society and/or of the ways in which readers in a different cultural context may arrive at different interpretations. [8 marks]

Ability to justify an interpretation through close attention to, selection and use of significant textual detail.[10 marks]

Expressive, coherent and fluent development of ideas.[8 marks]

More advice soon.

Oh, yes you will get a choice of two prompts in the real SAC. Thanks for the question, Mara.

Barry

Chapter 14

So basically, in this chapter, although there's really no war happening in Australia, Jack volunteers to join the army, and suggests Davy volunteer as well. After considering it, he goes to Mr.Brewster, who says that Davy's too important as a skilled war correspondent to go off and do something other than writing. To Davy's surprise, Gavin volunteers to the army.

Davy is told that Jack has been in a serious accident at the army base, where he was trampled in a stampede during a practice drill. Davy and Sheila both sit by Jack's hospital bed as Jack recalls him and Davy's childhood, selling things in the hospital. Jack is fine, and as Davy drops Sheila home after their visit, Davy contrasts his own wife, Helen, to Jack's wife, Sheila. It's here that he realises he always has been, and always will be, in love with Sheila.

Here are some quotes from the old book!

"One noticed that the flags were up, brave and bright in the equinoctial winds, but nothing was happening. We were in a state of war, and there was no war. An urgent patriotism would seem to flare up and then die in embarrassment" p.272

Everyone's pretty much waiting for a war, and getting really patriotic and excited, but still nothing is happening.

"During this hectic, exhilarating, unbalanced time I saw very little of Helen, and the house in Beverly Grove was no more than a place in which to sleep. This was a great relief to me. It removed my despair, it eased the surface tensions that existed between Helen and me, it staved off any need to make, or to evade, a decision." p.274

His inability to deal with his current situation shows through in this quote, as he avoids his wife and his marital problems completely.

"Even more than this, for I saw that this was not only that he looked as Jack should look, but he looked as a proper man should look" p.276

Davy still idolises Jack, and despite their both being married adults with their own lives, Davy still is looking up to Jack.

"I envied the profound certainty there was about him, when I was so uncertain." p.280

Again, Davy's envy of Jack is not only shown, but stated. He pretty much just wants to be Jack.

And this is also nicely worded!

"With his immense skinny height, his awkward look, and this shoddy, ill-fitting uniform, he was a memorably lamentable figure of a soldier" p.282

Gavin T

"An affectionate chuckle exploded from his bulk." p.284

(That one has no significance, but I liked it!)

"...and I knew that I had been a little bit in love with her ever since I had met her, and I knew that I would be for as long as I lived." p.288

Davy discovers his love for Sheila, Jack's wife. Last line of chapter. Very intense.

Georgia F

SAC prompts for Outcome 2 Views and Values

Outcome 2
Analyse, interpret and evaluate the views and values of a text in terms of the ideas, social conventions and beliefs that the text appears to endorse, challenge or leave unquestioned.

Choose one of the topics and write an essay of 800 words or more in response.

1.'My Brother Jack' is a tragedy of painful self-revelation.'

How far do you agree?

How are attitudes and values in Australia between the Wars examined in this novel?

2. 'This is a negative novel. It attacks the ordinary values that most people hold.'

Discuss.

OK those are the topics for the prac SAC.
Criteria, mark sheet and advice will follow.

Be ready on Friday.
I look forward to your responses.

Barry Coley

My Brother Jack Chapter 4 (Old Book)

Some of the things in this chapter:

• davey gets a job
• davey discovers visual aesthetics of melbourne's cbd (he likes it compared to the boring suburbs where he lives)
• Relationship between Davey & Jack is explored and there are very different contrasts between the two - physically, emotionally and personality wise...
• Also Davey's pansy sensitive nature

QUOTES-

pg 50, "I loved to watch the council rat-catchers...of the Savage Club."

pg 52, "But until that happened...Sex..."

pg 54, "My feelings and attitudes were so totally opposed to his in every imaginable way that i would sometimes catch him looking at me and shaking his head in an utterly mystified way."

pg 55, "My physical description...Jack, untroubled by any such inhibitions, spent almost every night prowling the city like a tomcat."

pg 59, " "You've got to get rid of....chase a tart or two?" "

pg 60, "I was constantly humiliated by the teasing of my sisters. All i asked was to be left alone."

- Georgia C and Alex R :D

My Brother Jack, Chapter 7

[using the new version of the book..]

CHAPTER 7: In very brief...

• Davy goes to stay at Sam's house after he's been kicked out
• Jack finds him in a few days and enters the apartment.. has a look around
• Sam comes back with all his friends and alcohol
• Jack stays to suss things out but gets happy when they bring out the beer
• Davy gets awkward and goes and sits in a room
• Later eavesdropping on his brother and Sam's drunken conversation
• He sleeps in parks sometimes, doesn't have a great time
• Wants to go home
• Takes his brother to go look for jobs
• Suggests Jack go work in the country and Davy (himself) go back to live at home

[pg 94] 'So I told him what had happened. Not only at home, but everything that had led up to it. Exhaustion had collapsed the last of my defences; it was like the drawing of a bung from a charged barrel; the contents, so long sealed up, poured out in a flow that couldn't be checked. He listened intently. He never questioned or interrupted . I don't think his eyes ever left my face.'

For Davy this is the first time he feels like he is acknowledged without the anonymity. It shows how tired he has been from living at home and having to hide who he really is (like the writing he hid under his mattress). It also references his conversation to that of a gun.. has the connotations of violent, aggressive..

[pg 95] 'He was not really attractive at first sight....' 'The odd thing was that after you had bee nwith him a minute or two you quite forgot what he looked like and he became personable and charming'

[pg 97] 'He glanced across at the big typewriter, and my unfinished article on the Hobart Town whalers, and nodded disapprovingly'

[pg 99] 'Why don't you sit down for a minute and tell me what I should do and what Mum and Dad have been saying'

[pg 100] 'I'll go back home if you think I should'

[pg 105] 'It is a troubling and sometimes alarming thing to have to follow the course of a party through a closed door'

[pg 107] 'Tha' brother o' yours got the right idea'

[pg 107] 'what d'you care? - he's my brother, isn't he?'

[pg 116] 'Neither of us was aware of it at the time, but that was an important ratchet in Jack's destiny. It was that job in the Wimmera that closed the door upon his youth forever, that gave him the woman who was to become his wife, that eventually would move him into days of disaster'

MARA

Test Email

Just checking that the email posting is working. Good to see so many posts for My Brother Jack.

Simon

Simon McInerney
www.lacunaeandbrickwork.com

Chapter 12 by Sophia!

Hey hey, this is Sophia with chapter 12 for any of you who are checking the blog. Chapter 12 basically consists of Davy settling into his married life with Helen. Some of the quotes I have so far are pretty long, so if anyone has better/shorter ones please comment :) Also feel free to share your opinion on any of them.

pg. 250 in the larger book: "They were impressed by my new surroundings, yes, there was no doubt about that - Helen set out, I have thought since, to impress people rather than please them"

pg. 242 in the larger book: "With Helen, there was to be no commingling of the old life and the new. There was, I believe, a certain forceful integrity about her determination never to return to the surroundings of her past in that she set herself just as obstinately against her own family and background as she did mine." - (I think this further relates to the insightful discussion Dom bought up in class today about Davy leaving his family somewhat in the gutter, and looking down upon them)

pg. 245 in the larger book: "I am also admiring it," He said. "Brand-new house, quests guzzling a feast lavish enough for Lucullus himself, a gorgeous wife, this faultless decor - even including a not all commonly appreciated Vlaminck - these prismatic pickled onions, a glittery little bawd of an MG parked out there in the drive next to that sad broken butter-box Baby Austin which is the best the poor old Turleys can ever run to. Great stuff, Golden Boy! Great Stuff!" - (I'm pretty sure this is quoted by Gavin Turley)

A few lines down from that: "The smell of success he carries with him like an aura, that indefiable air of the coming man. Golden Boy, of course. With no shadow of a doubt."

pg. 249 in the larger book: "We may respect him, admire him, even be intrigued and puzzled by some mysterious fallibility that is in him... it may be this, you know, that makes us not envy him... but I'll tell you one thing you should know and always remember, Helen. There is no guarantee in him, my dear. There is no guarantee."

At some point, also, on pg. 259 Davy was described as "flashy unreliable brilliance." Anyone have ideas about this?

pg. 261 in the larger book: "You have no guarantee, David. And I have. Simply that. After all, what is guarantee? An insurance policy, a doctor's diploma, a fixed superannuation, a certificate issued under Pur Foods Act. Security."

And on the last page of the chapter: "You have neither the desire for this, nor the credentials with which to accomplish it. In a way, David, you are like some queer, strange savage who has journeyed a long way from his own tangled wilderness, and you look down on the palisades of the little settlement, and you wonder how you will pillage it and what trophies you will find."

Ok, so I hope at least some of those quotes are of help, or at least some parts of them.
Please do comment if you have anything to add or opinions to express! :)

My Bro Jack: Chapter 3

Chapter 3! Basically a chapter that explores violence! Fighting! Anger! Frustration! Strength! Manliness! Etc.
davey n jack are still at school, jack is the tough guy rubbing peoples face in crap etc. Mother and father fight. etc etc.

“we could see huge branches tearing off trees and red tiles from the roofs of sea-side houses flying against a ragged wet sky that screamed at us” *violence of the storm setting the scene for the violence of the chapter...

-“my memories of the period all have the tint of nightmare.”
-“one must allow for time’s foreshortening, but I can hardly recall a night when I was not wakened in panic by the stormy violence of my parents quarrels.”


JACK
“Listen nipper, you got to have a go at it. Even if you know you can’t bloody win you still got to have a go. You’ll always be pissin’ into the wind but that don’t mean it isn’t worth givin’ it a burl”

“What baffled me for a long time was Jacks real attitude to all this violence. He loved conflict as much as he hated authority, and he was about as undisciplined and pugnacious as any boy I ever knew, and at the time of the police strike he had certainly seemed to be on the side of the lawless. Yet he had nothing but loathing and contempt for these big, wild gangs that roamed the street.”

-jack uses violence to fight against violence. He maybe hates the violence inside of him and needs to fight other violence to get rid of it?
-he’s untouchable (“not one of them lifted a hand”)
-there is a complexity in his character, he has conflict inside of himself
“One day I’m going to kill that bastard” (hates violence against his mum, but will kill his dad...)
“It must have been this cruelty that really launched jack into his fighting career.
Jack has power against his father “all right pop, that’s the last time you’re going to whale into me like that. You try to lay that strop across me next month, an we’re goin’ to fight it out see.” Even dad is scared of him...

FATHER
Frustrated by his failure to have made anything of his life. Hypochondriac, made him morose, intolerant, bitter and violently bad tempered. He’s a little crazy. Something not quite right about him...

"There were odd strange days when he would surprise us all by getting out his old violin and in a dusty haze of flying resin would play Irish jigs for us or the strange songs he liked to sing...”
-glint of old days. In a dusty haze. Far away. Almost forgotten.

Scene where mum and dad are fighting: evokes images of her being small wet whimpering animal. “Whimpering like an animal as she crawled into hiding beneath the dollicus.” (Ever thought how little mum looks”) And the father is portrayed as a menacing hunter perhaps “a gigantic black silhouette against the dim diffusion of light from the vestibule...in his hand the service revolver”

DAVEY:
“I would climb into (the chest) and pull the lid down and try to figure out ways of murdering my father without being found out”
“God knows what damage it did to me psychologically”
“I suppose there was a sort of masochism in my going into this depressing room simply to experience the claustrophobic privacy of the old sea chest.

“I don’t want it to be thought that dad was always brutal or that mother was always weeping. Through all these images there is a scatter of improbable brightness, like raindrops falling through sunshine.”
-rainbow. Illusion of promise of happiness.
“Enmities and prejudices were forgotten and there was always a lot of joking and laughing and singing of popular songs, they were good days”




Contrast between jack and Davey:
-jack calling Davey “nipper” portrays Dave as small young and naïve.
There was a very great disparity between us at this time. I was still small for my age, chubby, soft, pink and fearful.
Jack was fairly tall and rangy, with blue eyes, a beaky nose, and disorderly corn silk hair.
-Jack is a mean green fighting machine and Davey is a mummy’s boy, tracing Palmolive soap commercials.
Contrast
Jack tells his father to stop beating him. But Davey’s punishment only ceases because he is too weak to stand the pain and falls unconscious.

I began to dread the Saturday mornings of sparring practice almost as much as I dreaded the end of the month appointments with dad in the bathroom.
-there is a bit of his father in jack that Davey is frightened of.
Jack got fathers violence, Davey got his strangeness?

But jack wants to be like his brother. He looks up to him. Trying to prove his strength to him. “I looked across for his approbation, but his face was hard set. Jack tries to be strong like his bro, but fails.
“Christ almighty nipper, you can fight your own battles can’t you?”
“But I couldn’t”

MBJ - Chapter 16 (New Edition) by Jess Jess and Am

Chapter Summary: -Davy comes back from PNG, Helen has parties with military personnel. Davy goes to lunch with Jack and Sheila and Jack is angry and hurt, pleading for Davy to get him to war. Davy goes to the AWAS and meets Cressita Morely. Davy speaks to Brindsmead about Jack, but he says that Jack is useless for overseas service. Davy discovers that he could have gotten Jack into the war if he had requested it the first time Jack asked him. Davy meets with Jack and tells him that he can do service in Darwin, Jack is overjoyed. Then Davy goes to the USA to make contacts, he travels widely to cover the war and affairs with 'other Helens'. There is significant self-development and self-awareness. Davy receives a letter from Jack, saying that he has had a son and he is proud of Davy for his achievements.

Quotes: 'I looked after myself as carefully as I could, and if there were any unavoidable little periods of direct involvement I sedulously tried to observe Mr. Brewsters instruction and I stayed alive"......."If you are given the privilege of having your name in the papers everyday, and on your own terms, deception and self-aggrandizement are easy arts to practice" (page 320) These highlight Davy's cowardice and deception, he doesn't have a strong desire to help. Shows the contrast between him and Jack, as well as how his occupation allows him to hide his cowardice.

"Now listen Davy, he said, leaning across the table at me, keeping his voice low and taut, this time you got to do something sport.....while I sit here on my ass for three flammin' years" (page 322) Jack feels desperate and useless, sitting around is not part of his character. There is a switch of places between Jack and Davy from previous situations.

"Well it's nice to see that a womans place is still with a duster in her hand"...."It was very odd to hear the clear young girl voices calling the all familiar action cries that I had heard in quite different cirumstances" (both page 325) Shows Davy's attitudes towards women, and he believes that war is no place for women.

"Anyway, you wanted me to pull strings, and I did......" Conversation between Jack and Davy, when Davy explains that he got Jack a position at Darwin (page 330-331) Jack characteristics are shown. Deception shown by Davy, and the switch of places that allows us to see their true characters. Davy returns to guilty coward when he can't tell Jack the truth.

"I found it a pleasant war there.... And even when I finally did pull myself away my luck stood by me" (page 333) Contrast to how Davy feels later when he looks in the mirror. Self-satisfaction and self-importance, he doesn't want to fight in the war or for his marridge.

"and I met eager unstable women in flirtatious and brief liaisions and quick hot affairs....momentary company she would offer". "I would go out to one of those smart shops or to a bazzar, and I would buy some special present to send to Helen"(page 335) These show Davy's view of women and that he is not exactly guilty of his affairs. He only likes the idea of marridge and Helen and how they make him appear to others.

"Gradually i began to sense that already and delibarately....that what was lacking in it was the truth those other faces had for the passionate regard for the adventure in itself, and i knew that I was not quite one of them yet, that i never had been and that I never would be" (page 337-338) Mirror scene with Davy:Shows the contrast between Davy and Jack as well as the other soldiers. Davy sees himself for the first time, he almost has a longing to be like Jack and the other soldiers.

"As you are aware, we did not have very much of a chance ourselves in this respect.....I remember how I used to poke fun at you always stuck in that room with your books and your sonky mates....but then you have always been very popular in that quarter"(page 340-341) A letter from Jack to Davy; Jack is proud of Davy, but Davy doesn't want the respect as he feels it is undeserved.

Chapter 9 Quotes and Summary

Ok so chapter 9 goes like this:

Jack Brings back Sheila, he and his father argue. Depression hits, Davy leaves the lithography studio and begins work for the newspaper. Jack travels to find work, and is forced to walk home from Sydney to Melbourne. Sheila has a baby girl.

Okeydokey, here are some kwotes (my computer won't let me type the letter after p :(

By the way these are all from the new edition.

"I used to do everything in my power to preserve this sense of isolation." page 144

"It's me who runs this house, not your mother. It's me, see! And you just put that in your pipe and smoke it, my boy!" page 146

"'You don't bloody well know what you're talking about!' Jack snapped." page 147

"You know, Davy, you've made this place look real nice... absent minded professor, don't you?" page 149

"I spoke firmly, to ride myself over a little twinge of guilt... my isolation might yet be restored."

page 149

"'I can give you money," I said... 'Keep you going until you find some work." page 151

"'Thanks Nipper,' he said, but he kept rubbing at his toes and he didn't look at me." page 152

"I did not know whether I did it out of generosity... free from invasion." page 152

"I, who had to a great degree betrayed... who had a second string to his bow." page 159

"That one terrible choking cry... force that urged him on." page 167

"I was trying to hammer out all the past... sprawled there on the faded wet carpet." page 171

Ok, hopefully that helps, have a good one!

Zak and Shelley

My Brother Jack Chapter 8

Jack has just left to work in the country and Davy has moved back in with his parents. Davy's job as a journalist is going really well and he's starting to feel more comfortable until he reads in a newspaper that Sam's girlfriend Jess has been murdered and Sam is the main suspect. He follows the case really closely and is worried he might be implicated. He receives a letter from Jack talking about Sam and Jack's new girlfriend Sheila. Sam is acquitted and Davy goes to see him, but Sam has changed a lot.

Quotes (page numbers in Harper edition):

"So it was in that curious time that stands exactly midway between two wars. The world was so sure of itself then." p. 117

- parallels Davy's experience with Jess' murder. He was starting to be sure of himself and then his world got turned upside down.

"It was not at this point....moral corruption began." p.125

-blames outside factors rather than himself for his failures

-only thinks how Jess' murder affects him, not particularly upset that she is dead

"Well what could I tell them.....thing like that to her." p.137

-was not so assertive with police, was very afraid

-creating his own image of himself, the person he wants to be but isn't

"Anyway I know.....sincere feelings in the matter." p.140

-contrast between brothers

-Jack assumes Davy would do what he would do

Maddy

My Brother Jack - Chapter 11

In chapter 11 Davy is reporting about ships, he goes down to the port and reports on what they are carrying ect. He is still working at the newspaper and once a ship stinks Davy is to write a report on it. soon after Mr. Condon asks him to go to all the victims families and interview them, but the families do not know about the ship sinking or the death of their loved ones so Davy refuses.

We then learn Davy and Helen are engaged and he has invited her to his mothers 60th Birthday to meet his family, but the situation turns out to be very awkward as Helen doesn't fit in. We see that Jack has two daughters and Sheila is pregnant again.

Jack and Davy leave the party to have a talk and when they return Jean's child has spilt truffle and jelly on Helen. A big fuss is made over her when Davy starts to yell at everyone, Jack then argues back at him. Helen and Davy leave the party together.

We then skip to Helen and Davy getting married and at the end of the ceremony Jack ties old sea boots to the back of their car, but once they have driven off and are out of sight Helen stops the car and unties then and leaves them in the gutter.

Quotes (Page numbers from New Harper Edition)

"'No. It's not just that those people don't know anything about this yet.'

'Is that your concern? They've got to know some time, haven't they?'" p. 206

This shows the difference in morals between Mr. Condon who just wants a good story and Davy who cares for the families who have suffered a loss.

"'oh, please don't worry about it, Mrs. Meredith, you mustn't!' and Mother looked up at her and shook her head helplessly," p. 228

Davy's mum sees Helen as better off than them.

"I realized that from the very first moment of our arrival at the house the visit had been fateful, that everything had been working towards this point we had now reached, momentous and irrevocable, where I had to choose between inflicting pain or suffering it," p. 228 - 229

It has got to a point to where he had to choose between Helen or his family.

"'But why do have to have these confounded kids swarming everywhere?'" p. 229

We see Davy has chosen Helen, he is 'inflicting pain' on his family.

"But since you're the one who seems to want to make a first-class Kilkenny out of a little thing like a blob of jelly on a skirt," p. 230

Jack is noticing that Davy also conceders himself better off than the rest of the family now that he is marrying Helen.

"'I did warn you,' I said. 'When we were going out there I told you they might be difficult. At least I tried to warn you.'" p. 233

Davy feels embarrassed about his family and tries to defend himself by saying he warned her that the evening would turn out bad.

"Helen ordered the chauffeur to stop, and made him get out out and untie them and leave them there in the gutter." p. 235

Helen is abandoning the sea boots given to them from Jack, leaving behind Davy's family.

Clean, Constructive, and with any luck, Productive

MY BROTHER JACK

Hello Everyone,

Here are some of my quotes from chapter nine; I have the Harper version...

"I used to do everything in my power to preserve this sense of isolation"- page 114

"I spoke firmly, to ride myself over a sense of guilt... might yet be restored." - pages 149-150

"They left the next morning... my own life free from invasion" - page 152

"Perhaps it was their presence that made old Kelbendorf sound more German than ever, or maybe it was only emotion that twisted his speech."- page 155

"The circumstances were against him. But circumstances were against all of us..." - page 163

"All through the afternoon I worked... emotions of a tiny suburban history." - page 172 (last page of the chapter).

Please add your own quotes...

Thanks,

Sunday.

Hello All,

I'm not sure if anyone checks this anymore but I thought it would be worth a try.

We seem to have been doing a lot of film-watching in the smaller lit class and not so much discussion...

What kind of things has the other class been talking about?

Does anyone have any ideas for the SAC discussion?

-Sunday

Happy New Year, etc.

Hi all!

Hopefully some of you will read this over the holidays. I should have posted an update sooner, but, you know, travel, extreme cold, all of that kind of thing...got in the way.

I'm in Ireland. It's very cold. Very, very cold. 1 degree celsius kind of cold. Hmmm...

Anyway, I hope you've all had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy (if a little hot) New Year's.

Are you reading? I hope so!

I've just finished the new Granta (113) - It's the best of the New Young Spanish Language Novelists. Definitely worth a read. I've just started a book by an Irish writer, John Banville. It's called Athena and so far it's excellent. He wrote The Sea, an exquisite novel (one of my favourites) which won the Booker Prize in 2005.

Other things I've read recently include:

Sunset Park - by Paul Auster (Anything by Paul Auster is worth reading, particularly his early works such as The Book of Illusions, Leviathan, In The Country of Last Things and Moon Palace)

Freedom - by Jonathan Franzen


I'm listening to The Gin Club - Junk - it's a great album. Check it out.

Also, get stuck into the books for next year. Believe me when I tell you, it's best to have read the stuff before you start class.

To those of you who were in NYC, welcome home. Hope you had a blast. I heard good things.

To any of you who may have tried to get in touch with me via email, I'm not sure it's working. At least, mine is, but for some reason any time I try to email a PHSC address, my emails get blocked and returned to me. It's sad :-(

So, that means that those of you to whom I owe an email regarding creative writing work you have sent me before Christmas will not have received my replies. I tried! I'm sorry. You know who you are. If you'd like to try and get in touch with me via another email address, do! I WILL reply! I promise.

Ok, keep reading and writing. Enjoy the summer! Still no news as to whether or not I'll be back at Princes Hill next year. Fingers crossed. I will be available to contact, regardless, though. Feel free to get in touch if you need any lit help.

Other good books (I promised a list and then forgot...)

What I Loved (Siri Hustvedt)
The Outsider (Camus)
The Sea, The Sea (Iris Murdoch)
The Trial (Franz Kafka)
The Sea (John Banville)
Seize the Day (Saul Bellow)
A Farewell to Arms (Ernest Hemingway)
The Ginger Man (JP Donleavy)
The Road (Cormac MacCarthy)
Any edition of Granta
American Rust (Phillip Meyer)
Document Z (Andrew Croome) (Obviously!)
All Names Have Been Changed (Claire Kilroy)


There are so many more. I'll post any I think of.

Here's to you guys. Look after yourselves.

From wintery Dublin, cheers,
Simon