Reading Notes W12: Ailing & Jun'ichiro, Part X

Zhang Ailing - "Sealed Off"

• The city is sealed due to an air raid (499)
• Japanese frequently bombed Shanghai during the second Sino-Japanese War which became part of the Second World War (499)
• People would tug on the railings and beg to get in the tram (499)
• Those inside of the tram were quiet (499)
• A beggar tried to take advantage of the situation by begging for money but stopped when he was intimidated by the silence (499)
• Another beggar sang a song about having no money. The tram driver, being from the same region and recognizing the tune, joined in. (499)
• Lu Zongzhen is an accountant for Huamao Bank (500)
• Wu Cuiyuan was a good daughter and student. She became an English teacher after graduating from college. She decided to grade papers while stuck in the air raid. (501)
• While I can understand the devotion to one's job, this was still weird. There's absolutely no way I'd be able to focus on school or work-related things if there was some notable form of violence or danger around me. I say that anyways, but I remember playing video games when all of the California fires were going on not too long ago. Actually, I have no idea how I'd act in such a situation now that I've thought about it.
• Some people begin to discuss art and argue their preferences (502)
• Lu doesn't joined in the conversation and stays in his seat. He sees Peizhi and fears Peizhi would take advantage of the opportunity to press forward with his attack (502)
• Something with the narrator and point of view keeps ripping me out of the story. The story's being told in a third person point of view by referring to characters as "he" or "she" and never speaking as "I" but rather "Lu." Yet there's constant commentary between various moments in the story. "Oh no! The woman..." "Damn! Dong Peizhi had..." "Now, thank God, he was..." It's sort of disorienting and I can't help but feel I missed a crucial detail about who's telling this story. Either that or the narrator is just very vocal about their opinions.
• Peizhi sees anyone over thirty years old as being old. (502)
• "Her whole body was like squeezed-out toothpaste, it had no shape." Well that's just hurtful. (502)
• Cuiyuan was shocked that Lu was resting his arm behind her. (503)
• I don't understand why Lu is trying to avoid Peizhi if Peizhi is his nephew.
• Lu feels his wife doesn't understand him at all (504)
• Lu's marriage as arranged. He was against it from the start. (504)
• He was happy to see Cuiyuan blush (504)
• Lu wants a divorce but can't get on (505)
• Cuiyuan is 24 and Lu is 34 (505)
• They were both happy to sit by each other (505)
• Lu spontaneously decided to tell her she can't sacrifice her future and that he doesn't want to ruin her life (505)
• Cuiyuan felt she would most likely get married eventually but her husband wouldn't be as "dear" as some stranger (Lu) that she just met (506)
• She felt he was a good person and throwing away his own happiness (506)
• "If a woman needs to turn to words to move a man's heart, she is a sad case" (506)
• He asked for her number (506)
• He frantically searched for a pen and paper while she spouted out her number. Noise built-up all around them. The tramp began to move faster. She noticed he hadn't got off the tram when she did since they couldn't see each other between the crowd. "The whole of Shanghai had dozed off, had dreamed an unreasonable dream" (506)

Tanizaki Jun'ichiro - "The Tattooer"

• In an age when men honored frivolity (80).
• Kabuki theater is a form of popular, highly dramatic theater (80)
• Seikechi had formerly been an ukiyo-e painter of the school of Toyokuni and Kunisada (80)
• As a tattooer, the clients he accepted had to leave the design and cost up to his discretion (80)
• His secret pleasure was the agony men felt as he drove needles into them (80)
• "Don't act like a child. Pull yourself together--you have hardly begun to feel my needles" (80-81).
• I feel like this would be hilarious in a cartoon or anime.
• "Soon your body will begin to throb with pain" (81)
• He had desired to create a masterpiece on a beautiful woman for a long time (81)
• "I have waited five years for you. This is the first time I have seen your face, but I remember your foot" (82)
• Seikechi is creepy.
• He showed the girl a painting of a Chinese princess.
• She asks why he showed this painting to her, he said because the woman in the painting is "yourself" and says her blood runs through her. The girl admits she is like the woman in the painting but requests that he put the painting away. (82)
• "Don't talk like a coward" (82)
• He had to say this with a "malicious smile," of course. (82)
• He put her to sleep with some anesthetic (82-3)
• Hours later, the tattoo wasn't even half done (83)
• She has to bathe to bring out the colors of the tatoo (84)
• The tattoo on her back is a spider (84)

Ailing, Zhang. "Sealed Off." The Norton Anthology World Literature, edited by Martin Puchner, Third Edition, vol. F, W. W. Norton 2012, pp. 497-506

Jun'ichiro, Tanizaki. "The Tattooer." The Norton Anthology World Literature, edited by Martin Puchner, Third Edition, vol. F, W. W. Norton 2012, pp. 78-84

Week 12 Analysis: Close Reading of "The Dead"

I've chosen to do my close reading on the paragraph that begins after the sentence "she was fast asleep" (206). In this paragraph, we can see how the memory of someone who has long since passed away can have a tremendous impact on the lives of the living even has time goes on. Gabriel is described as "leaning on his elbow" as Gretta sleeps (206). If I'm picturing it correctly, this would mean that he's leaning on something with his elbow as if to make standing more comfortable since he suspects he'll be by Gretta for a long amount of time before he leaves. He "looked for a few moments unresentfully on her tangled hair and half-open mouth, listening to her deep-drawn breath" (206). By looking at her without resentment, I can safely assume that he's somewhat calmed down since she had upset him by mentioning Michael Furey. Her hair is most likely tangled because of how she carelessly threw herself onto the bed when crying. Her mouth is probably half-open due to her crying. She might have been sobbing and sniffing too much when crying and fallen asleep while mainly breathing through her mouth as opposed to her nose. The deep-drawn breath seems to be a sign that she might be calming down in her rest and not so heartbroken as she was a moment before. Gabriel restates the idea that "a man had died for her sake" as if to let this new idea sink in for a moment since he had trouble accepting it at first (206). He believes he's played a poor part in her life as her husband and he looks at her "as though he and she had never lived together as man and wife" (206). Gabriel seems to be questioning every moment of time he's ever spent with her because of how he's never known about this until now. Now he feels like he hardly knows her at all. It's as if she's become a stranger to him. This also might be due to the fact that her crying over another man, even if dead, implies that she has lingering feelings for someone other than her husband which might make him feel distant to Gretta. He pictures what she might have looked like all those years ago and it makes him feel a "strange friendly pity" (206). By picturing her as younger, it's almost like he's seeing her as an entirely different person. And by looking at her as someone else instead of his wife, it might be easier for him to disconnect from the idea that his wife is thinking of another young man. This disconnect would allow him to feel sympathy for her as opposed to jealous and resentment. He didn't want to say she wasn't beautiful anymore, but he felt that she no longer had the "face for which Michael Furey had braved death" (206). By considering the events of Michael's death, Gabriel might be having a hard time thinking that he could do the same for Gretta. To say she doesn't have the same face someone once died for makes it sounds like he wouldn't die for her if he had to because either his feelings for her had diminished or he's truly become distant from her. This paragraph also explains why he feels as though Michael Furey, though dead, at least lived a life filled with love. Michael Furey loved Gretta enough to die for her, whereas one simple story had caused Gabriel to question his entire relationship with her and doubt the integrity of their relationship.

Joyce, James. "The Dead." The Norton Anthology World Literature, edited by Martin Puchner, Third Edition, vol. D, W. W. Norton 2012, pp. 206

Reading Notes W12: Joyce, Part B

• Lily is the caretaker's daughter (178)
• Misses Morkan's annual dance is a great affair (178)
• Lily is done with school and does not go to school anymore (179)
• Gabriel gave a coin to Lily because it's Christmas time (180)
• Gabriel was the favorite nephew (180)
• Gabriel was about to ask his aunt about something but she went to gaze after he sister (182)
• Aunt Kate says she feels easier when Gabriel is around (182)
• The characters were going to dance. Quadrilles, as one woman said. (183)
• Gabriel was irritated by the beeswax on the floor (184)
• Amy writes for The Daily Express (185)
• Every year, Gabriel goes for a cycling tour (186)
• Gabriel is sick of his own country (187)
• His answer made him upset and he tried hiding it by dancing with great energy (187)
• There are two lines early on page 188 where Joyce describes how Gabriel said something. "Said Gabriel coldly" and "said Gabriel moodily" (188). This isn't significant to the reading, it just caught my attention since I always hear different things about writing the way a character says something. Some English teachers have taught me this a smart thing to do whereas other Creative Writing teachers have told me to leave it at "said" and nothing more.
• Aunt Kate fiercely told Mary Jane that she does in fact know all about the honor of God but feels it isn't honorable for the pope to turn women out of the choirs who have been there all their lives (190)
• Aunt Kate wondered where Gabriel was since he needed to carve the goose. He came back and was described as being "ready to carve a flock of geese, if necessary" (191). I thought this was funny.
• Gabriel is an expert at carving meat (191)
• Pudding was brought to the table once Gabriel finished (193)
• Monks never spoke, got up at two in the morning, and slept in their coffins (193)
• The coffin is to remind them of their "last end" (194)
• Gabriel expresses his feelings that their country doesn't have any traditions worth noting (195)
• "I will not linger on the past" - Gabriel (195)
• They sing "For they are jolly gay fellows" (196)
• Gabriel was caught off guard by Gretta's sudden kiss (203)
• He wanted to know what she was thinking about. She said she was thinking about a song called The Lass of Aughrim (204)
• She explained that someone she knew used to sing it. Gabriel got jealous because it was a boy. Gretta clarified that the boy dies at age 17 (204)
• She cried herself to sleep by thinking about it. Gabriel held her hand for a moment but let go so that she could grieve (206)
• Gabriel loves her (206)
• "His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead (207).

Joyce, James. "The Dead." The Norton Anthology World Literature, edited by Martin Puchner, Third Edition, vol. F, W. W. Norton 2012, pp. 174-207

Reading Notes W12: Woolf, Part A

• "Women must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction" (339)
• Mary Beton/Seton/Carmichael are all acceptable names for Mary (340)
• Poetry excites people to feelings like abandonment or rupture is because it celebrates some feeling that one used to have. (345)
• Comparison of how many books are written about men compared to women (352)
• Women do not write books about men (353)
• If there were indisputable proofs arguing about how women are inferior to men then it wouldn't be so hard to not be angry. But that isn't the case (357)
• Woolf's aunt, Mary Beton, died by falling off of her horse when she went for a ride to get some air in Bombay (359)
• "Great bodies of people are never responsible for what they do" (360)
• "All assumptions founded on the facts observed when women were the protected sex will have disappeared" (361)
• "Women are poorer than men..."and "perhaps now it would be better to give up seeking for the truth" (361)
• From Professor Trevelyan's History of England: Wife-beating was a recognized right of man and practiced without shame by high and low (362)
• I was really surprised when I read that. I could understand the idea of giving men power over their wives in a patriarchal society but I would have imagined that abusing one's wife would be seen as a punishable offense of some sort. Even if it resulted in less of a severe punishment to beat one's wife as opposed to beating some random male-- something. To have this just be practiced without shame makes me imagine that it was as common to see a husband beating his wife as it was to see him playing a sport.
• Edgar Allan Poe was mentioned and his name caught my eye immediately for no apparent reason other than the fact that I recognize him and enjoy some of his poetry. Didn't have the same reaction for Shakespeare. Probably because I've had to read too much of Shakespeare's works in the past year. (364)
• Women who were born with a gift of poetry in the 16th century were unhappy woman; "a woman at strife against herself" (367)
• We are not held up by some "revelation" which reminds us of the writer (371)

Woolf, Virginia. "A Room of One's Own." The Norton Anthology World Literature, edited by Martin Puchner, Third Edition, vol. F, W. W. Norton 2012, pp. 336-371

Week 11 Analysis: Literary Analysis of "The Death of Ivan Ilyich"

A literary element that I had noticed and appreciated throughout "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" was foreshadowing. While we obviously knew Ivan Ilyich was dead from the beginning of the story, there were several moments of foreshadowing for events that we would witness in the time of the story prior to the death of Ivan Ilyich. When Peter Ivanovich speaks to Ilyich's wife, she tells Peter that Ivan has "suffered terrible the last few days" and continues to specify that for the "last three days he screamed incessantly" (744). Initially I had expected this just to be a detail about how Ilyich's health was. I didn't expect to read any of what Ivan Ilyich would scream about or why he was screaming. But looking back, I say this was foreshadowing because we did get to witness this actual event later in the story. When his wife was telling him how he should be taking his medicine, he interrupted her to shout "For Christ's sake let me die in peace!" (775) While this isn't incessant screaming, I still identify this as the screaming that his wife was referring to. When looking at the relationship between Ilyich and his wife, and her emotional state about his condition, I believe that this is what she was referring to. She's exaggerating the extent in which he was screaming whether that be because of how she might have remembered the traumatic event or because of her personality and lackluster relationship with Ivan. To specify why I think their relationship wasn't the best, his wife noticed his "bursts of temper" and we're told that "her husband had a dreadful temper and made her life miserable" (756). We are also told that "she began to feel sorry for herself, and the more she pitied herself the more she hated her husband" (756). She "began to wish he would die" but didn't actually want him to die just because she needed his salary. I believe the theme of hopelessness is present throughout this story as demonstrated by both the relationship between Ivan Ilyich and his wife and Ilyich's deteriorating condition. His wife had no hope for improvement in their relationship as evident by her internal desire for him to go ahead and die. Ivan Ilyich also had no hope for his health to improve. He was in denial the whole time even before he had even admitted he was in denial. He would constantly consult doctors because he was panicking, losing hope, and just trying to find anything to give him back some hope. He even lashes out at his wife and asks to die in peace as I had mentioned earlier. I believe Tolstoy's religious affiliation played a part in this story because of Ivan Ilyich's approach to death. In the biography provided before the story I read that Tolstoy "founded his own religion" and his religion "involved rejecting any idea of an afterlife" (737). Ilyich doesn't make any mentions of going to Heaven when he says he just wants to die in peace. When he does finally die, he says "Death is finished" and "It is no more!" (778). He viewed his life as being completely over and with no mention of an afterlife because Tolstoy didn't believe in one.


Holstoy, Leo. "The Death of Ivan Ilyich." The Norton Anthology World Literature, edited by Martin Puchner, Third Edition, vol. D, W. W. Norton 2012, pp. 735-778

Reading Notes W11: Ibsen, Part B

• Play takes place on the west side of Norway's capital, Christiania (781)
• Berta is the maid to the Tesmans. George Tesman is the research fellow in cultural history. Hedda Tesman is George's wife. Miss Juliane Tesman is his aunt. (781)
• Berta has a new mistress, apparently. (782)
• Berta has been in Miss Tesman and Miss Rina's service for many years (782)
• Berta has looked after George since he was a little boy (782)
• Miss Tesman tells Berta to no longer call George "Mister Tesman." She should call him "Doctor Tesman" from now on (783)
• Miss Tesman is happy for George since he's married Hedda Gabbler (784)
• George says he has several friends in town who envy him (784)
• Miss Tesman points out how he took a five-month honeymoon (784)
• George has received his doctorate (785)
• He has prospects of becoming a professor (785)
• George wonders what he'll do with the two empty rooms in his home (785)
• Miss Tesman says he'll know what to do when the time comes. I think she's implying he'll have kids. The idea doesn't register with George. He thinks about his library (785)
• Miss Tesman took out a mortgage on her annuity (786)
• George comments on how his aunt never gets tired of sacrificing herself for him (786)
• George's book will bea bout the Domestic Craftsmanship Practices of Medieval Brabant (786)
• Miss Tesman has referred to "sainted Joseph" several times by this point in the play
• Miss Tesman gave George his old house slippers (787)
• Hedda says Berta won't last as a maid because she forgot her old hat. The hat actually belonged to Miss Tesman as George pointed out. Miss Tesman says the hat isn't old and that she hasn't even worn it before today (788)
• Hedda seems to have something against Miss Tesman. She doesn't really know her. She criticizes Miss Tesman's manners for leaving her hat around. She doesn't want to call her "Aunt" let alone "Aunt Julie" (789)
• Mrs. Elvsted left flower at Tesman's home (789-90)
• Mrs. Elvsted was formerly Miss Rysing. Hedda says she had "irritating hair" and points out how she used to be an "old flame" of George's (790)
• Mrs. Elvsted claims she was desperate when Hedda and George weren't home (790)
• There's some sort of trouble and she didn't know who else to turn to (790)
• Eilert Lovborg is in town (791)
• He was Mrs. Elvsted's stepchildrens' tutor (791)
• She wants George and Hedda to keep a watchful eye on Lovborg (792)
• George says he'll do anything in his power for Eilert Lovborg (792)
• Hedda forces Mrs. Elvsted into an armchair so they can have a "heart-to-heart talk" (792)
• Mrs. Elvsted says Hedda used to pull her hair. She was afraid of Hedda. Hedda on the other hand recalls them being good friends back in school since they used to call each other by their first names (793)
• Mrs. Elvsted has been married for 5 years now (793)
• Hedda lightly smacks Mrs. Elvsted's (Thea's) hand for calling her Mrs. Tesman instead of Hedda (794)
• Hedda insists she must tell her everything. Thea says ok but Hedda must ask all the questions (794)
• Thea says her husband claims he does everything for the best. Hedda mentions that he's 20 years older than Thea. Thea can't stand being with him because they don't have anything in common (794)
• Thea's husband doesn't know she's gone. She packed some of her things and left in secret (795)
• She says she's never going back (795)
• Thea claims to have had a kind power over Eilert Lovborg. She also says he's made a real human being out of her (795)
• He talks with her more than her husband. Whenever he wrote anything, they had to agree on it first. She seems like she enjoys how important she feels with him in comparison to how she feels with her husband (795)
• Thea says there's a shadow of a woman between her and Lovborg (795)
• Lovborg only briefly spoke to Thea about this woman. He said when they broke up, the woman was going to shoot him with a pistol (796)
• That woman walked around with loaded pistols (796)
• Hedda said their conversation will be strictly between the two of them. George entered the room. (796)
• Judge Brack tells George that his appointment for professorship might not come as soon as he hoped (798)
• He would be competing for the position with Lovborg (798)
• George feels entitled to the position because he's in greater need of the money and as promised the position to begin with (799)
• Hedda speaks with George. They agree she think about having uniformed servants at this moment because of their financial situation. She can't think about the horse either. She says she has one thing left to amuse herself with. She grabs pistols and runs to the inner room. (800)

Ibsen, Henrik. "Hedda Gabler." The Norton Anthology World Literature, edited by Martin Puchner, Third Edition, vol. E, W. W. Norton 2012, pp. 781-800

Reading Notes W11: Tolstoy, Part A

• Ivan Egorovich Shebek had a private room where a conversation focused on the Krasovski case (740)
• Ivan Ilyich died February 4th, 1882 (740)
• Fedor Vasilievich wonders about his promotion now that Ilyich has died(740)
• Peter Ivanovich says he needs to apply for his brother-in-law's transfer (741)
• Ivanovich recognized Ilyich's sister at the entrance to the Ilyich house (741)
• Peter Ivanovich made the sign of the cross and stopped after he felt it went on too long. He looked at the corpse (742)
• Schwartz bowed when told that the service was going to begin but didn't accept nor decline the invitation to go to the service (743)
• The widow kept getting her shawl stuck on furniture and Ivanovich kept trying to help her (743)
• Ivanovich remarked that Ilyich's death must be hard on her. She tells him to smoke and then he lights a cigarette (744)
• She tells Ivanovich that her husband screamed incessantly for the last three days (744)
• She begins to cry because of how hard it is (745)
• Ivanovich meets a priest and recognizes Ilyich's daughter (745)
• Ivan Ilyich was a member of the Court of Justice and died at the age of 45 (746)
• Ilyich did things in school that used to seem horrid to him and make him feel disgusting (746)
• Respice Finem is latin for "Regard the end" (747)
• Comme il faut is french for "as one must" (748)
• Ivan Ilyich never abused his power (748)
• Praskovya Fedorovna came from a good family and didn't look bad and even had some property (749)
• Ilyich's wife, for no reason, began to disturb the pleasure and propriety of their life (749)
• His wife begain upbraiding him and abusing him with words every time he didn't fulfill her demands (749)
• As his wife grew more irritable, he focused more and more on his work. Seems like he's using his work as an escape from his wife. (750)
• After seven years of service in their town, he was transferred to another province as Public Prosecutor (750)
• His wife blamed him for every inconvenience they experienced in their new home (750)
• His life continued to flow as he wanted, pleasantly and properly (751)
• He lived for 17 years after his marriage (751)
• When he departed, the cheerful state of mind from his success and the harmony between him and his wife didn't leave him (753)
• There was a time when he mounted a step-ladder and made a false step then slipped (753)
• He spent his mornings in the law court and came home to dinner (754)
• His main pleasure was giving littler dinners. He would invite men and women of good social position. (755)
• He occasionally felt discomfort in his left side (755)
• His discomfort grew and he became more and more irritable (756)
• His wife felt that he had a dreadful temper and it made her life miserable. She felt sorry for herself and wished he would die but didn't actually want him to die because she needed his salary (756)
• Ivan Ilyich visited a doctor who had to decide between a floating kidney, chronic catarrh, or appendicitis. I'm curious as to why the doctor might have suspected appendicitis if Ilyich is having pain in his left side. The appendix pain would be on the right side. (756)
• Ilyich spent a good amount of time trying to understand the doctor and figure out if his condition was bad or not (757)
• He constantly consulted doctors since he became furious about his condition (758)
• His wife said that some days he would take his drops and stick to his diet but on other days he would forget his medicine and eat sturgeon which was forbidden (759)
• Several doctors told him he had a floating kidney (760)
• Ilyich went with Peter Ivanovich to see his friend who was a doctor (761)
• He's in denial. He kept saying his kidney doesn't hurt him before admitting that he's dying and trying to deceive himself (761-2)
• When he would move something himself, his wife would insist that the servants should do it so he doesn't hurt himself again (764)
• Gerasim is the butler's young assistant (765)
• Gerasim had to help Ilyich stand up to pull up his pants. (765)
• Gerasim helped Ilyich get comfortable in his seat (766)
• He liked talking to Gerasim (766)
• Gerasim would give up sleep to help support Ilyich's legs to keep him comfortable (767)
• Ilyich wanted to be able to cry and be petted and cried over. Gerasim's attitude helped satisfy this desire. But when Shebek would come over, Ilyich had to put on a serious face. The "falsity" around him poisoned his last days (767)
• Ilyich dreaded being left alone. He asked Peter to bring him his medicine before claiming that the medicine is deception and that he can't believe in it any longer (768)
• "If only it would come quicker! If only what would come quicker? Death, darkness?" (768)
• When visiting the doctor, his wife comes in and immediately finds the need to clarify that she's been there a long time and was coincidentally out of the room when the doctor arrived. (769)
• Peter asked him a question later and he responded by asking Peter to send in Gerasim (772)
• Gerasim suggested Ilyich take some opium for his pain. Ilyich took some. (772)
• Ilyich wants to live and not suffer (772)
• He wants to live well and pleasantly (773)
• He questions why he must die in agony (773)
• He pondered the question "What is this? Can it be that it is Death?" (774)
• "Resistance is impossible," Ilyich said. "There is no explanation! Agony, death... What for?" (775)
• "For Christ's sake let me die in peace!" (775)
• I'm beginning to see what his wife meant by saying he would scream incessantly.
• A force struck him in his chest and side. Two hours before his death, his son came in as he was screaming and waving his arms. His son held his hand and began to cry (777)
• Ilyich felt sorry for his family (777)
• He asked his wife to take his son away from him. He said sorry to both of them. He then saw light. "So what's what it is! What joy!" (778)
• "He drew in a breath, stopped in the midst of a sigh, stretched out, and died. (778)

Holstoy, Leo. "The Death of Ivan Ilyich." The Norton Anthology World Literature, edited by Martin Puchner, Third Edition, vol. E, W. W. Norton 2012, pp. 735-778