Wednesday, April 9, 2008

project proposal

So for my final project, I was thinking about choosing some of the quotes at the beginnings of each chapter and analyzing them. They seem to represent what goes on in each chapter. I'm obviously not going to analyze all of them, seeing as there are over 20, but which ones do you think are more important than others, or are more interesting?

Also, I think the use of mis-spelled words in this book is very intersting too...someone could analyze that in a final project....just a suggestion.

3 comments:

erika mcclintock said...

I'd be interested to know whether all of the quotes used at the beginning of the chapters are real-life quotes or manufactured ones. If they are one or the other- why? For example, if all the quotes at the beginning of the chapters are real quotes, is there a signifigance to that (when so many quotes within the book are manufactured? If they are manufactured- does that inform the content of the chapter at all? I don't have the book with me right now- but I'd be curious to learn more...

Adam Johns said...

The idea here is obviously good. The challenge is to go from an idea to a clear thesis. Erika is essentially proposing an way to generate a thesis: assuming, at least, that some are real and some are false, there is likely some special significance to either the real/false pattern, or to which ones are real and which ones are false.

The quote at the beginning of Chapter II is from the 3rd chapter of Frankenstein, from one of Victor Frankenstein's teachers in "natural philosophy," which we would call science. It's very significant and deeply ironic in that context.

The second quote at the beginning of chapter 3, the one from the Bible, is very real - at least the English translation of it is. I don't know about the Hebrew.

The quote at the beginning of Chapter VII is a real quote from the third paragraph of Jack London's "To Build a Fire." That's particularly interesting because London is typically thought of as a naturalist/realist, whereas Danielewski is anything but a naturalist.

That's all I have for now, but I hope something in there hopes.

Noa said...

i really like that idea..seing if some are false..i'm going to look into that