That Awkward Moment when...

You marry your mom and have kids with her.Yup, hello Oedipus. Congratulations, you have just created one of the most complicated family trees ever. I was talking about it with my group when we realized exactly how confusing it was. While he was her son, he was also her husband and father of some of her children. The kids are normally just his children. However, if you think about it, they're also his half-siblings.Right? Think about it, while he is Jocasta's husband, he is also her son. And those children of his...are also her sons. So therefore, Oedipus and his sons are both sons of Jocasta, making them siblings. However, they're not full siblings since Laios wasn't the father. Therefore, they have to be half-siblings. Anyways, more about Oedipus, he seems to have a little anger issue. He doesn't blow up at people in public, but it's obvious he really loses it when having private meetings. He pretty much accuses his brother-in-law/uncle about Teirasis's words. These are just my observations of Oedipus as person so far. I'm sure new things will arise as I continue reading about his quest to lift the plague of Thebes.

The Thesis:A More Engimatic Mystery than Theme

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how themes were incredibly confusing to identify. I have found a superior mystery.The thesis. As I said in a previous post, themes are difficult because there's just so many of them. However, there's only one (maybe two) that could really be called the main theme. Anyways, I'm getting myself distracted. The reason why thesis..es or theses, I don't know which one it is, is because they require actual writing. It's not like a theme, where you can read the story, think, and come up with at least one. Oh no, you generally have to read a story, think, and write something decent and preferably intelligent. That last bit is the most difficult. As we went over it in class, Mr. Mullins told us that theses didn't have magic formulas. Unfortunate. For a math and science nerd to be told that, it's kind of depressing. However, to make up for that, I've tried to look up online how to write a better thesis. There are 3 main types of essays that require a thesis expository, analytical, and argumentative. They're all nonfiction, so if you're ever writing a fictional story, good news, you don't need a thesis. Basically I think, if a thesis ends up being a simple sentence, it's probably wrong or as IU calls it "weak". 

http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/thesis_statement.shtml
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/545/1/

God of Small Things

God of Small Things is one of the oddest books I have ever read. To be honest, I really don't recommend it. It's actually based off of a real town from where the author is. However, the plot of the book is incredibly strange. I know this is a literary book, but compared to some of the other ones that I've read; this one is a bit weak. I think it just lacks the insight of something like American Gods. It's not that American Gods didn't have creepy/disturbing moments. It's just God of Small Things is much creepier, as well as confusing. Even if it does start in media res(look at the English vocab!), it's practically impossible to recognize when it flashes back.
This book also uses extremely confusing names for people."Baby Kochamma" is just one of the names in the novel. And even if it sounds like this woman is young, she's not. She's one of the oldest characters mentioned in the novel. While I admit that this book brings up ideas like unconditional love, trust, and home, it's far too weird for my taste.

Existentialism?

Existentialism. The start of my headache in English. From what I understood from the lesson is that people are only who they are through their actions. It doesn't matter what they say, actions are the only thing that describe a person. That's fundamentally what it is, right? While I may be perfectly fine with that, when this type of thinking is applied to everyone on the planet, it just doesn't make sense. Does existentialism mean that even actions from when I was a child still apply to me? Rambunctious, loud, mildly annoying. Ok. That may be true still, but that doesn't work for everyone. What if someone who committed a crime and wanted to turn over a new leaf? Are these people just known as criminals forever? How does existentialism even gain popularity with people? I can understand how scientific thinking could; it was practical. A person could go out, build something, test it, and be done. Something could be proved, disproved, or tested over and over. But all existentialism seems to be able to do is judge people. I'm this, you're that. Who cares? What's the purpose of labeling people?