Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in asanisimasa1307's LiveJournal:

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Friday, May 20th, 2005
1:44 pm	oy vey, this book just does not work for me. i mean, sure, capote is capable of being a great writer at times, and he is, but the dialogue just does not seem believable. and really, why would such an intelligent and rational narrator be so attached to holly, and it happens right off the bat. i can't find his admiration for her believable, i have no affection for her character, i think she's gaudy and self-centered and why is everyone so swept away with holly golightly? i mean, maybe i could understand if she were incredibly intelligent, or she wasn't so indifferent to so many people, and in the end her background and such just does not justify sympathy for her at all or make her any more human to me, i could care less for holly golightly and i think that capote has taken a real downfall creating her and fawning over her through his narrator. simply not believable. at least, that's my take. Current Music: godly faure from shira burton (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, May 14th, 2005
4:41 pm	wow, this was absolutely wonderful. i've always wanted to read the book since i saw the film like 6 years ago, and just, wow. danny's relationship with reuven is so touching, and just the bit of a glimpse you get into hasidism in general is really quite interesting. it's exciting to watch danny come into his own and while there are rather sad overtones in the work, especially the silence between danny and his father (and in general sickness which seems to affect so many characters appearing throughout the novel at different times) it's ultimately quite redeeming. i really loved this, and as a side note i must say that i think Danny made in excellent decision in choosing Columbia. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 10th, 2005
12:46 pm	hmmm. i think this is a very important book, especially for its time, and it makes a very important statement. how relevant is it today? i don't know, relevant perhaps but less so than when it was written. so i appreciate it but it doesn't do so much for me personally, mahahaha. nonetheless, it did come in handy to allude to on free response #2 on the AP test! hahaahha (Comment on this)
12:44 pm	this was absolutely hilarious, and without question, Fortuna was smiling upon shira and i in selecting this work to read together. from time to time i find myself sliding into somewhat of an ignatius character, mahahahaa, and i love it. what else can you expect from a fellow Columbian? (Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 22nd, 2005
10:16 am	The Canterbury Tales: Prologue, Knight's Tale, Miller's Tale, Pardoner's Tale, Nun's Priest's Tale, Wife of Bath's Tale Why didn't I read this sooner? I loved the tales, The Miller's Tale was so hilarious, so this is the stuff my dad and grandfather are always telling me about finally. I was drawn into the Knight's Tale, got to read the Nun's Priest's Tale aloud in English which was really quite a ride, awfully strange but, the language is so rich, and it's funny how many detours he seems to take in his tales. The Wife of Bath's Tale was great, as was the Pardoner's, not nearly as juicy as The Miller's Tale of course but, I guess they're trying to get a moral across. All in all, such a delight to read. It's so grand how stuff written 619 years ago can resonate so freshly today. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 16th, 2005
8:02 pm	I liked this a lot, though not as much as Cat's Cradle. (Comment on this)
Thursday, March 10th, 2005
4:25 pm	ahh, how i love kurt vonnegut. this book was so so so damn hilarious. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 9th, 2005
4:49 pm	i wouldn't call this one of the greatest novels ever written, but i must say, i enjoyed it. some of the lines were simply beautiful, i mean, what a brilliant writer fitzgerald is, just some of the ends of his chapters, it's such poetry! so gorgeous, and there's such a sense of loss and inevitable despair in this work, culminating in the end of course, and i used to hate how fitzgerald ended books on such a sudden and unresolved sad note, but now i really appreciate it, i see it as an affirmation that, yes, 'this is life', and the ending i thought was so tragic on so many levels, and it really made me more depressed and evoked hmmm bitter feelings i suppose more than anything. now that i finished it, i'm really glad that i read it. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, February 23rd, 2005
4:40 pm	at first i liked this book but it wasn't amazing, then it picked up and i couldn't put it down half way through, then it became VERY sad for like the final 100 pages, but by the end..... as much as it's fiction and unrealistic, which i assume it all to be, God's merely a character like any other in the work, it's just heartbreaking at the end and yet warm. so maybe i'm just being too soft on this one, hahaa but i think if one kind of gives themself over to this book it's very rewarding. i mean, i couldn't help but cry at the end as the narrator looks back upon all his fond memories of the times he and owen spent together.... either way, it really got me in the end (and if a book can make me breakdown in the end, well hell, that's generally pretty good) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, February 2nd, 2005
9:27 pm	I can't say I liked A Death In the Family, I mean, I liked his father and the moments where he describes the time they spent together really impressed me... but the rest of this I felt somewhat detached from, it had no real emotional impact on me, eh. just not my cup of tea. (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, January 28th, 2005
7:09 pm	ok, so i hated the 2nd part, loved the 1st. i mean, i see a lot of truth in the underground man. for instance, intelligence and knowledge really is a terrible bane and one must reject it to a degree to live the everyday life, at least, not reject but blind himself of that truth. furthermore, one presented with absolute truth takes pleasure in rebelling against it because he must establish independence, the laws of nature and mathematics are too encumbersome and could easily drive one mad if they were to dictate his entire life, if his future could be predicted, if the implications are that he is robbed of his will, ect. hahaha, yeah, i guess this is why social skills are important. i can see why locking oneself away from society for a lengthy period of time could result in such misplaced spite (2 Comments |Comment on this)
5:13 pm	maybe it's just the fact that it's cloudy outside and i'm doing nothing this weekend, but i think i was too depressed to pick this up in the first place. hahaa, at any case, it's a pretty horrifying idea if you really think about it. i can hardly say i enjoyed it but i appreciate it and agree with the ideas behind it for the most part (2 Comments |Comment on this)
5:11 pm	this was a pleasure to read! very exciting, i loved the big showdown in court where darrow shoots down bryan on the witness stand. very entertaining stuff!! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, January 27th, 2005
4:16 pm	first of all, this book just might land a place in my 10 favorite novels of all time (once i formulate that list) simply amazing. i didn't want to put it down, it's quite the page turner, i mean steinbeck really pulls you in, hahaha as aaron says a 'page turner with themes'. i found it very brutal and tragic at times, i mean it is, but that's life, and in the end out of all of this good and evil we have the directive timshel (not that philosophically i believe any of this, but it sure sounds nice). how can you not fall in love with some of these characters? i mean, sam hamilton's smooth lyrical voice, lee's wisdom (which really reminded me of the joyluck club, that silent calm eastern prudence), and while it would seem as if aron had some choice his turn away from reality and ultimate demise, i really commiserate with him and just totally don't think it's right for cal to get abra, but then again, life moves on, but i do mourn for aron, and it's such ashame he drove her away and couldn't face reality, i felt like what steinbeck portrayed them as having was so wonderful and touching and hmm dare i use the word cute. i'm glad cathy got her just medicine, i really couldn't see much good ever coming out of her or commiserate with her.... there's so much whispered in this work...... so much pain, joy, wisdom, beauty, tragedy, i mean. wow. i'm utterly blown away. and i LOVE steinbeck's dedication at the begining, so i think i'll just close with that, so when i (and everyone else) happens to be looking back at this entry they'll remember it, and it's such a good description of what this book really is... Dear Pat, You came upon me carving some kind of little figure out of wood and you said, "Why don't you make something for me?" I asked you what you wanted, and you said, "A box." "What for?" "To put things in." "What things?" "Whatever you have," you said. Well, here's your box. Nearly everything I have is in it, and it is not full. Pain and excitement are in it, and feeling good or bad and evil thoughts and good thoughts-the pleasure of design and some despair and the indescribable joy of creation. And on top of these are all the gratitude and love I have for you. And still the box is not full. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, January 17th, 2005
8:20 pm	this was absolutely wonderful. i felt like i really connected with the young james joyce, and i found his own artistic liberation a huge source of inspiration and very liberating in and of itself. on a separate note, this really makes me want to pen a novel about a boarding school experience (as does this side of paradise and similar works). i loved joyce's arguments about art and the questions he proposes and how he views it as static and transcendent of course of time and kinetic being, something which becomes, while it uses the physical/material as a medium, immaterial and eternal. yeah, works like this make me so want to live as a writer (Comment on this)
Sunday, January 16th, 2005
7:54 pm	i really enjoyed this, and i must say, as terrible as frankenstein's fate was, i do commiserate with his creation much more. how sad and enrapturing! especially when his creature camped out and watched the family for so many months and then was driven out, just terrible. and a really quick read, which was nice. i did love the descriptions of switzerland, england and the north pole. hahaha, i'd love to go on an expedition. so this is what happens with too much passion for knowledge and studying! haha (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, January 13th, 2005
7:52 pm	Wow, so like, i really couldn't put this down. i mean, at times it seems to get a little picayune (discussing endless squabbles in the administration, financial difficulties, ect.) but it was extremely comprehensive and for the most part incredibly enjoyable. i wouldn't say it was written with the touch of say a boorstin, but it's hardly dry either. there's a thousand things to talk about after reading this book, i mean, it's an awfully long history, and i'm glad i'm fairly versed in it now. i do think the only place columbia has to move now is up the ladder, and it's a very bright future. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Dr. McCaughey, I am writing to simply thank you for writing such a wonderful and comprehensive history of Columbia University. Next year I will be a freshman at Columbia College and over the past few months I have been very eager to learn as much history as I can about the University. I received Stand, Columbia upon request as a Christmas gift and have devoured its pages with sheer delight. Thank you so much for making available such a comprehensive volume of the history of the University composed with such massive scholarship. The University's struggles, downfalls and triumphs were completely engrossing, not to mention your wonderfully written narratives about the colorful personalities who have contributed to that history. Your book was a tremendous pleasure, and I offer my profound gratitude to so great a scholar. Sincerely, Robert Kohen (CC 2009) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Robert -- Thank you for your kind words. Do make it over to Barnard upon your next appearance on Morningside Heights. Bob McCaughey (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, December 31st, 2004
10:33 am	eh. didn't really move me too much. i mean i can appreciate it but. in terms of, 'african-american' literature, i was very lukewarm on it, very much like 'i know why the caged bird sings'. i enjoyed invisible man and a raisin in the sun soooo much more, loved those. but this wasn't terrible or anything, just didn't do it for me. Current Music: sssuuun is falling in the coolld places (Comment on this)
10:32 am	this was grand. a very different approach to american history indeed...it really focused on the cultural aspects of the colonial era. and for the first time i see that he's quite conservative, though i appreciate it. he really paints a picture of an america in which there were no clearly defined and narrowing professions, that everyone had to be able to do everything, that there was much more applied practicality in the professions of early americans than intellectualism, that while georgia and the quakers were bound to fail because of their idealism the puritans prospered because of their practicality....very interesting. a few amusing anecdotes too, hehe, like the fact that ranks amongst the militias were so hazy (officers were actually elected by the soldiers) that at one funeral, two colonels (one in the militia one in continental army) were pallbearers at the funeral, and one decided to walk in front, the elder, but the younger said since he was army not militia he should be able to, and eventually they just left and didn't take part in the funeral due to their petty squabbling. all in all, very enjoyable work, even if he is a tad conservative:) (Comment on this)
10:32 am	Just finished Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. wow, this was wonderful. it really pulled me in too.... at times it's so mysterious and really reminded me of a 1984 or something with this feeling of all these enigmatic forces at work behind the scenes..so did not want to put it down...and i think that it's a very honest perception of reality, though not very flattering, but nonetheless i do believe we merely use one another for our own means....but nonetheless, while it's an important and disconcerting realization, as is all philosophy, we still must leave that obscure underground to go out and enjoy the daylight, enjoy living, and not allow that reality to bother us. i'm surprised i waited so long to read this... (Comment on this)