Fascicle 11

Alrighty dudes and dudettes, I finnished writing my paper on Fascicle 11 and I'm here to report to you what I learned!

I learned that all of the Emily Dickinson anthologies on reserve are very thick and that I felt like a total nerd as I brought the 30 lb stack of books to a table on the first floor in the library next to starbucks. I was too lazy to bring them to a quiet nook in the stacks...so, I plopped my self in the midst of the world of cappuccinos and the students who have to use the printers in the library because they're too cheap to refill the black ink cartridges in their fancy... dusty printers.


Reading an Emily Dickinson fascicle is a lot like reading a poetry version of a "choose your own adventure" story. Most of the poems within fascicle 11 had female speakers who discussed what it means to be a woman...and what a woman loses when she either chooses to maintain her identity of if she chooses to succumb to the rule of a man. Each poem told a different story about someone who made this decision and what it took to make the decision.

Loss and boundaries were key themes regarding the female speakers within the fascicle. Almost every poem had a barrier between the speaker and the object of their affection and some sort of loss regarding what ever the speaker decided to do...

I felt very trapped while reading this fascicle, like being female was some sort of curse and that I would have to choose between pride and love....or between pride and heaven. I felt like there was no place to go, or any decision I could make that would allow me to keep all that I want.

According to this fascicle I only had 2 options.
A) I could fall for a dude and loose myself in his identity or
B) I could maintain my dignity but loose love and the respect of God

LOOSE LOOSE SITUATION HERE PEOPLE

LIFE SUCKS AND THEN YOU DIE...

here is a diagram....


As you can see, the ladies definitely get shafted and the guys have all the fun. (if you need further textual evidence please see my comic version of "Over the fence-" in my previous blog post....boys get all the berries....turds!)


Alright, I'm out for now...until next time!

P_A