Author: Maida Ahmad

The second chunk of assigned reading for “House of Leaves” significantly differed from the first in terms of complexity. When I started to read the book, I tried to just attain a system of reading the two different passages by Navidson and Johnny. However, when I sat down to continue my reading this time, I was bombarded with various boxes, rotated font, and font that was red and scratched out…. Read more →

I have to say, House of Leaves is one of the more interesting reads of the semester. Unlike the other books and collections of poetry we read as a class, House of Leaves is too interesting to lose focus on. Having never read a frightening novel, I scoffed when we were told that House of Leaves was full of horrors. However, forty pages into the book and I am hooked…. Read more →

As I began reading The World’s Wife, the first thing I noticed was the lengthiness of the poems, compared to the conciseness of Selling Manhattan‘s poems. A unique characteristic of The World’s Wife is Carol Ann Duffy’s use of fantasy and fairytales. Where Selling Manhattan focuses on language and tragedy, the first half of The World’s Wife centers around fictional topics, such as Greek mythology and fables. “Little Red-Cap” is… Read more →

“Mrs. Icarus” is the poem I chose to focus on in The World’s Wife. When opening the composition book I was given at MARBL, I realized it was a lot more difficult to follow than the notebook that housed “The Dummy;” there was an increase in random calculations and phrases. I struggled in deciphering the first couple of pages, but soon realized the random phrases belonged to Duffy’s poem, “Snowball.”… Read more →

Going into MARBL and having the opportunity to look through some of Carol Ann Duffy’s manuscripts was a very interesting experience. When opening the folders that housed the manuscripts from Selling Manhattan, I was surprised to witness an extremely unorganized notebook. The first page I flipped to consisted of various scribbling, coloring, doodling, and calculating – something I wasn’t exactly expecting going into a poet’s notebook. As I flipped through… Read more →

While finishing up Selling Manhattan, I noticed many poems where conversation and language are crucial and emphasized. “Postcards” and “Telegrams” are only two of the many poems that exemplify the importance of speech in Carol Ann Duffy’s poems. “Postcards” seems like it is a poem about two lovers that are separated by a large amount of distance; they send each other postcards to stay in touch. Carol Ann Duffy mentions… Read more →

As I read Carol Ann Duffy’s Selling Manhattan, I was amazed at how many times her poems mentioned death and tragedy; it made me wonder if some tragic event had taken place in Duffy’s life that had led her to reference sad occasions so frequently. One of my favorite poems from the first 35 pages was “The Dummy.” While reading it, I felt like the poem was hinting at domestic… Read more →

Elizabeth Dalloway seems like the complete opposite of her mother, Clarissa Dalloway. For one, Clarissa loves throwing parties and devotes a large chunk of her time in planning and preparing. Elizabeth, however, “[does] not much like parties” (Woolf 131). Both Clarissa and Elizabeth are described to be attractive. However, while Clarissa is “fair-haired; blue-eyed; Elizabeth, on the contrary, was dark; had Chinese eyes in a pale face; an Oriental mystery.”… Read more →

My first thought on reading Mrs. Dalloway was how confusing it was to comprehend. The constant change from past to present forced me to read and re-read certain sections in order to fully understand what was happening. Once I got a better grasp on the reading, I realized how sorry I felt for Clarissa Dalloway. The book starts off by showing Clarissa walking around aimlessly in London in search of… Read more →

While working through the assigned readings by Stephen Ramsay, I came by many interesting points. It seems that Stephen Ramsay holds digital humanists to a very high standard, hence his repetitive association of them to “the cool kids” (Ramsay 2). The tone in his essays seemed comical, as he cracked jokes at the beginning of … Continue reading Stephen Ramsay and Digital Humanities Read more →