Literature

Food, a staple of life, has often had significant meaning attached to particular types of food. For instance, the most commonly known are foods that are considered aphrodisiacs, or chocolate that is linked to lust and decadence. An interesting article could be the exploration of these meanings and how in literature these have also changed over time and across different cultures.

A few examples to whet the appetites would be: the easiest would be the role of chocolate as lust, desire for worldly sensuality in Joanne Harris' Chocolat; sandwiches eaten on a picnic rug in Wind in the Willows represent friendship and trust; wealth is often represented through food, such as cucumber sandwiches in The Importance of Being Earnest when cucumbers were imported from India; or food as taboo, as in A Doll's House where the macaroons represent secrecy, concealment and rebellion.

It could also be included in the discussion the rituals that surround eating: many novels will include a moment that captures the family eating together or even the break in this ritual, such as in Harry Potter where family meals with the Dursleys highlighted Harry cooking or serving but not often eating. Or even looking at subversions of food and rituals, as in Alice in Wonderland with the Mad Hatter's tea party or the enlarge/reduce eat/drink items, all of which acted to challenge the over emphasis placed on Victorian rituals surrounding food in that period.

Young adult literature and children's literature is a true paradox. It is written by adults but the market suggests it is made for teens and children.

Both authors explored the magic of children, the innocence of imagination and characters that rebel against conforming to 'adulthood.' in what ways are these authors alike, what sets them apart. There is an importance to how an adult, or at least the idea of how adults are and how they view the world, and then there's the children that make up these stories and poems that uncover the magic. What is this importance and how does it work to serve as an analysis of the outside world of the works, the reality in which we live in?

I love the scene in The Matrix when Agent Smith is interrogating Morpheus, and he explains why the world they created was so unpleasant. He said initially that they created a good world but that people rejected it. In fact, they lost whole crops of humans who couldn’t accept the utopia. People rejected what wasn’t believable to them.

This is true of good stories also, particularly in how they end. If the ending is too happy, the story loses its impact. On the flip side, many modern stories end without a real conclusion or with the protagonist still struggling. I’m curious about how to find that perfect balance of satisfying resolution and believable pain that reflects the real difficulties of this world and a hope of redemption.

Consider the map of Westeros as a human body: 'The Neck' is located centrally, at Greywater Watch. Perhaps the farther North you go the closer you move towards the mind, and the farther South you go the closer you move towards the genitals. Contrast the frankness and unapologetic polyamory of Oberyn Martell and Ellaria Sand (from Dorne at the most southerly point of Westeros) with the celibacy expected of the Watchers of the Wall and the shame they associate with physical desire (at the most northerly point of Westeros). Near and beyond the Wall, sex acts occur literally underground (Mole's Town and Jon's and Ygritte's cave). The Wall is more than a pile of frozen blocks; it is frequently described in the novels as a living thing which 'weeps' and 'defends itself'. What if the Wall represents the human mind's need to protect itself from the madness which would result from a direct confrontation with its most profound fears?

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë is a singular novel. Especially within a Victorian literary context, the heroine Catherine Earnshaw is a singular woman. Passionate, haughty and violent, even as she succumbs to Victorian strictures governing femininity and relationships and eventually dies, she forever sticks in my mind.

Though she is decidedly unlike most other Victorian heroines, I wonder if more recent literature has created characters in which she is reflected? Does Catherine live on in other literary figures? Whom most resembles her?

Speculative Fiction is an umbrella genre for stories that are other-worldly. For example, fantasy, science-fiction, dystopian fiction, paranormal fantasy and more. I think it would be interesting to discuss the genre as a whole, in terms of story dynamics. A lot of speculative fiction has one foot in reality and another in a fantasy-like setting. Often speculative fiction has a lot to tell us about our reality, whether this is reflecting our reality or subverting reality to reveal new truths about the world. It would be great to look at the varying degrees to which this occurs in speculative fiction.

Third-person Omniscient is something that many authors and readers have moved away from. But why? Extremely popular once, it has seemed to fall away in the last hundred years. perhaps a deep dive into this topic would be of interest.