Knowing me, knowing you

 Two Names You Go By:
 1. Liske (Liz), or Lielie
 2. Donsie

 Two Things You Are Wearing Right Now:
 1. dark blue skinny jeans
 2. black hoodie with Peace sign on back

 Two Things You Would Want (or have) in a Relationship:
 1. Trust … and some compassion
 2. Honesty (& openness)

 Two of Your Favorite Things to do:
 1. Read
 2. Write/ watch movies

 Two Things You Want Very Badly At The Moment:
 1. Coffee
 2. my cat – its raining outside, would be nice to have him on my lap, stroking him while I read. Quality time 😉

 Two things you did last night:
 1. watched THE PRESTIGE (again)
 2. checked that my birthday calendar is up to date

 Two things you ate today:
 1. some jellybeans for the sugar rush
 2. [uhm…]

 Two people you Last Talked To on the phone:
 1. Karien (this morning)
 2. Liebe (on Saturday?)

 Two Things You’re doing tomorrow:
 1. giving a presentation on THE YELLOW WALLPAPER in my Feminism&Colonialism class
 2. reading FROM MAN TO MAN and WHAT MAISIE KNEW

 Two longest car rides:
 1. going to Oudtshoorn
 2. going to Knysna

 Two Favorite Holidays
 1. Christmas, probably – nothing like festive cheer… bah humbug
 2. [how many are there to choose from in SA?? a holiday is a holiday; besides, its all so bloody commercial]

 Two Favorite Beverages
 1. COFFEE
 2. WATER (!!!); or orange juice

 Things you may not have known about Me.
 1. I am allergic to dust (so they say)
 2. I love crying in films, and quote quite often from The Angry Beavers show

 Some jobs I have had in my life:
 1. Casual at Mr Video
 2. candyfloss girl 😉

 Two Movies I would watch over and over:
 1. Sleepless in Seattle
 2. Someone Like You

 Two places I have lived:
 1. Bellville
 2. in the res (Harmonie) = Stellenbosch

 Two of my Favorite Foods:
 1. Lasagne
 2. peanutbutter sandwiches *laugh*
 

♥?fav words: ‘prettig’
♥?fav item of clothing: my two Snoopy t-shirts (and my old faded, torn jeans i can no longer wear)
♥?i like… good company
♥?i love… my cat
♥?i have… good listening skills
♥?i dream… dark, depressing things
♥?i would spend my days… reading
♥?i wish i could be… a writer
♥?i would change my name to… Katherine (Kate for short)
♥?i like the colours… turquoise, white and yellow
♥?i admire… how diversity builds one’s character
♥?i respect… people who work hard, and those who persevere despite hardships
♥?i eat… lasagne
♥?i play … solitaire (or mind games)
♥?i don’t… swim
♥?i am inspired by… the little things
♥?if i owned a shop i would call it… Stardust Inc. [please note: i had this idea BEFORE the movie came out!!!]
♥?screw… hypocrites
♥?peace is… an internal phenomenon
♥?i take photos coz… i want to remember things that mean(t) something to me
♥? express myself through… my writing
♥?i want to… love well, and i do
♥?i miss… all the old kiddies shows
♥?i read… Stephen King
♥?i want… to mean something to others
♥?im going to… keep working hard at the things i love…and those i don’t
♥?i am learning about… self-acceptance
♥?the best smell is… rain

Literary Theory

They say “He who smiles rather than rages is always the stronger” – let’s think on this, shall we… Some things are just beyond words… If you are ever angry, upset or unhappy for no apparent reason, just blame your ex…any one of them, take your pick… but, enough venting (though my thoughts do not seem lucid in any way), let us rather turn to a bit of literary theory. How boring that seems, you might be thinking, but when you get down to it, it is rather fascinating.

Take Roland Barthes, for instance (think structuralism): he airs the notion that all stories share a similar structure [in a nutshell; if any of you are REALLY interested, I could look more into it, although I would rather talk about Lacan, and the whole idea of the Self-Other binary…watch this space!] To a certain extent it is probably true that one might find a structure in every story, although it is debatable whether it is similar… History may be a narrative, and it is true that it would seem that history ‘repeats’ itself: one might blame England (Europe), if you think about it, for the British were the first to colonize and segregate people (so we are taught; that is what they did with their colonies, and in Africa); they set up missionary ideals of having to care for the poor savages, making them educated, docile (?) and ‘noble’ – they taught us to fear the native, savage ‘Other’, and also (though this might be more particular to America? It was worldwide, at any rate) by using blacks as slaves, set up the standard for apartheid, for what is it but a division between those in the ‘superior’ position, and those meant to stand secondary? I might be grabbing at strings, but you get my point. In any case, look at oppressors – Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Zuma (if you will)…one might find similar aspects, a ‘structure’ in all of them, in those seeking power (and, in the case of Hitler, who was a cunning genius, he thought he was doing the ‘right’ thing, separating the ‘weak’ to create a stronger Germany – just like apartheid, protecting the Afrikaner and establishing their dominance by subjugating and oppressing the blacks)… Conflict, warfare, trials, resolutions – someone wins and someone loses; that is history, and, inevitably, the ‘structure’ of life. It really makes one think…

If one sees history then as a structure adhering to the norm of sharing aspects, its empirical designated value is blown out of the water, if only temporarily. For one might find it hard to believe that everything is the same, that there is, then, in fact no control – that it all relies one what some see as blasphemous and a myth: FATE. So if one is determined to do so, I am sure one could use narrative techniques, elements and such a Proppian reading to read the Zuma-Mbeki feud. After all, it is a typical power debate being set up, and, as in any story, it goes as follows: we have the two protagonists, who are antagonists to one another. Each individual has his or her supporters, secondary (some even ‘flat’) characters to flesh out and aid the narrative, to fuel the opposition between the two and ultimately win supporters to them respectively. One must win, one must lose. One must fall, one must rise up. And yet, how can one find Zuma admirable? What kind of protagonist/antagonist is he? Which morals do he uphold, or supposedly uphold, and how does he break with them (i.e. not adhere to them, break those very rules, codes and morals/principles he stands for and should promote/uphold)? As in any narrative, each character has his own strengths and weaknesses, and in this master narrative, the nation as collective entity/voice will have the final say, although one might question how powerful this voice is if parliament has rule (controlling votes, influencing people on the inside, et cetera…) There is intrigue, deceit, double-dealing, confrontation – the epic battle – and… well, I suppose you all get my point.

I know all this seems confusing at the moment, but in a strange, psychological and psychosocial sense, it DOES make sense. Look at the world, at society: it all comes down to language, and language is a structure with its own rules…as stories, also, have structures and certain codes they adhere to. Questions? Comments?

And so it begins…

It was a dark and stormy night, and all about the shabby inn the steady drip, drip, dripping of rain leaked into the souls of the patrons, as I sat alone in the corner, no light to be found there – only the one on inside my head…

Well…to be honest…it was not dark and stormy…or night, for that matter. As loathe as your heroine is to admit it, it is early afternoon, with but a few dark clouds smudging the sky. I think the heat has taken its toll on what constitutes as my brain. Then again, I might just have been trying to be dramatic. Darn you, clichéd literary imagination!

There, that’s done with, scratch the theatrics off my first-blog-musts list. I see no need to introduce myself – all will be revealed within due time, if you choose to follow my course, and travel on many a weary, wonderous, and sometimes even bland and mundane, stoic journey in the wonderful web-world of today.

The skinny on my genes is that I am (a) skinny, according to some (don’t you just hate bias?), (b) a middle-child, and (c) avid cat-lover (check out www.icanhascheezburger.com, you’ll love it!) as well as Stephen King ‘worshipper’. I have a tendency to dislike the typical girl in skinny jeans, with her awe-inspiringly quick metabolism…yet, one cannot blame me – blame the media, and university campus, where you find these skinny (-jean/gene) brigades we so love to call “poppies” in Afrikaans.

That aside, I bid you welcome, dear (and, hopefully, in true Stephen king tradition, Constant) Reader. Take a seat, put your feet up, have a cigar, and let it all begin, until it all ends, “Not with a bang, but with a whimper”…