I first have to give major props to Jimmy Wales to have created something as universal as Wikipedia.
While I sometimes question the validity of the articles on Wikipedia I am glad they are all there. Wikipedia gives new meaning to the idea of free information. The great thing about the site is that it is a wonderful starting point for an informational source. Lately it seem that I have a hundred different ideas or topics that interest me and I want to know more about so I always start looking things up on Wikipedia. In a world where need to know knowledge is at your finger tips Wikipedia is the easiest place to begin. The site has its faults, but the creator and his team work hard to keep things correct and above board. I can waste hours just browsing around on pointless topics always learning a little something new. So yes, Wikipedia is one of the greatest inventions ever in my book, (and clearly being in my book counts for a lot!)
Monday, April 18, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
The end...and then some.
I can see why readers and play goers would have been upset with Pygmalion being called a romance. In ending it did leave me wanted a much nicer wrap so I read on through the sequel hoping I would find it there but what I actually found was more shocking! It never occurred to me that Liza couldn't really read or write. I mean I guess I understood that as a poor gutter girl she wouldn't have had much use for anything other than basic math, but once Higgins got a hold of her I guess I just assumed he fixed everything. When Shaw writes, "Eliza, though she could count money up to eighteen shilling or so, and had acquired a certain familiarity with the language of Milton [...], could not write out a bill without utterly disgracing the establishment" (117) my heart broke for the poor girl. How could Higgins and Pickering be so cruel as to tempt her mind with all these wonderful new thoughts and ideas, and not ensure that the woman could read and write properly! Suddenly the entire injustice of the play made sense to me. How could she go back to the gutter when she had glimpsed the world beyond? But, how could she stay in that world without more education? My inner feminist blood boils at the thought. These two gentlemen take in this poor girl solely for their own amusement and leave her more damaged than she was at the start! To Liza's credit (and some to Pickering...after all he did help her out with the shop,) she managed to find contentment in her life with Freddy and their little shop.
Monday, April 4, 2011
Garn!
Pickering: Does it occur to you, Higgins, that the girl has some feelings?
Higgins: Oh no, I don't think so. Not any feelings we need bother about.
Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion is one my favorite plays ever. The heroine, Eliza Doolittle is just adorably irresistible not too love. She has such a drive to see her dreams come true, even if her dreams are not as lofty and those of Higgins and Pickering.
While this play is a hilarious comedy it is also an interesting critic on the relationship between men and women as well as, the affect of class on language, education, and psychology. Poor sweet ill-speaking Liza is thrust into relations with two men (Higgins and Pickering) who are obviously a part of a higher more educated upper class. Liza must struggle to understand and learn from these men in order to better her social standing, but will learning proper English, or as Higgins claims, "the language of Shakespeare and Milton and The Bible" (18), really help elevate her?
I think in some sense it will. With correct pronunciation Liza could herself a job in a flower shop like she dreams, but will she be able to rise above the misogyny of the rest of the culture. I started off with the above lines because they are wildly funny and horribly sad. Higgins does treat Liza ill and at first you think it is just his nature, that is the only misogynist, but Pickering and even Miss Pearce do little to really correct him. I could almost chalk this all up to a form of snobbery on their behalf, but then you have Liza's father who says, "she' [Liza's] only a woman and dont know how to be happy anyhow" (47). This statement from Mr. Doolittle shows that it is more than just a simple class distinction. In the beginning of our book in the introduction by Nicholas Grene he claims, Shaw has reworked, "the Ovidian legend int a feminist fable" (xvi). I am hopeful by the end of the play I will agree full heartily with that claim, but for now I will stand behind and support Liza for being a good girl.
Higgins: Oh no, I don't think so. Not any feelings we need bother about.
Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion is one my favorite plays ever. The heroine, Eliza Doolittle is just adorably irresistible not too love. She has such a drive to see her dreams come true, even if her dreams are not as lofty and those of Higgins and Pickering.
While this play is a hilarious comedy it is also an interesting critic on the relationship between men and women as well as, the affect of class on language, education, and psychology. Poor sweet ill-speaking Liza is thrust into relations with two men (Higgins and Pickering) who are obviously a part of a higher more educated upper class. Liza must struggle to understand and learn from these men in order to better her social standing, but will learning proper English, or as Higgins claims, "the language of Shakespeare and Milton and The Bible" (18), really help elevate her?
I think in some sense it will. With correct pronunciation Liza could herself a job in a flower shop like she dreams, but will she be able to rise above the misogyny of the rest of the culture. I started off with the above lines because they are wildly funny and horribly sad. Higgins does treat Liza ill and at first you think it is just his nature, that is the only misogynist, but Pickering and even Miss Pearce do little to really correct him. I could almost chalk this all up to a form of snobbery on their behalf, but then you have Liza's father who says, "she' [Liza's] only a woman and dont know how to be happy anyhow" (47). This statement from Mr. Doolittle shows that it is more than just a simple class distinction. In the beginning of our book in the introduction by Nicholas Grene he claims, Shaw has reworked, "the Ovidian legend int a feminist fable" (xvi). I am hopeful by the end of the play I will agree full heartily with that claim, but for now I will stand behind and support Liza for being a good girl.
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