Darl the Goldfish & His Thoughts under the Sea Surface

Female Characters in Taiwan Cinema (1982-1990) - A Practice of Research Paper Writing  Research Paper  習作: 臺灣電影中的女性角色 Please visit this site / 請點選下列網址 https://0huit0trois.wixsite.com/zhawen/blog/female-characters-in-taiwan-cinema-1982-1990-a-practice-of-research-paper-writing

In House on Mango Street , there is this interesting reference about Chinese zodiac sign. The narrator, Esperanza, mentioned her great-grandmother being born in the year of horse, who consequently ended up being a bad woman, saying that “I think this is a Chinese lie, because the Chinese, like the Mexicans, don’t like their women strong.” (Cisneros 10) Coincidentally, after I finish reading House on Mango Street, another novel that emerged onto my mind is Memories of Peking: South Side Stories written by Lin Hai-Yin. Therefore, I would like to do a brief compare and contrast between House on Mango Street and this all-time classic work of Chinese / Taiwanese literature. Firstly, the biggest similarity between the two is that both of the two are coming-of-age novel, and both are narrated by little girls, Esperanza and Yinzi. Like Esperanza, Yinzi’s family was not the poorest nor the wealthiest, but rather a middle-class family. Being in between the two groups of people, Esperanza...

         J. D. Salinger had not only depicted the issues or difficulties teenagers in post-war America had to go through during their own process of self-growth and in the society, with the uses of symbolism and slangs, Salinger had also made Holden Caulfield a real boy with flesh and blood that readers can relate to rather than a persona built up within words and sentences. If Holden is a character inspired by Salinger himself, The Catcher in the Rye is certainly a timeless mirror that reflects reality and in which readers across generations can see parts of themselves as well. Besides, by constructing pairs of binary oppositions, Salinger juxtaposed the awkwardness of Holden’s situation. Holden Caulfield cannot be categorized; he was stuck within pairs of two opposite qualities. He was always in-between, and this is also the reason why he felt ″lonesome as hell.″ (Salinger 160)          Salinger had embedded pairs of binary opposi...

        緊接在星期六的迷幻、新迷幻搖滾、龐克搖滾、電音等臺灣、日本樂團的聽覺轟炸之後， 禮拜天的第一團 － Twangover 是令人眼睛為之一亮、心裡為之溫暖的獨特組合。 Twangover 為一五人樂團，團員分別為 Bryan ( 主唱 / 吉他 ) 、 Rose ( 和音 / 鍵盤 ) 、 Sam ( 貝斯 ) 、 Tim ( 打擊 ) 、馬龍 ( 吉他 (twanger)) 。 Twangover 頭戴牛仔帽、嘴裡喊著 “ Yeehaw ”，但你知道你不能將他們簡單地歸類成鄉村音樂，因為 他們的作品裡有著一份無以名狀之物告訴聽眾他們絕不只是鄉村歌手。（ With cowboy hats and yelling “ Yeehaw, ” many people might simply regard Twangover as a country music band, even though they obviously got this unique “ coolness, ” which somehow tells you that you are so wrong. ）         第一次跟人家見面就從志工升級為樂迷，演出結束，我在旁等待趨前訪問的時機。主唱 Bryan 聽到我說要問幾個簡單的問題，起先有些驚訝，接著親切的告訴我他會幫我集合團員。沒有採訪經驗，再加上臨時起意，我以很業餘的搖滾樂背景知識披掛上陣，緊張的我問的第一個問題是 : “ So, you guys hangover a lot? ” （所以你們常常宿醉嗎 ? ）他們笑說：「對！」於是追問團名的由來，貝斯手 Sam 自告奮勇，舉手表示：「這題我可以。」原來，“ Twangover ” 除了音近 “ hangover ’’之外，“ twang ” 則是一種（美國）南方特有的吉他彈法。（筆者按： Twang 在音樂上指的是以某些電吉他發出的一種音色，多能在鄉村音樂中聽見。）接著我試探性的問：「應該不能把你們歸類為鄉村音樂樂團吧？」只見團員們相識而笑，低聲說著 no, no, no … Rose 說： “ Ther...