Welcome to Cerberus Starraiser!
My random muses, thoughts, and complaints, on love, life, technology, and whatever else I come up with.
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Round Characters Need Flat Ones
Posted on March 12th, 2011 1 commentEvery character within a novel has a purpose. The main characters propel the story onward, carrying readers on a journey. Plenty of supporting characters cross paths with the protagonists, each for a particular reason. Sometimes these characters are as well rounded as the primary ones. Oftentimes, they are flat, cardboard cutouts with just enough description to bring them to purposeful life. Their purpose: to confront the main hero with varying aspects of society and emotion so that, through interaction and dialogue, the reader can learn more about the protagonist. These cookie-cutter characters are so vital in exploring the main characters’ personalities that few novels, if any, go without them. To explore this, I take examples from four of my favorite classic novels: Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray.
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Money and Masculinity
Posted on December 23rd, 2010 No commentsJane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility is a veiled allegory. She creates real, believable characters in a compelling story of love and growing up. Beneath it all, she makes commentary on the world she lives in: a male-dominated, money-ruled society in which women are left clinging to men for support. Austen accentuates this by symbolically evicting any useful male role model from the narrative, leaving behind only men who are functionally useless to the Dashwood women. She disrupts the Dashwoods’ attempt at a decent life with others’ concerns of money and status. Readers are then witness to the breakdown of the societal norms, and privy to the reactions of poor Elinor and Marianne.
Austen begins the narration:
The family of Dashwood had been long settled in Sussex. Their estate was large, and their residence was at Norland Park, in the centre of their property, where, for many generations, they had lived in so respectable a manner, as to engage the general good opinion of their surrounding acquaintance. (5)
Within the first two sentences, Austen reinforces the expected stereotypes of the time: large, wealthy estates, established ancestry, and living life in a way that garners the respect of your peers. Within two pages, she tears it all down. In the novel’s third paragraph, the owner of the estate dies, leaving it to his nephew in such a way that guarantees the nephew’s son as eventual benefactor. In the fourth paragraph, the nephew dies as well. In spite of the nephew being survived by a wife and three daughters, hands are tied as his son from another marriage takes control of the estate’s wealth, one Mr. John Dashwood.
Lifestream
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Yesterday
I would really like to not be in pain whenever I'm awake :( [cerbstarraiser]
1:10am via TwitterRT @StephenAtHome: Fell in the bathroom and hit my head today. Ambulance showed up before I could invent a flux capacitor. Will try agai ... [cerbstarraiser]
10:59am via TwitterDay 5 of debilitating pain. Come on, inner ear, quit trying to be bigger than my outer ear. It hurts so much :'( [cerbstarraiser]
10:36am via Twitter
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May 19th
RT @mnemosynekurai: I'm live-streaming my attempt to beat Ocarina of Time in a day to raise $ for the MN AIDS Walk! http://t.co/ZbYYDBYu ... [cerbstarraiser]
7:04pm via TwitterI'm sleeping in 3 hour intervals, waking up when pain gets bad. Sleep 3 hours, occupy self 3 hrs til next pill, sleep 3 hours, etc. [cerbstarraiser]
10:38am via TwitterNow in Day 4 of painful ear infection. Ear still clogged, pain still comes back before I can take next vicodin, but less pain than before. [cerbstarraiser]
10:37am via Twitter
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May 18th
Trip to hospital today resulted in external ear infection diagnosis, something crammed down my ear to help with drops, and Vicodin. Yay me. [cerbstarraiser]
2:21pm via Twitter
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May 17th
RT @mnemosynekurai: Post detailing all you'll need to know re: my attempt to beat OoT in a day to raise $ for the MN AIDS Walk: http://t ... [cerbstarraiser]
2:34am via TwitterI've decided to boycott the honors convocation and come back later for the Phi Theta Kappa ceremony. [cerbstarraiser]
5:58pm via TwitterWith the hell I've had to go thru at Bucks county community college, I never want to claim alumnus from here. [cerbstarraiser]
5:33pm via TwitterIn other words, a complete waste of time. #bcccfail #notsurprised [cerbstarraiser]
5:25pm via TwitterTurns out Dean schlrshp wnnrs at BCCC were invited to honors as afterthought. We don't sit with other winners or are recog. individually. [cerbstarraiser]
5:24pm via Twitter
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May 16th
Now presenting the event poster for my next show at the Colonial Theatre in Phoenixville, PA! http://t.co/dkIdP46a [cerbstarraiser]
2:11am via TwitterHmm. I need some professional references. [cerbstarraiser]
10:23pm via TwitterFuck you, Malboro. Fuck you. And with that, I'm off to bed :P [cerbstarraiser]
7:26am via Twitter
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May 14th
This is how technical writers write instructions to their children. Parenting Fails: Every Detail Covered http://t.co/k5zkk4PR [cerbstarraiser]
7:15pm via TwitterI'm really craving a standing desk. [cerbstarraiser]
3:45pm via Twitter
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May 13th
So the only good thing to happen today was that my last flash drive was found at home--I didn't lose this one out in the world somewhere. [cerbstarraiser]
11:31pm via TwitterUgh! Lost my 16gb flash drive last week, and now my 8gb is gone too! [cerbstarraiser]
5:15pm via Twitter
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May 10th
Well. Apparently my scholastic record is not good enough for University of Pennsylvania. [cerbstarraiser]
7:43pm via Twitter
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May 8th
Just finished my last day of classes at BCCC. heading home. [cerbstarraiser]
9:25pm via Twitter
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May 7th
I just bought 'Chuck: The Complete Fifth Season' by Zachary Levi via @amazon http://t.co/Nydne9b6 [cerbstarraiser]
11:32am via Twitter
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May 4th
And by relax I mean shave, celebrate by myself with a drink or two of Jack Daniel, and then lie down . [cerbstarraiser]
10:49pm via TwitterWhat a fun filled day with Joel hodgson! now to go home and relax for a while [cerbstarraiser]
10:02pm via TwitterI'm very excited to be working with Joel Hodgson. And, after today's performance, I can finally shave! [cerbstarraiser]
4:45pm via TwitterAlright, heading off to the college, preparing to perform in Trout Mask Revisited :) http://t.co/cfSkRes1 [cerbstarraiser]
3:16pm via Twitter
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May 1st
I have now mailed my 2008 tax return to Burkheimer THREE TIMES, and they keep sending me delinquency notices. IDIOTS. [cerbstarraiser]
10:31pm via Twitter
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April 30th
Only 17 more days before I'm officially Dan Hughes, AA. (People probably don't do that, but I will.) [cerbstarraiser]
8:03pm via TwitterHi. My name is Dan, but you will call me Awesome. [cerbstarraiser]
7:18pm via Twitter
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April 29th
What's the difference between writing for school and writing for a career? There's a slightly higher chance of being paid outside college. [cerbstarraiser]
6:14pm via Twitter
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