Month: December 2015

More Scrooge at…4 in the morning. Oh Jesus Christ, let’s just get this over with already.

In Chapter 2, following Jacob Marley’s intervention with Scrooge on Christmas Eve, we are introduced to the 2nd of the 4 ghosts in a Christmas Carol: The Ghost of Christmas Past. This vibrant spectre of the holidays is clad in pure white, with glowing beams of candlelight emitting from it’s head. Out of the 4 ghosts, this one is one that plays a very crucial point in Scrooge’s interactions with the other ghosts: I invokes so many things within him about his past and views. But what about me? Self discovery is the game.

The first feeling I get from The Ghost of Christmas Past, is it’s build-up: From the start of Chapter 2, to the confrontation, the ghost is built up to heck; Scrooge knows this, he prepares himself for it’s arrival, counting to witching hour, mentally preparing himself for it’s arrival by setting up a field of view around his room from his bed: It gives us a sense of wonder, when and how will this ghost show up? Is it going to just *Poof* in the room? Creep into the view of Scrooge slowly like a mantis? You don’t know until you read. We want to know what this spectre is, and what dramatic entrance will it make. If we can expect something like Marley’s return, or something different is completely unknown. It’s investment, and relation to the reader: As Scrooge, he wants to deal with these spirits as soon as possible, but yet he fears it’s appearance. Will I see something akin to Marley, a green ghoulish phantom fettered in chains? Or something different? It invokes a sense of wonder, and thought into the reader, and into me.

Following on from my first point, once we do get our first image of The Ghost of Christmas Past, our sense of wonder gets replaced by a sense of confusion, and simple “Wait, that’s it?”, if you may. The appearance of The Ghost of Christmas Past is very peculiar: After seeing the appearance of the late Marley: Fettered by chains, groaning and ghoulish, with an eerie glow of green followed by the storm of ghosts akin to his appearance, there should be little reason to wonder why The Ghost of Christmas Past should share appearance with them, but yet it doesn’t. Rather than being dressed than it was in life, it is simply something akin to a small child mixed with a candle: Pure white cloths, adorned in holly and jolly green with a burning like hair aura of warmth. We are treated to this, not what we saw from Marley or what the ghost storm was earlier. It’s a huge contrast: From chain bounded green glowing mist men, to a candle glowing child…It’s a very odd transition, wouldn’t you agree? Or, perhaps the terminology I’m using is odd. Either way, the transition of design confuses me.

For my last point, after Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Past have their first interaction, we are then whisked away to a different environment: Why? How about we just slow down here for a second, we just met a character that is very important to the plot and development of Scrooge’s character, and there are barely any words to be said? That strikes me as kinda contrived and forced; I want to know more about this candle ghost! Not about all these smells of the country side Scrooge has forgotten for so many years. That stuff doesn’t interest me, sure, while character development is very important (So we don’t enter the “CreepyPasta Character Development” borderlines, although most of them are bland and perfect, go insane and become killers with knives), but still; Every detail ain’t necessary, I want to know who this ghost was before he/she/it died, and became a ghost: Maybe it was a candle maker, or a pyromaniac, or someone who died in a fire. THAT would be interesting to hear about, like Marley’s story of being a ghost, or the ghosts that Scrooge recognize during the ghost storm. Wine and Rock Cake ain’t working for me Dickens. Slow down with the plot is what I’m picking up from this.

Ending this in 5 in the morning. Yaaaaay, I’m going to bed.

No Jim Carey here lads, just Dickens and a book. We aren’t looking at Scrooge like the movies botched him like they botched something as simple as a doorknocker either, they messed up Scrooge entirely! From hi description to his appearance, let’s break this down.

Firstly, I’ll be looking at Scrooge’s appearance. The first way Dickens describes Scrooge, is by saying he is “tight-fisted, clenching, grasping, covetous old sinner!”. If you notice, all of these are synonyms (Expect for the sinner part), clenching, grasping, they’re all the same. If Dickens didn’t drive the point that Scrooge is a very grumpy old man, then he tries to do so again with 2 more synonyms. He then follows up by saying “The cold within him frost out his old features”, insinuating that Scrooge is very cold, and unforgiving inside. So cold you could say, that it has even reached out to his physical features, almost making him seem like a frostbitten corpse on Mount Everest. Then then builds upon this point, by telling us which features of Scrooge are riddled with this frost; His nose, cheeks, brow, eyes, gait, voice and his chin. All of these give us the effect that Scrooge is a person whom has not felt warmth for a very long time, or that he is some sort of corpse resurrected by Krampus to bring down the Christmas Spirit (Kudos to those whom know what Krampus is, and not the movie). This overall gives us a highly negative impression of Scrooge: He is cold, his attitude is cold, everything he has is cold. Maybe he’d be friends with the Crooked Man, if he actually could make friends that is.

Next, will talk about Scrooge attitude. Dickens uses the term “covetous old sinner” to describe Scrooge’s character. Being that Dickens was brought up as a Christian, and A Christmas Carol was brought up during Victorian Times, which had the Catholic Faith being the most dominant, calling Scrooge a covetous old sinner really fits into what would most used to describe bad people at that time; Furthermore, being called a sinner implies Scrooge is an evil, and not a very nice person, furthering our already negative impression of him that we built from his bitter appearance. Dickens then talks about Scrooge’s attitude towards warmth and the cold, according to Dickens, Scrooge dislikes the warmth, and really does not care about him feeling it, or other feeling it. This a similar to his attitude towards the cold, albeit to a more positive degree; Scrooge takes an icy temperature where ever he goes, while this may be figurative, it really pushes the point that Scrooge is a cold and unforgiving person. He won’t give you warmth, and he won’t even give you coldness either! That fact that always likes it cold, means that he likes to keep things consistent. For an example, his money. Like the cold, Scrooge keeps it very close, and even if it was to save your life, he still wouldn’t give you anything. Once again, Scrooge is implied to be very harsh, secretive, miser-like, and very unforgiving.

And there you have it: Might I say that was one hell of a description, but what the heck. I’d be easier describing myself without beating myself up over it, but that’s other story I’ll keep from you for the next 36 months.

Here we are, once again in the time of cold weather and Seasonal Onset Depression. I can smell the blood from the cuts from your arms already everyone! But enough with that, I’m here for another opinion piece, and that’s what I want to do, not write about large gash in your arm from an Ashen Knife you made because snow is depressing. “They say Christmas comes earlier every year”. Let’s see how Grinch-y I can be.

Okay, let’s start of with my opinion of Christmas: For a 12 month wait through all bitterly weather, it’s not all that fun really. Winter is usually restricted to November, December, January and February, but when we get all the time here, not so much of a spectacle, let alone the lack of snow. And once I finally do reach that 12th month, I’ve practically worn out all interest in anything. My sense of humor (And the genuine sense of humor, not the one were I call people fat or goths) has all but been consumed by Mathematics and stress, so really there comes nothing to mind when I yearn for something. And besides, I can just earn it any ways. My skill level is enough to gain a reward, and those rewards are taken before they even get CLOSE to “Merry Christmas”. And furthermore, when the 25th shows up, all is me, shivering and rattling violently in a blanket, with jack all because I couldn’t think of anything I want. It’s very distracting, even to myself! And it just makes me look all scared or something (But you’ll know when I’m scared, I telegraph it quite well, and violently). And after Christmas is over, it’s just me waiting 2 weeks to continue the most interesting thing in my life: Education, so I can get myself more stressed over Maths, more paranoid over the truth of my peers, and kill myself even further so I can dig his grave.

…I have no words. You probably don’t either: You had a very deep insight to my Sodom little life of stress and paranoia. Anyways, now onto my opinion. With all the things I just mentioned about myself, I really don’t even need to make another paragraph of my decision on Christmas, my words speak for themselves. Really for me, it’s just a whole lot of waiting, in the cold, with nothing to do, because you forgot how to have fun, with no interaction because you aren’t forced to do anything, with a bundle of disappointment to sweeten the deal. And I sometimes WONDER my I’m a pessimist when I write these god forsaken things. Sure, I’ve got plenty of things to do while I’m waiting…Playing the Binding of Isaac, only to get my run ruined by one of those red flashing spiders…Emailing Hopkinson to say I feel really bad about stuff I’ve said only to get no reply or heartly words for when I return…Sleeping? Yeah, no. I have nothing to do. It’s not fun waiting, especially when you have nothing you find fun. So I suppose the best thing I could do is go on a quest of self discovering on the definition of fun without looking at a dictionary. Back to topic, I really don’t care that much about Christmas. I’ll just be playing the waiting game, deprived of all emotions and no one I give a damn about to keep me company (Not that I like company, you people without neural disorders are just flat out weird).

And there you have it. My opinion on Christmas. A boring, cold, disappointing 25 day hoop jumping farmfest. If you’ve noticed a pattern in what I’ve said: Well done. While my older brother was forced to come back over holidays to do his work, I sound like I’m begging to be brought back. At least I’ll have something to do, right?