Nightmare Fuel

So I was reading through Coming Through Slaughter by Michael Ondaatje looking something more interesting to talk about other than just rambling on about poo when I came across with something that really caught my attention. Buddy Bolden, the protagonist, has a wife called Nora Bass, ex-prostitute, and they have children, unimportant to the story. This all appears trivial to the story, which it probably is, and then they mention the sandman. Now, I don't really know that much about the story behind this but I know it has to do with scaring children into bed, STRANGER DANGER, and just being overall really creepy. So then I decided to find a picture for this post and...


Oh God!!! What the hell is that!!! STRANGER DANGER!!! ...it kind of looks like a hobo.

So this hobo is going to come into your house and rape you... And people wonder why kids now are so messed up. Don't worry. I'm getting somewhere with this. This relates to the book when Nora tell the children of the sandman while putting them in bed. Now, what really interested me is that Buddy was marveled by the fact that "she, for instance, believed in the sandman when putting the children to bed whereas even the children didn't." (15) Now this can be taken two ways. One, this shows Nora's lack of education and immaturity due to this. Her intelligence is sub par and thus the image of a slum in New Orleans is enhanced. Two, this represents how the kids have stopped wondering and the "magic" of stories has ended. However, this would be comparing it to society nowadays which is a far fetch since this book is set so long ago, but it is a fairly recent book so one never knows.

Party Time!

Well in the book The Great Gatsby there is an aspect that can't be ignored and that is Gatsby's parties. He likes to party... HARD. I mean he holds these big-[butt] parties. Nick is just flabbergasted by the largeness of these parties. At one point he even thinks that his freaking house is on fire. At least he is able to attend the parties and enjoy them. Of course Fitzgerald never mentions the poor neighbor of the other side of Gatsby's...

Anyways, back to the parties, I personally think that these are held by Gatsby as a way for him to escape from his troubled life. It's kind of hard to be depressed if you are surrounded by a bunch of drunk partying people. Not only that but, like parties nowadays, the music is probably too loud for Gatsby to hear his own thoughts. I mean when Nick first goes to one of Gatsby’s parties there’s  “a hole pitiful of oboes and trombones and saxophones and viols and cornets and piccolos and low and high drums.” (p. 40) Although it's hard to compare an orchestra to let's say Party Rock Anthem, back then this was what people partied to. So, for his time, Gatsby was the symbol of a controversial and outrageous partier. And if you compare that to now, well...

How the times have changed...