Silence of the Lambs and a thanks for a great semester

Hi Doctor Ealy,
I'm not sure if you'll get this but I had been thinking about what we had brought up in our last class (prior to the writing workshop) about different grail quests and I happen to have just finished up a paper on The Silence of The Lambs by Jonathan Demme. It struck me that if you look at the film without the killing etc. it very closely parallels the grail quest we find in Small World, Buffalo Bill (the killer on the loose) seeks to transfigure himself while Clarice Starling seeks to become an FBI agent. All of the characters seek something and it just reminded me a lot of the conversation we had had in class and the literary story of Small World. Especially the ending where Hannibal Lecter is seen on the loose once more, creating the same (never) ending that was in both Perceval and Small World. I would like to thank you for a great semester and for helping to get me transitioned into college. I hope you have a great winter break.

Thank you for your time,
Thomas Keegan

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

1) I would like to speculate a little as to the title of the film. It's fascinating that the movie would steer away from the original grail legend and move on to the tales of the crusades, however it does make sense because the grail legend was mixed into the crusades. This makes sense to me because if there was a grail search today it would more than likely involve the latest grail search, which would have been the search's done during the crusades. All-in-all I believe the title of the film as "The Last Crusade" may be more due to the fact the writers used mostly crusades lore when writing the movie although I find it fascinating that a few of the ideas of Perceval made it into the movie.

2) The ideas that made it out of Perceval are many in number although there are a few major ones that I would like to point out. One is the entire idea of the grail being "unattainable", while the Jones do find the grail and drink from it they lose it in the end. It heralds the Perceval legend by never allowing the world to truly grasp the grail. The other interesting parallel is the use of numbers in order to present clues, for instance Jones Jr. found the second knights tomb in the library by using the numbers on the wall.

Day four Small World Pt 4-5

Describe Persse and his actions towards the end of this story.

Persse seems to be very confused and although he persues Angelica to no end he seems to switch to Cheryl, persuing her with just as much intent. I think it's safe to say that Persse found out the truth about his original grail and decided to switch it for a new one that looks ever so brighter. "the grass is always greener on the other side" seems to be the words Persse lives by, he thinks the academic world of confrences, for instance, is so amazing before he really jumps into it but then he finds the perverted and often crazy people to be not what he expected.

small world day 3 pt. 3

make your own question's
1) sex, while present throughout the book, has taken a literary grandstand in part three. Why do you think this is?

A) Persse was never really introduced to the world of sex and pornography, so as Persse becomes more and more familiar with the art of making little kids so does the reader. It's sort of a "pants off" coming of age.

2) many quests are introduced here to various characters, pick one. Discuss what it means to the character, to the story, and how it relates to the other texts we have discussed.

A) Persse has self proclaimed the quest of finding, and perhaps saving, his (not so) fair maiden Ms. Lilly. As in other texts he is willing to do anything to fulfill his task, even spend his thousand dollar prize in the pursuit of this maiden. It must be said that perhaps, due to the parrallels between Persse and Perseus, this story will never end. Will he ever be happy? Will he ever find his "grail"? If this maiden is truly his grail then maybe he will never find her again but will fruitlessly search the world of scholars only to find that while he may not get the girl he does gain a little something.