Annie Kapur
Bio
200K+ Reads on Vocal.
Secondary English Teacher & Lecturer
đLiterature & Writing (B.A)
đFilm & Writing (M.A)
đSecondary English Education (PgDipEd) (QTS)
đBirmingham, UK
Stories (2008/0)
17th July, 1918 - The Execution of the Russian Monarchy
There's something almost spooky about looking back and seeing a country call for the murders of not only its king and queen, but also their children - including the youngest boy who already suffered greatly through life. I personally have no opinion on this since I don't feel like I have read enough on the Russian Revolution to give an informed statement, but there is no doubt that this war will always make entertaining and shocking viewing material.
By Annie Kapur4 years ago in The Swamp
Ten Books About Catherine the Great
On the 17th of July, 1762, Catherine II, better known as Catherine the Great, became the official Tsarina of Russia after her husband, Peter III was murdered. She was known as not only a great ruler, but as an intelligent woman who was very involved in the cultural shifts and literary movements of Europe at the time - her letters prove this to us.
By Annie Kapur4 years ago in The Swamp
"The Flowers of Evil" by Charles Baudelaire
Charles Baudelaireâs poetry is often considered one of the beginnings of âcarcass writingâ and so, it is only obvious that the reader would notice the numerous different ways in which death and dying are discovered, written, analysed and iterated throughout the anthology. Dying is especially important because of the fact it can be attached to various different ideas such as: religion - the reader sees the Devil and God ready at the deadâs moment of new being, violence - the amount of violence required to inflict death may not be so great, but the graphic descriptions of the violent actions are numerous and often linked to the mangling of the human body through pain and suffering. After this, the reader encounters themes such as: images and symbols of death - the way in which images of death (coffins, corpses and graveyards) change the narrative or the atmosphere of the poem either make the poem darker and yet, in the darker poems, the reader often sees a peacefulness brought to the violence, suffering, pain or anguish through the inevitable act of death. This shows that death is not only used as a darkness or evil in which the narrator and characters often fear and hate the own thought of their demise or the demise of those they love, but it is also the tranquility after the storm-like narrative in which the narrator and characters experience something terrifying in life, or are being purposefully hindered from doing something, completing something or are experiencing intense amounts of pain, depression or are suffering upon earth in any extreme way. When investigating the theme of death within this anthology, there are so many different things that the reader has to take into account that the image of death often overtakes the idea at hand or, it adds to it. Whether it is of suffering and pain or of peace and tranquility, death often makes the poem seem bearable for either the narrator or the subject of the poem, in the fact that either it is the beginning and therefore the lesser of the sufferings, the most important section of the grieving process that makes the narratorâs thoughts beautiful and picturesque or the end of the suffering that the narrator or character has suffered for what seems like too long according to the poem. Blended with the themes of the poem, this leads the reader to believe certain ideas such as whether the narrator or character has a belief in God, or whether they have faith in the Devil, whether they are emotionally violent or whether they are emotionally detached - but all in all, the reader will realise that there is often more than one dimension to the characters and the narrators of Baudelaireâs poems.
By Annie Kapur4 years ago in Poets
"Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" by John Le Carré
I read this book when I was about fourteen yearsâ old - it was a year before the film came out and Iâm going to be perfectly honest with you that I only read the book because I knew there was going to be a film with a lot of big names. Iâd heard of George Smiley before that, being interested in spy fiction - I was incredibly into the James Bond series as my guilty pleasure reading growing up (and Iâm re-reading the entire series at the moment, it really brings back some serious memories) and I was also a big fan of things like Poirot and Sherlock Holmes. To be honest, I didnât think Iâd like all the dullness of the Cold War involved in the novel, but I was so definitely wrong because everything about this book is contained within that historical context. It was like releasing a beast into a circle that already had these dark, shady creatures of its own. It made for the perfect atmosphere. This book ended up changing my opinion of spy novels altogether because of the fact it was so intense, it was so suspenseful and it was definitely one of the darkest spy novels Iâd ever read. My first reading experience of it, you could say, was completely immersive.
By Annie Kapur4 years ago in Geeks
"The Mark on the Wall and Other Short Fiction" by Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf is often known as a revolutionary of prose and often used themes that were new and hyper-realist. When it comes to existentialism, Woolf often uses realistic observations of the modern world to captivate the reader, sending them on a journey of language through her wild and yet, poetic style of prose in which she will compare the tiniest molecule of life to the entire universe and the object and idea itself all at once. This style of realism is often considered to drift from the storyline, but within these existential ideas is Woolfâs own thoughts veer the reader back to the main plot via an observation on life that is something to do with the actual title and plot. This shows that there is far more to the plot than what the title may suggest and also shows that there may be more than one meaning to the title of which we have not realised until we have read the entire thing. Virginia Woolf also uses thrilling ideas of nature and the natural state of being that constitutes life and death - stating that the anthology was written in âa flash, as if flying, after being kept stone breaking for monthsâŠâ - the idea seems to be to make the anthology look as if it had been written in only a few drafts and from most ideas that came from the top of her head and from the depths of her heart. There are many themes that link us to other books by Virginia Woolf such as the themes of existentialism and hyper-focus that are worked in to the depths of âJacobâs Roomâ (1922) and the realism of emotion in the acts of the mundane that are most often associated with âMrs Dallowayâ (1925) are seen in many of the short stories within this particular text. With darker themes than many Woolf readers may be used to and the arguments of philosophy are introspective to a new degree since the stories are shorter than Woolfâs usual writings. Therefore, when the reader analyses the text for details, there are perceptions that seem a lot longer than the perceptions of the same situations and philosophies the reader encounters in Woolfâs novellas and novels. However, the themes are relatively the same.
By Annie Kapur4 years ago in Geeks
20 Books of 2020 (Pt.37)
Now that we're well underway into the 700s, I would not only like to say thank you to my readers, friends and online pen-pals, but I'd also like to say thank you to people who have, in real life, had to spend more than five minutes with me. I have realised that I am a pretty one-sided human being from being in lockdown for so long that I'm pretty much stuck with myself. However, it has given me time to improve upon my reading goals that I think I've met so far. Here are the ones I have completed:
By Annie Kapur4 years ago in Geeks
5 Books About the French Revolution
On the 14th of July, 1789, the people of France took matters into their own hands for once and stormed the Bastille Prison, reducing it to nothing as an act of revolution against the monarchy - Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. After this, there were riots, acts of violence and war against their current regime. It was a revolution that would, along the way, eat itself up and be thrown back up with incredible irony.
By Annie Kapur4 years ago in The Swamp
"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee
Possibly one of the most well-known and well respected books of all time, "To Kill a Mockingbird" is the best-selling Southern Gothic Novel to ever be published. Released by JB Lippincott and Co. this book became not only an instant success, but also is still widely studied in schools all over the world to this day. Still an important book about prejudice and race relations, this book's main character ("Scout") is famed for growing up in a turbulent political period and her father, the heroic Atticus Finch is known for his strength and his attitude towards the changing American scene.
By Annie Kapur4 years ago in Geeks
20 Books of 2020 (Pt.36)
Well, we are underway to the 700s and now, I want to say a massive thank you to anyone who has stuck around this far. I also want to say how thankful I am for having made some new friends online this year. I've joined some new book clubs, read alongs and other bookish things that have required me to actively and socially participate - something I would've been very reluctant to do last year.
By Annie Kapur4 years ago in Geeks
"Richard II" by William Shakespeare
Itâs been quite a while since I first read Shakespeareâs âRichard IIâ and to be honest, itâs not even my favourite Shakespeare play but what it did do is it changed the way I thought about Shakespeare forever. The way in which I first discovered it was pretty simple. My favourite play by Shakespeare that I tended to read over and over was and still is, âRichard IIIâ and when I went to go and pick it up from the library, I decided to take the other Richard home with me as well. My first experience of reading âRichard IIâ was something that was so important, I got it down in my diary at the age of fourteen. âI cannot believe it, Shakespeare writes a character that is both good and bad at the same time and I canât decide whether I should like him and feel sorry for him or absolutely despise him because of what he did to his cousinâŠâ It goes on. I also couldnât decide whether it was really a deposition or whether it was really an abdication. It was a complex problem that only intense re-readings could solve. It completely changed my perception of the Shakespearean character because until then, I was able to categorise characters as good and bad - now though, I was dealing with Richard II and he seemed to be both.
By Annie Kapur4 years ago in Geeks
"Castle Rackrent" by Maria Edgeworth
Within this text, a number of striking personalities can be seen. First and foremost we have the personality of the first generation guided by Sir Patrick, a man of little means and of normally few words apart from a more godly and patriarchal view in a William Faulkner fashion. Sir Patrick is declared a âspend-thriftâ and is often the most concerned about the view of others upon himself as a moral human being towards them. A Machiavellian trait, this is thought to have continued in the lineage of the family. Sir Murtagh is the second generation and he is described as a âfiendâ and often a âlitigating fiendâ. Here we see the morality of the family descend ever so slightly and so, the reader is given insight into the decline and fall of this rather extensively proud and historical family of old, Irish faith. Within the third generation the reader meets Sir Kit - a deplorable human being, a gambler, a spender and an abusive husband to his wife. Here the reader can clearly see a massive decline from what was the historical past of Sir Patrick in which the spend-thrift culture was clearly visible to all. Sir Kit seems to be overtly concerned about himself and does not care what others think of him. This is most likely a delusion of grandeur since he has come from a family that is both respected and historical and, as he is the third generation, must feel as if he is entitled to respect and is automatically virtuous for his purity of family. Finally we have the furthest generation away from the firast which is the fourth generation of Sir Condy. Sir Condy is a man that is often considered the morally better of the four, the more likeable of them all and yet, the most susceptible to suggestion out of them all. He is constantly manipulated and duped, turned and twisted. His naivety is his downfall and therefore, he too has similar faults to his predecessors - that he cannot see something approaching right in front of him and that he has very little self-control. But in the way that the older generations have no self-control because of various needs such as: saving money, fiendishness and machiavellianism, gambling addiction and spending money relentlessly - Sir Condy has no self-control because of the way in which other characters tend to want to control or overpower him.
By Annie Kapur4 years ago in Geeks
"Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles
The first time I read this book I was in sixth form, so I was about maybe sixteen or seventeen. The way in which I discovered this book was actually only because my teacher was talking about it for a brief time in a class about Shakespeareâs âHamletâ and the Freudian Complexes of the play. Iâm not going to lie, at first I was actually only interested in the Sophocles play because of the fact I hadnât read it - but when I started reading it I was then thoroughly disgusted. I stayed up for most of the night reading and annotating my tattered second hand copy and then, when all was done, I put it down and didnât really pick it up again purely because it was a bit too gross. The next time Iâd pick it up, my opinion of Ancient Greek Plays was already fully formed and I understood that they were all absolutely disgusting.
By Annie Kapur4 years ago in Geeks