Response to Course Materials 8

Perhaps I am doomed to have boring post titles from now on.  Well, no matter.  What have we done recently?

With Spring Break in the middle, I can hardly remember what we did before break.  I mean, I recall there were quite a few interactions with Ceremony in one way or another, but I cannot remember the specifics.  I believe we had time to read in class for many a day, which means there really isn't much to say for those days.  We read Ceremony.  La dee dah.  I was super worried about the reading test though.  I mean, it turns out that no, I didn't need to be, but the book seemed so long and the whole idea was basically just a little intimidating.  I really should have been more worried for the annotations.  I had expected them to take some time, but not that long!  The book was extremely enjoyable, though, and annotating allowed us many things to observe so I suppose I cannot be too upset.  We then discussed the book after reading some articles and such.  I still believe that it would have been better if we were given some of this information before we annotated, it would have made our lives a little easier.  I mean, how were we to know that "Ts'eh" means "water"?  There are some things that I think would be more meaningful if we knew the stories or the culture better.

Anyway, what else have we worked on?  We started reading Fifth Business, which is our final class reading this year.  That's actually a pretty strange thought.  We're so close to being finished with school already.  And that's a scary thought!  But I digress.  We don't have to annotate this time, but I might put in a few sticky notes if I find the need; I may have things to remind myself of in the book.  I'm not sure if I really see how everything we talked about in terms of Jung's psychoanalytic theories are related to the book, but I may be spotting a few points at the moment?  At any rate, I did like that discussion, even if some of it was a review of my Psychology class.  And I love talking about archetypes.  I don't know why; I've always found them interesting to read about.  I've spent so much time on tvtropes before just reading about different archetypes in stories.  I guess I just like to read about random things.  More on the topic of Fifth Business.  I don't like it.  I mean, it seems like it'll be okay, but when I don't like the main character, I can't really appreciate the book as much.  It's why I wasn't too fond of To Kill a Mockingbird.  Because I didn't really like Scout very much.  But hopefully I'll grow to like Fifth Business more.  The summaries we get about it make me want to like it.  I just don't know if I can.  At any rate, I'm looking forward to reading more.

Response to Course Materials 7

No clever titles this time.  I can't think of anything.

So what have we done recently in class?  Lots of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.  It's actually a pretty great read.  A little hard to understand, at times, to be sure, but there's a lot to think about in the text and what it means for the audience and life as a whole.  The confusing bits are almost reminiscent of The American Dream, like I said before.  Actually, I think what really helped a lot was the movie.  It showed a cool new perspective on it that Tom Stoppard himself was responsible for, since he directed it.  And the articles helped too, though I still think the one about Shakespeare essentially being the god of authors and the play to be a bit out-there.  But I guess that's the point of literature; to put ideas out there, no matter how radical they seem at times.

What else have we done recently?  We've actually done some more work on writing.  I know I missed the discussion of our essays on Friday, but who knows, I may still be able to figure out some things to write about.  At any rate, I think the practice is definitely helpful, even if I don't particularly like writing essays in class (honestly, who does?).  Still, considering we're going to have to do it on the AP exam, it's a good idea to get some practice in now, so we have an idea of what to include and how to time ourselves.  I feel like the Close Prompts may actually be more difficult, because they seem to be looking for very specific things about the readings which I'm afraid I might miss sometimes.  I'm also worried about my ability of picking out the meaning behind the piece.  Hopefully having more feedback will help.

And most recently, we started working on reading Ceremony.  I actually really like it.  It's interesting to read from the perspective of a non-Western-white-culture (that doesn't actually make much sense, I know).  I feel like there aren't enough books written from the perspective of minority groups and I really like the insights that it gives on the life of Laguna Pueblos.  Also, it's certainly intriguing with the stream-of-consciousness narration and unsteady timeline.  I find myself getting confused at times, but it's also really fun to try and figure out.  I feel like I'll be going through a lot of sticky notes to annotate it; my copy of the book is too nice and I don't want to write on it!  Anyway, I can't wait to explore it more!

Rosenstern and Guildencrantz

Yeah, so that was a terrible attempt at an interesting blog title.  But that essentially sums up what we did...

So first we finished Hamlet.  I loved loved LOVED Tennant's Hamlet.  Except I didn't really like the Ophelia.  She wasn't quite what I was imagining for Ophelia.  (Side note: Does anyone else have a really hard typing the name "Ophelia"?  I can't ever seem to get it right.)  The last version that we saw, with the genderbent Polonius and Horatio was weird.  I mean, I didn't understand it.  At all.  I am intrigued though.  I kind of want to sit down and watch the whole thing.  I did enjoy the Horatio and Hamlet scene at the end.  I was kind of hoping that by changing the gender, they'd make it better for a kiss to take place (though I resent the fact that because it's a straight couple, it's more reasonable to show them kissing).  But I digress...

After finishing everything on Hamlet, we've been reading Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.  It's certainly... interesting.  I'm finding a lot of things catching my attention, but at the same time, I'm feeling like I'm missing a lot as well.  It's really quite confusing, but our occasional pauses help to work certain things out.  It kind of reminds me of when we first started reading The American Dream because we had no idea what we were getting into and we didn't understand what's going on.  Except this has a little bit of understandable plot because scenes are taken from Hamlet - and then elaborated, of course.  It's like a spin-off, only one that changes how we see the entire thing as a whole?  I don't know but it's certainly interesting.  I can't wait to finish it!

Hamlet, Hamlet, Hamlet.

To be read in the same way as Hamlet's "Words, words, words."

Because, honestly, that's basically all we've done.  Oh, wait, there was also the thing where we came up with words to describe atmospheres of pictures and stuff.  I still remember our class doing the dinosaur one.  I mean, obviously Ms. Holmes loves us the most because did any other hour get dinosaurs with ice cream cones?  Nope!  In all seriousness, those are actually quite useful, I think.  They help work us through understanding what kind of methods in syntax, imagery, and word choice can help get our point across.  I hope it'll make analyzing it easier too, but we'll have to see on that.  And, of course, they're fun, which makes them memorable.

And now, to Hamlet.  We finished our close reading, and are watching a lot of movies.  Really.  A ton.  The first one was cool, but that's mainly just because Patrick Stewart is awesome.  I'm not a fan of all of their interpretations, but it's a reminder that the play can have many interpretations.  Just because I didn't see the scene between Hamlet and his mother in her closet as him raping her, or the relationship between Laertes and Ophelia as anything but sibling doesn't mean other people won't.  And while it was kind of awkward to watch, I could understand that.  Then there was the Kenneth Branagh version, which I'm still torn on.  On one hand, I really didn't like his acting at times; that scene when he's talking to the ghost and then falls flat on his face will never not remind me of Lockhart.  On the other hand, I appreciate some of the interpretations and that castle was really awesome.  Still looking forward to David Tennant, but that's a personal bias.  I know nothing about it.  Except I know that David Tennant is awesome.

Annotations are... going.  It's interesting to watch the movies while working on the annotations because sometimes they point out things that I haven't already noticed.  I think it'll be interesting to watch the movies after I finish as well, because I'll have more of an idea of everything, and what I found was interesting, and what I think I need to focus on.  And while they are a little tedious - especially in a really long, five act play, I understand why they're necessary.  I'm seeing more about the play as a whole, and getting close-ups on the genius that is Shakespeare.  All of Hamlet's puns, and some of his references (which I'm looking up if I don't already understand them), are cast into a sharper relief and I feel like I'm really understanding the points that Shakespeare is trying to make.  I'll have finished annotations by the time we get to Tennant.  I'm excited.  I want to see whether the play is different and fun with having finished them.  And with Tennant, of course.

Response to Course Material 4

So...  What have we done recently...?

Well, we finished up our discussion on Death of a Salesman.  In fact, I think the last time I wrote this, we hadn't even started discussing it yet.  At any rate, I liked seeing why we had to learn so much about Oedipus; while the whole story doesn't apply to Salesman, one of the articles we read (something about A Commodity Roosts or something like that) really brought out some points that made other aspects of it seem quite parts of the Oedipus story.  Biff's love for his father, the way it's manifested, and his reaction to Willy's betrayal all really brought out the fact that their relationship was definitely more than simply that of a father and son.  I also like the link it provides to Hamlet, which is also about father/son relationships, only in a much more complicated manner (Claudius is his step-father and his uncle).  Then there was the talk about The American Dream which links back to the play of the same title.  Both are about the focus of money in society and both seem to illustrate the problems, though one was a dramatic tragedy and the other a comedy (that was kind of really creepy).  It sort of reminded me of The Great Gatsby as well, because that book is also about how a focus on money can kill people, though it was more on the differences between old money and new money than obtaining money.  Still, it was about struggling against society (and the protagonist dies in both novels).

Then we moved on to Hamlet.  I enjoy reading plays in class; for me, it's more entertaining and easier to remember than watching a movie.  Granted, that could also be because I had missed part of the movie because of the Stratford trip.  But anyway, I both like and dislike the need to have to stop in the middle of reading.  While I understand that it is to go over certain aspects of the text that may be difficult to understand because of a lack of understanding in the society or language of the time, it also takes away from the overall picture of the text.  On the other hand, I came to enjoy Macbeth a lot when we went through analyzing it, so maybe I'll enjoy this as well.  I love seeing how clever Shakespeare is though, with his usage of parallels between Claudius' marriage to Gertrude and Henry's marriage to Catherine.  He's brilliant.

And... that's all I really have to say.  I look forward to reading more of Hamlet.

Response to Course Material 3

Wow, it's Second Quarter already.  The year seems to have gone by really fast.  But anyway, what have we covered since last time?

The unit on The American Dream has been wrapped up.  That was fun, and I enjoyed being able to analyze it with respect to the different samples of literature that we read from our textbooks.  It allows us to make intertextual connections better, which I always find both enjoyable and informative.  I like drawing connections between different works and doing so often helps me remember things as well.  (It did strike me as amusing that I had to read Two Kinds by Amy Tan.  Again.  For probably the third of fourth time.  In different language arts classes.)  So yeah, that was fun.

What else...?  I've been enjoying those exercises that we have in the beginning of class, both the ones where we have to come up with a sentence that exemplifies the tone word, and when we practice analyzing then writing our own passages from an example.  The latter normally turns into a competition on what hour (normally 6th hour wins, just sayin') can come up with the most ridiculous example, but still...  Again, making things funny makes them memorable.

The only other thing I really remember us doing is watch Death of a Salesman.  From what I've heard, a lot of people have covered it before, in their American Literature classes.  They would probably find that we're going to slowly through it.  Though I took American Literature, in Mrs. Reed's class, we only ever talked about his The Crucible.  I'd never discussed Death of a Salesman before.  In fact, the only mentions I'd ever heard of it outside of this class was for QuizBowl.  I enjoyed watching the movie.  It was a good way of introducing the material to someone who had never read the play before.  Unfortunately, the Stratford trip (which was really fun!) happened to fall over one of those days, so I missed part of the plot.  The close reading should fix that problem, though the discussions that we've had during class have been a little bit annoying when scenes are brought up that I'm unfamiliar with.  I'm definitely looking forward to analyzing it though; if The American Dream was anything to go by, there are going to be a lot of hidden messages to unravel in this play!

Response to Course Materials 2

In class, we've covered a variety of topics since the last time we were told to write one of these.  We spent a lot of time at first talking about the different eras and movements of literature.  That was actually really interesting, because we could incorporate a lot of time periods that we talked about in both American Literature and British Literature into what we covered.  For example, when we talked about Medievalism, I found myself remembering how Beowulf and The Canterbury Tales demonstrated aspects of the movement, with their epic heroes and references to religion.  Being able to look back on the writing helped me remember the unique aspects of different literary movements better.

What really stood out to me were our (longer than usual they took quite a while to go through) presentations on Greek mythology and the Bible.  I've always loved Greek mythology, so going over the myths was a very enjoyable experience for me, especially as I learned a few new ones from my section, such as "Baucis and Philemon" or "Alpheus and Arethusa".  Hearing details that I'd forgotten of the Trojan War and the creation of the gods was also fun.  (And I don't think anybody will forget Emily's drawings any time soon.)  Of course, we weren't reviewing them only to go over the stories, but to be able to find allusions to them in other literature.  Unlike many of the class, it seems, I was rather unfamiliar with the Bible stories, so I took more notes on them.  I have before heard allusions to "The Prodigal Son", which I'd never really understood, though I could make an educated guess from the context.  After hearing about it in class, though, I can think back on the discussion (which, for those who would appreciate it, was about Sirius Black's relationship with his family).  In general (at least to me), there is something very satisfying about being able to spot allusions to mythology and Bible stories in literature, so I definitely appreciated the opportunity to learn/review them to help me in my endeavor.

At some point in there, we also talked about different critical lenses.  I found that it was an easier lesson for me, at least, because I remember covering quite a few of them in American Literature in particular.  I mentioned in my previous Response to Course Materials that in American Literature, Mrs. Reed had us watch Star Wars through different critical lenses.  That was part of a unit dedicated to them.  Therefore, many of the big ones covered in the Prezi - the one with the creepy dolls and eyes which haunt my nightmares - were review from that class.  New Criticism (only by the name Formalism), Psychoanalytic, New Historical, Marxism, Feminist, Reader Response, Archetypal, and Structuralism (also with a different name), were all mentioned before, in American Literature.  The others were new, but pretty self-explanatory, for the most part.  I do find it useful to look through texts from different perspectives, which critical lenses help accomplish.

And finally, we spent time more time recently talking about Theater of the Absurd and Comedy.  Very appropriate, given what we read: The American Dream.  I really enjoyed learning about Comedy, in particular, and how people believe humor works.  While I was familiar with the concept of a comedy, my overall idea came from what Shakespeare had written as his comedies - basically stories where not many people died and a whole bunch of people got married.  And a lot of mistaken identities or people falling in love with the wrong people and such, if I recall correctly.  This more modern comedy seems a lot different and reading through how to analyze the different aspects of it was great.  The play itself was really fun.  I found it completely strange in the beginning and until the very end, I had no idea what the characters - especially Mommy - were talking about most of the time.  Yet, many things seemed to work themselves out and it was entertaining.  I have not yet managed to find many examples of allusions - I suppose we were supposed to notice them, given how much time we spent on the topic of allusions to mythology and religion- in the play, but there is still time to keep looking, especially after a more thorough reading.

I think I've covered everything that we've done in class since the last Response to Course Materials.  I find that these are actually a really great way of making sure I remember everything we've covered and help get everything straight in my head.

So Far...

To be honest, it doesn't seem like we've actually covered a ton so far.  Well, I don't say this meaning that we haven't learned anything or that I haven't learned anything because I definitely have.  What  I meant is that I'm sure we have a lot of things to cover that we haven't even begun to touch on yet.  Most of the material we've touched on has been summer work material; we have had only four days of school, after all.  However, much of it has been focusing on two points that I think are actually probably the most important of the class, which is unsurprising.

The summer work especially seems to be focusing on how to read.  How To Read Literature Like a Professor was actually very entertaining as well as informative.  I definitely enjoyed reading it, since it had a pretty entertaining and strong voice.  Much of it seemed to focus on different aspects of literature that can be understood deeper than simply as a plot element.  I've heard of some things, like the Journey/Quest, before, when we were talking about archetypes.  It reminded me of when, in Mrs. Reed's American Literature class, we watched Star Wars through different critical lenses and the characteristics of many epic tales stood out clearly through the archetypal lens.  Certain aspects of Foster's book seem to focus on similar concepts, such as the meanings behind disfigurement or the commonality of Greek mythology.  It really makes me think more now on the meaning of Darth Vader's prosthetic body or how Luke not knowing his father is reminiscent of Oedipus' lack of knowledge, though luckily for Luke, it doesn't cause complete destruction of his life.  Our reading of the poems and the questions we had to answer for the diagnostic test also work on reading.  While some of them focused more on the vocabulary we had to learn, others - mainly those that talked about theme and author's message - also did use certain aspects of the book, such as the meaning of weather or spring.  In a way, the diagnostic tests and other reading we've had to do allowed me to focus on using the techniques, which was great.  They helped me practice understanding exactly what I was looking for and how it'd help me on the AP exam and in the future (The Foster presentation was actually really hard; I don't know that many things from pop culture.)

Our practice with reading also focused a lot on poetry, particularly the different vocabulary that we'd need.  And I feel I must mention again that the vocabulary test we had to do on Quia was actually really really hard.  But I digress.  Some of the words I thought I knew, but clearly not well enough.  It makes me wonder whether I've been mislabeling poems and poetic devices when we talked about them in Lit/Comp 9.  At the same time, it's also given me quite a few new concepts to work into my poems in the future (I do like to write poetry in my spare time, though it's sometimes hard to come up with something I really like).  I do hope we get to practice recognizing these different poetic devices more in the future; given the results of the quiz, we all still need a lot of work with them.  I'm thinking not only in terms of my test score, but also because they are interesting and I like securely learning things, just for myself.  I'm not really sure where I'm going with this point, except that the poetry reading was fun and I hope we do them more.  (I also really liked that Shakespeare sonnet we read as part of our diagnostics test.  I think Sonnet 55 has just become my favorite sonnet.)

We've also talked a bit on how to write properly.  The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing started that discussion off, which focused primarily on not sounding like a snob in college essays and such.  Of course, when I was writing my response to it, and even as I type now, I'm a little self-conscious about how I write.  I know for a fact that I used to have this problem; I somehow made the connection between "mature" writing and very unauthentic (I'm not sure if that's the word I'm actually looking for but that's as close as I'm going to get for now) writing.  Thinking back to all of the things I've written for English classes before, I wonder sometimes how I haven't bored my teachers to sleep, considering the fact that I'm sure some of them was rather bland and void of good voice.  This is also partially related to what the powerpoints were talking about.  They focused primarily on the art of AP writing and how to make arguments, but the basic idea is the same.  We have to not bore our audiences, which is why audience is something to consider in rhetoric.  And Nuts and Bolts also focuses on keeping things concise, which makes our arguments easier to follow, a point made in the powerpoint on crafting good arguments.  This is another problem I think I have in my writing; I tend to write my thoughts as they come to me, which means that they aren't always extremely organized.  This blog post might even be an example of that, though at least I'm pretty sure I'm not writing with a particularly snobby voice right now.  Hopefully, I'll be able to focus on these ideas more in the future and improve that aspect of my writing.

So overall, even though we haven't been in school for long, this class has given me quite a few things to focus on, many of which can likely be carried over into other classes as well.  The things we've covered related to reading and writing have given me much cause for thought and I can't wait to see what we cover in class next.

(P.S.  I know this is submitted a bit late.  I would have done it earlier but my laptop is refusing to connect to the Internet and I just got on my family's desktop now.)