Dubliners

For Wednesday's discussion on Joyce's Dubliners, you need to come prepared with a detailed explanation (on paper) describing the moment of paralysis or epiphany that occur in each of the stories (14 total). See pages 6 and 7 for further explanation. If you are not sure about some of the stories, post your questions on the blog. I expect you to help each other out, so you may not hear much from me.

One of my goals this semester is to encourage discussion outside of class - especially among the rogues who fly under the radar (you know who you are!)

Remember, the only stupid question is the one you don't ask. Dubliners, though more accessible as short stories, can be challenging due to Joyce's use of slang, irony, and description.

I look forward to our class discussion. Please let me know if you have questions

I Need Help

I need help trying to figure out exactly what it is I am supposed to do over break. I am reading The Dubliners, and I read my book for the report, but I am not sure what to do for the assignment for Bartleby the Scrivener. I know we need to give the book talk, with:

Info

Brief Summary

Explanation of interesting ideas/ themes

Analysis of favorite passage

Visual

Delivery

I do not know how we are supposed to give a summary without re-telling the story, however. Is that not precisely what a summary is? If "do not re-tell" means "don't make your whole presentation the telling of the story," I can do that. I am just really confused....Help!

Poetry

I thought I was understanding poetry and how the literary terms were used in the poems and now I've realized I really don't. Writing this essay was extremely painful for me. Everytime I wrote something, I was automatically stopped by confusion partly by me and partly by the poems.

I have discovered that I am the type of person that has to talk things through with other people -- discussion. Whether I'm just listening or including my ideas, this is the only way I comprehend anything.

I can tell you what I think "I never saw a Moor" means and I can tell you what I think "'Faith' is a fine invention" means, but can I explain them? This essay has proven me completely wrong. I know I need to ask questions, but I don't know what questions to ask. When I sit in class, everything makes sense. When I sit at home staring at my blank word document, I feel overwhelmed.

Composers and Poets

As I was reading "The Tiger", I suddenly had this strange harmonious tune in my head and realized that I had sung a song based off of this poem in seventh grade. The same thing happened when I read "My mistress' eye" because the poem below it "Crossing the Bar" was one of the SSAA pieces at Honor's Choir this year. This has happened with about 15% of the poems I've had to read in high school. I find it helpful to have a song to go along with the poem because the tempo, key, and what time it's in show a lot about the poem. Also the length of the note help show which words should be emphasized. Just a little thing I found interesting as I was reading.

poetry 1 - blog discussion

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. How nice to have a few days to rest and relax!!

Regardless of your prior experiences with poetry, this is a NEW POETRY YEAR, and we'll begin quite simply with how to read a poem. In preparation for the poetry response question on the exam, close, careful reading is essential. In order to write about poetry, you have to understand what's going on.

Reviewing the suggestions on reading poetry from Chapter Two of the Perrine text, which of the suggestions do you consider to be your "new poetry resolution"? Think of this like a New Year's resolution - what do you promise to do with poetry in order to come away with a better understanding and a positive experience? And if you have a different approach to reading poetry, please share what works for you; it doesn't have to be a suggestion from the text.

Remember, this counts toward class participation. Let the blog discussion begin!

I caught myself

Along with much of the teenage population, I saw "New Moon" this weekend. On my second viewing, I caught myself doing a bit of an AP- style analysis on the movie, and I can admit I did happen to find some very interesting literary devices we use in AP represented in the movie.

For example, I discovered that Jacob Black is a foil to Edward Cullen, the main character of the Twilight series. I'm also hoping that this may also start a discussion about what other people found in "New Moon", and if they agree with my findings.

Prospective Title Song from Oedipus Rex

This song by Tom Lehrer should be played every time before reading Oedipus Rex.

Click Here

Theater of War Uses Sophocles

Thanks to Charlie for passing along this article about Sophocles. Who knew a Greek playwright would gain an audience with veterans of modern war?

Soldiers who have witnessed the reading of "Ajax" reflected on their own experiences of losing friends in battle and struggling with the emotional challenges of war. Though Oedipus' struggle deals more with his identity and the role of fate, how might teenagers relate to the story of Oedipus?

A little food for thought this weekend. I'm anxious to hear your thoughts...

Outrageous Oedipus

At the moment I am very grateful that I am in Drama, otherwise I would not have understood the assigned reading for tomorrow's class quite as well. It's as if I'm reading an ancient script to a soap opera. Woman seduces man into having sexual intercourse by getting him drunk; they send the kid off; kid comes back kills father (not that he knows that); kid is now a man and marries mother and the whole town goes to waste because of one family's wrong doing. (that last sentence was constructed horribly, but I wasn't sure how else to do it.)

Final Thoughts...

So I guess it's safe to assume that the Winston/Julia, brother/sister theory has been debunked. As icky as it would be for Orwell to go that route, it got you thinking and paying attention to details in the text that could serve as foreshadowing. Even though the theory didn't pan out, you were making some good predictions. Well done you!

Now for some final thoughts....we had a great discussion today in class (Wednesday) and if there were any other comments that needed to be shared, please comment on this post. I've been trying to get to more people more quickly as they raise their hands to contribute and though we've had a few outbursts without hand raising, I think the class is becoming more conscientious.

Here's some food for thought: Has Winston truly accepted the Party? He nearly commits thought crime and is able to crimestop before he strays too far. The last line says he loves Big Brother, but do you feel he truly does? Why or why not?

it's over... =[

So... I'm pretty sure that 1984 has been the best book a teacher has made me read since elementary school's "Chica-chica-boom-boom". I'm actually sad that we finished it. The only thing I wish I could have done differently while reading it was come up with some of the crazy things you guys did! I'm not that creative nor do I think about possible outcomes when I read. I like to be surprised by turns in events. I think we can all agree that this was a pretty great book.

George Orwell - The Prophet?

Someone took a lot of time tearing the book apart and this article is AMAZING! Just click on the title to read it!

Theory (part 2)

Ashley, Nicole and I have long talks about this at lunch. Like Ashley said, we think that there is a possibility that Winston and Julia are siblings. The age difference between them is asks a lot of questions and there is still the mystery of Julia's past. Julia doesn't talk about a lot of personal things with Winston and yet she still knows so much about him. We don't know what happen to his mother and sister and even if our theory is wrong we still think that Julia may have information about Winston's past. Also, another thing to think about is why Julia doesn't want to separate from Winston. She's had so many other relationships so why does this one mean so much to her?

Theory

Britt, Nicole, and I came up with a theory at lunch the other day, and we wanted to post it on the blog and see what you think about it!
After much debate and re-reading, we come to the conclusion that Winston and Julia are siblings. As of now, in 1984, Winston is 39 years old, and Julia is 26. When Winston finally remembers the last time he saw his mother, he states that he was 11, 12, or 13, and his little sister is only 8 months. Depending on what month Winston was born, the age difference between him and his little sister is 13 years, the exact age difference between him and Julia.
Winston says in the flashback that he isn't sure what happened to his sister, but states there's a possibility she was sent to a Reclamation Center, where all she would have known is life in the Party- after the Revolution.

There's my part of the theory, now I'm going to let Britt finish the rest!

Chutzpah

Julia is extremely gutsy, the amount of courage it would take to tell someone that you love them, without ever having spoken to them, is tremendous. It would take ten times more courage to say it in the age of Big Brother, thought police, and spies. For all Julia knew, Winston could have been a spy or a member of the Thought Police. She risked the possibility of being vaporized to tell a man she had never talked to that she loved him. This instance gives new meaning to the phrase "love at first sight" I suppose. I think it would be interesting to know what is going on in Julia's mind in the time building up to page 90, and the week when Winston hasn't gotten the chance to talk to her. I love that this is part of the book, it's definitely much more interesting now and I'm having a much easier time paying attention.

Just a few thoughts.