http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/05/05/080505fa_fact_sedaris?currentPage=4
The narrator is initially opposed to smoking, and his voice shows it. At the beginning of the essay, the reader sees him as a boy who thinks of the smoke as "the smell of neglect," instead of his preferred scent of "anticipation." This is an interesting view for anyone to take, much less a person in his early teens. Sedaris uses this unusual viewpoint as a meaningful detail; after reading it early on and connecting with the narrator, the reader is then disappointed on a personal level when the narrator takes up smoking in his early twenties.
In one paragraph, Sedaris uses the sentence's syntax to draw the reader's attention to the narrator's desire to be his own person."The ones I’d smoked earlier had been Ronnie’s—Pall Malls, I think—and though they tasted no better or worse than I thought they would, I felt that in the name of individuality I should find my own brand, something separate. Something me. " Of course, the irony is that he's joining a detrimental habit shared by millions. For the purposes of the essay, however, Sedaris doesn't come right out and say this. Instead, he follows the above line by listing various brands and what 'types' of people typically go for each brand, effectively destroying any sense of individuality through the use of subtle irony.
Sedaris also uses imagery as the narrator describes how wonderful smoking is: "For people like me, people who twitched and jerked and cried out in tiny voices, cigarettes were a godsend." This line gives the reader a sense of a smoker's self- perceived weakness, accompanied by a need to prop himself up on something like a cigarette. I doubt if most readers would feel a sense of empathy after this; speaking for myself, I found the diction and deliberate hyperbole amusing. It gives additional meaning to its paragraph by showing a smoker's dependancy on cigarettes.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Response to Course Material 5
The close readings of Ceremony have been, to say the least, quite in depth. I can't help but wonder what Silko would say if she knew the extent to which 5th hour literally dissects every sentence. There's a significant part of me that wonders if we're putting too much emphasis on what in reality might have been a subtle, unconscious voice within her head. That voice certainly produced a great work, but one does wonder if Sliko really crafted every line as purposely as an artist would add strokes of shading to a sea. The themes, symbolisms, and other techniques used in the novel are interesting to explore. After that, 5th hour needs to give it a rest for the sake of other classmate's sanity.
Friday, December 2, 2011
Response to Course Material 4
I appreciate the opportunity to read Ceremony. It is full of subtle inflections and deeper meanings, and I hope to get better at recognizing them as the year progresses.
One thing that I'm having a hard time with is all the superstition associated with the Native American culture. I'm a very rational person who likes proof before 'believing' in something; I'm becoming "hard-nosed, literal, precise and accurate," in the words of Tom Miller, a rather brilliant practitioner and instructor in rational psychology. These are great as personal qualities, but they don't help much in analyzing literature from someone else's standpoint when my brain is throwing a running commentary of "there's no proof," "how can someone believe that when this piece of science explicitly contradicts it," and so on. This is one of the reasons why I identify with Rocky, and yet this is not what the author of Ceremony intended, nor is it the point of the book.
I will use this as an opportunity to style-flex, ignoring what I consider irrationality and seeing it instead as a piece of culture unique to a certain viewpoint. Whether or not it's right is not the question. The question here is how the author uses culture in the meanings of a work.
One thing that I'm having a hard time with is all the superstition associated with the Native American culture. I'm a very rational person who likes proof before 'believing' in something; I'm becoming "hard-nosed, literal, precise and accurate," in the words of Tom Miller, a rather brilliant practitioner and instructor in rational psychology. These are great as personal qualities, but they don't help much in analyzing literature from someone else's standpoint when my brain is throwing a running commentary of "there's no proof," "how can someone believe that when this piece of science explicitly contradicts it," and so on. This is one of the reasons why I identify with Rocky, and yet this is not what the author of Ceremony intended, nor is it the point of the book.
I will use this as an opportunity to style-flex, ignoring what I consider irrationality and seeing it instead as a piece of culture unique to a certain viewpoint. Whether or not it's right is not the question. The question here is how the author uses culture in the meanings of a work.
Monday, November 14, 2011
Open Prompt 5
1998. In his essay "Walking," Henry David Thoreau offers the following assessment of literature:
In literature it is only the wild that attracts us. Dullness is but another name for tameness. It is the uncivilized free and wild thinking in Hamlet and The Iliad, in all scriptures and mythologies, not learned in schools, that delights us.
From the works that you have studied in school, choose a novel, play, or epic poem that you may initially have thought was conventional and tame but that you now value for its "uncivilized free and wild thinking." Write an essay in which you explain what constitutes its "uncivilized free and wild thinking" and how that thinking is central to the value of the work as a whole. Support your ideas with specific references to the work you choose.
Many authors choose love as a topic worthy of their extensive time and prowess. As there are a wide variety of works written about love, inevitably the average reader will come across those which do not appeal to him. This could be because of the works being poorly written, a duplication of ideas, or an expression of this most complex of topics in a simplified way. These are components which would lead a knowledgeable reader to think "predictable and tame." Romeo and Juliet is an example of a work which starts out as another predictable love story and evolves into an idea with "uncivilized free and wild thinking."
The meeting of Romeo and Juliet begins as any simple love story begins: they meet at the Capulet's ball and begin a heady flirtation. It's unclear exactly why they fall instantly in love; anything that real lovers would value-- for instance, common interests, a deep mental connection, physicality-- are rather absent. Some might argue that it is this that makes the play unpredictable. Yet many love stories seems to unfold from intense scenarios featuring lovers who fall in love under the flimsiest of circumstances. Considering that the characters are both teenagers, one could psychologically analyze them and point to the appeal that doing something against their families' wishes would bring. Teenage hormones would explain their intense attraction. Given the context in which Romeo and Juliet shortly court, the reader can clearly see the social constrictions that they must overcome. Based on the above analyzation, one could realize that they didn't fall in love in spite of their environment-- they fell in love because of it. These explanations that takes away from the idea of instant love is what makes Romeo and Juliet appear as another love saga.
By the end of the play, the reader has seen their entire tragedy unfold. It's not even when Romeo plunges a dagger into his chest to join his beloved that the reader feels a jolt of unpredictability. But in the final scene, when the families gather to commiserate over the death of their children, the reader finally experiences what one might call "uncivilized free and wild thinking." The families have two basic choices: they can keep fighting, or they can end their extensive feud that has now taken away the prospect of a future that every parent values in his offspring. Given past evidence of the intensity of their fighting, one would suppose they would continue to wage a war against the other-- with even greater intensity because of the destruction of their children at what they could easily see at the other's hand.
Yet it is in the wake of such disaster that Shakespeare gives the reader something unpredictable. The families ending their feud is an example of a paradoxical ending in that one would not expect peace to come about through such brutal violence. In the end, Shakespeare's ability to use "wild and free thought" arises not through the hypocrisy of a wealthy families' uncivilized acts of violence that occur throughout the play. It results from the quiet peace in the wake of two young lovers sacrificing themselves, thereby showing their families the capacity of love.
In literature it is only the wild that attracts us. Dullness is but another name for tameness. It is the uncivilized free and wild thinking in Hamlet and The Iliad, in all scriptures and mythologies, not learned in schools, that delights us.
From the works that you have studied in school, choose a novel, play, or epic poem that you may initially have thought was conventional and tame but that you now value for its "uncivilized free and wild thinking." Write an essay in which you explain what constitutes its "uncivilized free and wild thinking" and how that thinking is central to the value of the work as a whole. Support your ideas with specific references to the work you choose.
Many authors choose love as a topic worthy of their extensive time and prowess. As there are a wide variety of works written about love, inevitably the average reader will come across those which do not appeal to him. This could be because of the works being poorly written, a duplication of ideas, or an expression of this most complex of topics in a simplified way. These are components which would lead a knowledgeable reader to think "predictable and tame." Romeo and Juliet is an example of a work which starts out as another predictable love story and evolves into an idea with "uncivilized free and wild thinking."
The meeting of Romeo and Juliet begins as any simple love story begins: they meet at the Capulet's ball and begin a heady flirtation. It's unclear exactly why they fall instantly in love; anything that real lovers would value-- for instance, common interests, a deep mental connection, physicality-- are rather absent. Some might argue that it is this that makes the play unpredictable. Yet many love stories seems to unfold from intense scenarios featuring lovers who fall in love under the flimsiest of circumstances. Considering that the characters are both teenagers, one could psychologically analyze them and point to the appeal that doing something against their families' wishes would bring. Teenage hormones would explain their intense attraction. Given the context in which Romeo and Juliet shortly court, the reader can clearly see the social constrictions that they must overcome. Based on the above analyzation, one could realize that they didn't fall in love in spite of their environment-- they fell in love because of it. These explanations that takes away from the idea of instant love is what makes Romeo and Juliet appear as another love saga.
By the end of the play, the reader has seen their entire tragedy unfold. It's not even when Romeo plunges a dagger into his chest to join his beloved that the reader feels a jolt of unpredictability. But in the final scene, when the families gather to commiserate over the death of their children, the reader finally experiences what one might call "uncivilized free and wild thinking." The families have two basic choices: they can keep fighting, or they can end their extensive feud that has now taken away the prospect of a future that every parent values in his offspring. Given past evidence of the intensity of their fighting, one would suppose they would continue to wage a war against the other-- with even greater intensity because of the destruction of their children at what they could easily see at the other's hand.
Yet it is in the wake of such disaster that Shakespeare gives the reader something unpredictable. The families ending their feud is an example of a paradoxical ending in that one would not expect peace to come about through such brutal violence. In the end, Shakespeare's ability to use "wild and free thought" arises not through the hypocrisy of a wealthy families' uncivilized acts of violence that occur throughout the play. It results from the quiet peace in the wake of two young lovers sacrificing themselves, thereby showing their families the capacity of love.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Open Prompt 4
1995. Writers often highlight the values of a culture or a society by using characters who are alienated from that culture or society because of gender, race, class, or creed. Choose a novel or a play in which such a character plays a significant role and show how that character's alienation reveals the surrounding society's assumptions or moral values.
The Giver, by Lois Lowry, highlights contrasting values. The society in which Jonas lives in is designed perfectly, and the residents are protected from most physical and emotional pain. Jonas's knowledge that results from him being the new Receiver of Memory contrasts sharply with that of his society's. This not only causes alienation, but it also makes a statement about the value of knowledge and feelings.
Upon being selected for the most important of jobs, Jonas begins to learn about the memories that his society has repressed. He quickly finds that there are occasions of pain, such as a broken leg on a hill, and moments of joy, such as soaking up sunlight on a beach. The fact that the society in which he lives has transferred the job of remembering to one person is an alarming statement. Firstly, the diction itself uses the word 'job.' This is a generic term, one that holds little capacity for human connection and acts as a relegating agent. It also implies the division of duties much as the residents are separated from connection with others. Secondly, the reader is forced to look at the possibilities of how exactly this fictional society got to the point of 'Sameness,' with hardly any variation or unpredictability in its residents. The implication of gradualism means that the society once was fairly normal and slowly made decisions that stripped away such dangers as overpopulation, familial conflict, food shortage, and conflicts because of color. The reader also wonders about such a controlling society, which also functions as a comparison for real, modern values.
Jonas's difference from that of his peers quickly alienates him; he sees truths of the world which others are not aware of, which creates a contrast of values. The reader identifies with the protagonist, and in the process realizes the limitations imposed by the society. It does not know that it is crucial to humanity to experience differences in the individual, feel the depth of love, and pain to show that an individual loved and cared at all. Jonas knows all these concepts because of his difference, and it is there that the reader is meant to see the basic difference in values.
The Giver, by Lois Lowry, highlights contrasting values. The society in which Jonas lives in is designed perfectly, and the residents are protected from most physical and emotional pain. Jonas's knowledge that results from him being the new Receiver of Memory contrasts sharply with that of his society's. This not only causes alienation, but it also makes a statement about the value of knowledge and feelings.
Upon being selected for the most important of jobs, Jonas begins to learn about the memories that his society has repressed. He quickly finds that there are occasions of pain, such as a broken leg on a hill, and moments of joy, such as soaking up sunlight on a beach. The fact that the society in which he lives has transferred the job of remembering to one person is an alarming statement. Firstly, the diction itself uses the word 'job.' This is a generic term, one that holds little capacity for human connection and acts as a relegating agent. It also implies the division of duties much as the residents are separated from connection with others. Secondly, the reader is forced to look at the possibilities of how exactly this fictional society got to the point of 'Sameness,' with hardly any variation or unpredictability in its residents. The implication of gradualism means that the society once was fairly normal and slowly made decisions that stripped away such dangers as overpopulation, familial conflict, food shortage, and conflicts because of color. The reader also wonders about such a controlling society, which also functions as a comparison for real, modern values.
Jonas's difference from that of his peers quickly alienates him; he sees truths of the world which others are not aware of, which creates a contrast of values. The reader identifies with the protagonist, and in the process realizes the limitations imposed by the society. It does not know that it is crucial to humanity to experience differences in the individual, feel the depth of love, and pain to show that an individual loved and cared at all. Jonas knows all these concepts because of his difference, and it is there that the reader is meant to see the basic difference in values.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Response to Course Material 3 Oct 23
Looking at a text, I often feel as if insights into its meanings are obvious-- but only in hindsight. Although I'm getting better at reading literature for depth, I still feel as though I miss what's right in front of me. One of my goals for this year is to read a lot and stretch my abilities each time; that's started with The American Dream. Not only did I pick up on some subtleties, I also enjoyed the intellectual commentary on what I see as the consumerism tragedy still befalling Americans.
Though I've already studied Death of a Salesman in a previous class, my goal for this next segment will be on picking out even more layers of meanings.
Though I've already studied Death of a Salesman in a previous class, my goal for this next segment will be on picking out even more layers of meanings.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Open Prompt 3
1975. Although literary critics have tended to praise the unique in literary characterizations, many authors have employed the stereotyped character successfully. Select one work of acknowledged literary merit and in a well-written essay, show how the conventional or stereotyped character or characters function to achieve the author's purpose.
Mark Twain uses a variety of 'out of the box' characters to express his opinions on the dysfunctional, hypocritical state of society. This is most apparent in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, when the reader sees the atypical Huck struggling out of the confines of being 'civilized.' Twain also uses stereotypical characters for Huck to react to, thereby furthering the contrast on societal values.
Miss Watson and the Widow Douglas are both the stereotypical well-to-do women of the Antebellum era; they have money, are at the top of the town's happenings, and manage slaves. Twain uses them at the beginning to show how Huck is separate from 'civilization'. He shows this by having Huck appreciate their efforts, but in the end join Tom Sawyer's crime gang.
The Grangerfords and the Sheperdsons begin as stereotypical religious families, but Twain quickly twists it to make them into opposing sides who would happily kill the other while immersed in 'God's will.' While this is used for satirical purposes, Twain also sets up a scenario for the young Huck to respond to. As he is ignorant and naiive about much of life, he doesn't critically analyze the situation for the reader as a more mature and societally 'programmed' person might. The reader, however, gets the benefit of seeing someone yet untainted by hypocrisy react to events. This carries on throughout the book with the Duke and Dauphin.
Twain uses innocence to illustrate the hypocrisy evident in typical society, often employing satirized stereotypes to further this end. By having Huck react to them in a yet- un-programmed way, he shows the reader how ridiculous typical societal values look from the standpoint of those who have not yet grown used to behaving inside of them.
Mark Twain uses a variety of 'out of the box' characters to express his opinions on the dysfunctional, hypocritical state of society. This is most apparent in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, when the reader sees the atypical Huck struggling out of the confines of being 'civilized.' Twain also uses stereotypical characters for Huck to react to, thereby furthering the contrast on societal values.
Miss Watson and the Widow Douglas are both the stereotypical well-to-do women of the Antebellum era; they have money, are at the top of the town's happenings, and manage slaves. Twain uses them at the beginning to show how Huck is separate from 'civilization'. He shows this by having Huck appreciate their efforts, but in the end join Tom Sawyer's crime gang.
The Grangerfords and the Sheperdsons begin as stereotypical religious families, but Twain quickly twists it to make them into opposing sides who would happily kill the other while immersed in 'God's will.' While this is used for satirical purposes, Twain also sets up a scenario for the young Huck to respond to. As he is ignorant and naiive about much of life, he doesn't critically analyze the situation for the reader as a more mature and societally 'programmed' person might. The reader, however, gets the benefit of seeing someone yet untainted by hypocrisy react to events. This carries on throughout the book with the Duke and Dauphin.
Twain uses innocence to illustrate the hypocrisy evident in typical society, often employing satirized stereotypes to further this end. By having Huck react to them in a yet- un-programmed way, he shows the reader how ridiculous typical societal values look from the standpoint of those who have not yet grown used to behaving inside of them.
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