Thank you class of 2009

In case any of you log on, I wanted to tell you how much I appreciated the gift and notes. You were a perfect class to finish my teaching career with. I will miss you all and hope you all keep in touch. I feel blessed to know you and proud to have been your teacher.

I couldn't resist leaving you a few more poems -- some of my favorites that we never got to. You might be able to deduce my life philosophy in there somewhere. Love, Mrs. Minor


Secret Life

Why you need to have one
is not much more mysterious than
why you don't say what you think
at the birth of an ugly baby.
Or, you've just made love
and feel you'd rather have been
in a dark booth where your partner
was nodding, whispering yes, yes,
you're brilliant. The secret life
begins early, is kept alive
by all that's unpopular
in you, all that you know
a Baptist, say, or some other
accountant would object to.
It becomes what you'd most protect
if the government said you can protect
one thing, all else is ours.
When you write late at night
it's like a small fire
in a clearing, it's what
radiates and what can hurt
if you get too close to it.
It's why your silence is a kind of truth.
Even when you speak to your best friend,
the one who'll never betray you,
you always leave out one thing;
a secret life is that important.
--Stephen Dunn

Guest House

This being human is a guest house
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

--Rumi (12th century Persian poet)

A Minor Bird

I have wished a bird would fly away,
And not sing by my house all day;

Have clapped my hands at him from the door
When it seemed as if I could bear no more.

The fault must partly have been in me.
The bird was not to blame for his key.

And of course there must be something wrong
In wanting to silence any song.
--Robert Frost


O sweet spontaneous
earth how often have
the
doting

fingers of
purient philosophers pinched
and
poked

thee
,has the naughty thumb
of science prodded
thy

beauty .how
oftn have religions taken
thee upon their scraggy knees
squeezing and

buffeting thee that thou mightest conceive
gods
(but
true

to the incomparable
couch of death thy
rhythmic
lover

thou answerest


them only with


spring)

E. E. Cummings

When I heard the learned astronomer,
When I was shown the charts and the diagrams,
to add, divide, and measure them;
When I, sitting, heard the astronomer,
where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;
Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
--Walt Whitman


I WANDERED lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay: 10
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood, 20
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
1804.

--William Wordsworth

Homework 6/2

Again, be ready to present your Macbeth parodies!

Homework 5/29

Get ready to perform your MacBeth Parodies Friday!

Homework 5/27

Enjoy working on your MacBeth Parodies! Be ready to perform on Friday!

Also, if you need a way to easily share and edit your script among many people, I recommend Google Docs. It's like a word processor online, except multiple people can view and edit it, even at the same time.

Macbeth test

Tuesday: Finish Macbeth and take the objective test. You need to know the play well, so don't rely on a quick skim through the play and the pieces we read in class. Enjoy this glorious weather!

p.s.

I want to see everyone with their books on Friday. The test Tuesday is composed of 50 questions and many are nitpicky -- you need to know your play well. Besides reading it again with us while we study, you should read it again this weekend.

Macbeth prompt #1

Last week I read that yet another famous baseball star, Manny Ramirez, had tested positive for steroids. I began to wonder just when he . . . or Alex Rodriguez, or Barry Bonds or . . . had first decided that hard work alone was not enough to put them on top. When, I wondered, did they first decide to cheat their way to stardom? Did they lose any sleep over it? And how many potential stars have been edged out by others of equal or even lesser ability? What does this have to do with Macbeth? Ah, that's what I want you to discuss -- include quoted passages as relevant.

Macbeth on Monday

Bring your copy of Macbeth to class on Monday. Prior to class, read through Act III; by Wed. finish reading the entire play.

AP exam

May the force be with you tomorrow!

Homework 4/30

If you have not already done so, please bring all your Crime and Punishment notes to class, preferably stapled together.

Also note that this Thursday at 7:30 AM is the AP English Literature Exam.

Prompt-- 4/27

In Heart of Darkness, Marlow's descriptions of Kurtz include the following:  "a wandering and tormented thing", someone whose words were like "phrases spoken in nightmares", someone who "had no restraint, no faith",  whose "soul was mad",  someone who "struggled, struggled".   Think back to the nightmare-like atmosphere that suffused Heart of Darkness, then read again the description of Rodya's last dream  (6 pages from the end of the novel,  p.  547 P/V version, paragraph beginning "He lay in the hospital all through the end of Lent. . . " and ending with ""had heard their words or voices."   Both Rodion and Kurtz engage in interior battles fought between their inner goodness and their desire to "step over", to be "supermen".   Crime and Punishment, however,  ends with a powerful feeling of hope and redemption, whereas Heart of Darkness ends with a feeling of hopeless darkness.  How can we better understand Raskolnikov's redemption through the tragedy of Kurtz?  (as always,  support your opinions)

Prompt and homework -- 4/23

Homework: With the exception of Luzhin, most of the characters in the novel seem drawn to Raskolnikov. Choose two characters and ascertain what it is that draws them to him. Come prepared with notes and marked passages to support your analysis.

Prompt: Why does Raskolnikov reject his family's and Razumikhin's attempts at solace and comfort? Why, when they are at their most loving, does he have his most virulent feelings of hatred for them? Support your opinion with specific examples/quotes.

Prompt and homework -- 4/20

1.  For class on Thursday:  We will be focusing on the theories in the novel.  Review the discussion between Porfiry and Raskolnikov about his article (Part 3, ch. 5, 258-265 in Peavear/Volkonsky)  as well as the conversation between Lebeziatnikov & Luzhin (Part 5, ch. 1, 363-371 P/V) and Raskolnikov's interior dialogue  (near the end of part three, ch. 6, right before the dream about the old crone, 274-275 P/V).  Come to class with notes and passages marked.

2.  Prompt:  Throughout the novel Raskolnikov spins a web in which he is himself trapped.  He  even says that he "turned spiteful . . . Then I hid in my corner like a spider."  But of all the characters, Porfiry is the one who seems most "spiderlike".  Nevertheless, he also has keen insight into Raskolnikov.  When he finally confronts Raskolnikov in part six, chapter 2, he tells him:  "Do you know how I regard you?  I regard you as one of those men who could have their guts cut out, and would stand and look at his torturers with a smile -- provided he's found faith, or God"

Discuss what he means by this.  Notice that he does not say "faith in God", but "faith, or God" (part 6, ch. 2, 3 pages from the end of the chapter, 460 in P/V).

Prepare Yourself for the In-Class Essay on Monday

No blog prompt this weekend.

But, you would be highly interested in creating notes for the upcoming in-class essay. Notes are allowed and encouraged.

In-class essay on Monday

No blog prompt this weekend.

C & P prompt #4 & homework assignment

1. For the next class we will be focusing on Dostoevsky's treatment of women, particularly Sonya & Dounia. Come prepared with specific passages marked that shed light on these women.

2. Go to Part Three, Chapter One, about six pages in (202 in Peavear/Volkonsky) and find the paragraph that begins, "What do you think?" Razumikhin shouted, raising his voice even more. "You think it's because they are lying?" Read from the line, "I like it when people lie!" through about a page and a half, ending with "Pyotr Petrovich . . . is not on a noble path."

Deceit abounds in C & P, and Rodya seems to have more than a little Hamlet in him. What do you make of this dialogue with Razumikhin? How does lying lead to truth in this novel? Cite specific passages/details to support your ideas.

C & P prompt #3 & homework assignment

For the next two or three discussions we will be focusing on characters who serve as foils/doubles to Raskolnikov and/or as representatives of particular "types" or "theories". Without running to Google or Cliff's Notes or whatever your crutch of choice might be, choose a character who you think serves as a double or foil to Raskolnikov. Find a list of passages that reveal that character and be ready to support your reasoning (FYI: I have 17 just for Svidrigailov). Be sure to take down these notes and be ready for the discussion. As you will recall, I am collecting all your notes at the end of the unit for a truckload of points (no, I haven't decided how many) and am evaulating your blog responses as well as your in-class participation.

For the blog: Discuss Marmeladov. Some critics say he serves as a type of foil to Raskolnikov, others that he is a representative of a "type", others that he represents a major theme of the novel. What do YOU think? Look again at the discussion with Raskolnikov in the tavern (ch. 2), beginning with paragraph 7: "My dear sir," he began almost solemnly, "poverty is no vice . . . " on through the point where they leave the tavern. As always, support your ideas -- don't make me get out my hip boots to wade through your post.

p.s. For those of you out there who haven't finished reading the book and are winging it: Be scholars. You will discover great joy and form all kinds of powerful synapses in those massive brains by sinking your teeth into a novel with this depth. You short-change yourself, your classmates, and me when you phone it in. This is our last big unit--be with us fully by Tuesday!

Crime & Punishment blog prompt #2 April 7

Why did Raskolnikov murder the pawnbroker? Support your responses with evidence from the novel please.

Crime & Punishment Prompt 1-- April 3

Use your computer skills and do some research about the history, design, climate, and topography of St. Petersburg. Why do you think Dostoevsky set this novel in this particular city?

March 30

Study for the poetry unit test on Wednesday; check the glossary of poetry terms at the end of the book and make sure you know all of them. Finish Crime & Punishment before Friday. We like to keep it light.

March 19

1.  No blog prompt today.

2.  Write either a villanelle or a sestina -- due Monday after the break.  You can choose to write a sonnet instead, in which case it would be due on Wed.  The big poetry test will take place on Wed.

3.  Finish reading Crime & Punishment, which we will begin discussing on Friday the 3rd.

4.  Have a lovely spring break!

Prompt -- March 17

1. Be ready to dive into Crime and Punishment on April 3rd.
2. Register for AP exams by Friday of this week.
3. The following poem is by a famous Portland writer, Ursula Le Guin, and was republished in last Sunday's Oregonian. Consider how Le Guin uses sound, rhythm, imagery, and symbolism to serve her purpose.

The Cactus Wren

In this great silence, to sit still
and listen till I hear the wren
is to draw free from wish and will.
She flits to perch; her slender bill
spouts a thin jet of music, then
in the great silence she falls still.
Wind nods the short-stemmed flowers that fill
the sandy wash. She sings again
her song devoid of wish or will.
The hummingbird's quick drum and thrill
is gone just as I hear it, when
in this great silence all holds still.
The granite sand, the barren hill,
the dry, vast, rigorous terrain
answer no human wish or will.
Again, the small quicksilver trill
that has no messages for men.
In the great silence she sings still
of pure need free from wish or will.


"The Cactus Wren" is from Incredible Good Fortune,
Shambhala, 2006, © 2006 by Ursula K. Le Guin.

Prompt for the weekend 3/12

A. Read the poem that follows: Consider all the elements of poetry that we have studied thus far. How does the poet use these poetic elements to give the poem meaning?


Hope -- Lisel Mueller

It hovers in dark corners
before the lights are turned on,
it shakes sleep from its eyes
and drops from mushroom gills,
it explodes in the starry heads
of dandelions turned sages,
it sticks to the wings of green angels
that sail from the tops of maples.

It sprouts in each occluded eye
of the many-eyed potato,
it lives in each earthworm segment
surviving cruelty,
it is the motion that runs the tail of a dog,
it is the mouth that inflates the lungs
of the child that has just been born.

It is the singular gift
we cannot destroy in ourselves,
the argument that refutes death,
the genius that invents the future,
all we know of God.

It is the serum which makes us swear
not to betray one another;
it is in this poem, trying to speak.

B. You need to register and pay for AP tests by Friday. If you wait until Friday, you will also end up waiting in a line.

C. The following students need to turn in their "Snowstorm" essays to turnitin.com: Sharon, Kassie, Sandeep, both Jonathans, Connor P., Sanjana, Nupur, Tabron, James, and Niloy

Prompt - March 10

Read the poem "The Wild Swans at Coole" by William Butler Yeats (405/346/426/420).  How does Yeats use all the elements of poetry (diction, imagery, figurative language, sound, rhythm, tone) to embue his poem with a sense of the timelessness of nature in contrast to that of man.

Homework - March 4

1. Write an essay on Emerson's use of sound to create the experience of a snowstorm. 2-3 pages, 75 points, due Tuesday the 10th. You must attach a copy of the "worked" poem to the back of the essay. Also, be sure to submit it to turnitin.com.

2. No blog prompt tonight.

Homework and prompt for Wed. March 4

1.  Homework:  (a)  Read chapter 11  (b)  Read "Snowstorm" by Ralph Waldo Emerson.  Using a printed copy, mark all the sound devices you find.  If you have misplaced your copy, you can find one online.

2.  Engage in a blog discussion of "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost.  Focus on how Frost uses sound to enhance meaning.

Prompt and homework

1. Engage in a blog discussion of "Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold (uncle of our friend Aldous Huxley) and "Church Going" by Philip Larkin. Both have a similar theme, but what a difference in tone! These take time, but are both worth it -- two of my favorites in this book.

2. Answer the questions following the poems and bring them on Monday.

3. Say hello to March, the month that will bring spring!

Prompt and homework for 2/26

1. Read chapter 8 on allusions. Answer the questions following Milton's poem "On His Blindness" (135/127/140/140) and turn them in on Thursday.

2. Read "Snow White and the Seven Deadly Sins" (355/295/365/369) and join in a discussion on the blog.

How does a poem mean?

The following is a post Mr. Duncan made to his blog about analyzing poetry. Please read it, as he makes some excellent points that might aid you in appreciating poetry.

I'm going to relay a little advice from poet John Ciardi as a way of, if possible, altering and enriching the way you read poetry. Too many of you tend to, in the immortal words of Billy Collins: "…tie the poem to a chair with rope / and torture a confession out of it."

That way lies madness and, probably, an abiding hatred for all things poetical. I'm asking you to take an approach that is gentler on the poem and yourself. And to begin with, I'm going to cite these words of John Ciardi's from chapter one of How Does A Poem Mean?, his wonderful guide to poetry (alas, no longer in print):

"What greater violence can be done to the poet’s experience than to drag it into an early morning classroom and to go after it as an item on its way to a Final Examination? The apology must at least be made. It is the experience, not the Final Examination, that counts. Though one must note with care…that passionate learning is full of very technical stuff…
"And in poetry there is the step beyond: once one has learned to experience the poem as a poem, there inevitably arrives a sense that one is also experiencing himself as a human being…
W. H. Auden was once asked what advice he would give a young man who wished to become a poet. Auden replied that he would ask the young man why he wanted to write poetry. If the answer was 'because I have something important to say,' Auden would conclude that there was no hope for that young man as a poet. If on the other hand the answer was something like 'because I like to hang around words and overhear them talking to one another,' then that young man was at least interested in a fundamental part of the poetic process and there was hope for him.
"When one 'message-hunts' a poem (i.e., goes through the poem with no interest except in its paraphraseable content) he is approaching the writing as did the young man with 'something important to say'…The common question from which such an approach begins is “WHAT Does the Poem Mean?” His mind closed on that point of view, the reader tends to 'interpret' the poem rather than to experience it, seeking only what he can make over from it into a prose statement (or Examination answer) and forgetting in the process that it was originally a poem.…
"For WHAT DOES THE POEM MEAN? is too often a self-destroying approach to poetry. A more useful way of asking the question is HOW DOES A POEM MEAN? Why does it build itself into a form out of images, ideas, rhythms? How do these elements become the meaning? How are they inseparable from the meaning? As Yeats wrote:
O body swayed to music, o quickening glance,
How shall I tell the dancer from the dance?
"What the poem is, is inseparable from its own performance of itself. The dance is in the dancer and the dancer is in the dance. Or put in another way: where is the 'dance' when no one is dancing it? and what man is a 'dancer' except when he is dancing?"

From How Does A Poem Mean, The Riverside Press Cambridge, Houghton Mifflin Company

Essay posts to turnitin.com

Be sure to post your comparison/contrast essays to turnitin.com before midnight on Tuesday, as well as bringing a hard copy to class.

Prompt and homework --2/18

1.  Join in a blog discussion of the poems "Siren Song" and "Barbie Doll".  

2.  Essay due on Feb. 24:  Both "Siren Song" and "Barbie Doll" deal with the relationship between the individual human being and a society that imposes a dehumanizing conformity.  Compare the poets' use of irony in developing this theme.  This will be a 4-5 page, 100 point essay.  

Prompt -- 2/13/2009

Read and work the poem "Spinster" by Sylvia Plath. Engage in a discussion of the overall symbolism of the poem as well as the imagery and figurative language Plath used.

Poetry slam video relevant to Valediction

Homework: 2/11

First:  Work the poem "Ulysses" by Tennyson.  Avoid the urge to go to the web and have some "expert" analyze it for you, even though it is difficult.  Share your insights here with your colleagues and help one another figure it out.  On Friday, bring your typed responses to the questions that follow the poem, as well as a paraphrase of the poem.  Also read "Curiosity" by Alastair Reid and answer the questions that follow that poem.  By the way, isn't Alastair a great name for a cat?

Second:  We will be spending Friday on symbolism, chapter six

Blog prompt 2/9/09

Read D. C. Berry's "On Reading Poems to a Senior Class at South High". Discuss the poet's use of figurative language to add power and meaning to the poem.

Another perspective

"Valediction" reminded me of a poem set to music that we sang in choir last year. It has the same general idea, but is much easier to analyze! Anyway, I thought I'd post this because it's an interesting comparison.

"Remember" by Christiana Georgiana Rossetti

Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann'd:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.

Blog prompt and homework -- 2/5/2009

1. Before class on Monday: Engage in a blog discussion of "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning" by John Donne. How does Donne use figurative language, diction, and imagery to develop the themes in this poem? Resist the temptation to use the web as a crutch to aid in understanding -- instead, work the poem and THINK about it. Also, read chapter five on figurative language.

2. Due Wednesday: Write a two-three page analysis of Donne's use of figurative language in "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning." Be sure to read the section in your book on writing about poetry before attempting this.

3. Be prepared to dive back into your group discussions. You'll have approximately 20-30 minutes together before presenting your poem and analysis to the class.

Woodchucks

Thanks to Natalie, I did a little research and discovered that woodchuck is another name for a groundhog -- rather ironic since yesterday was groundhog (or should I say woodchuck) day. Actually, here in Portland we used a pygmy hedgehog, who predicted six more weeks of winter. It seems that our pilgrim forefathers used hedgehogs back in the old country, but since there are no hedgehogs in America, they had to adapt. By using a hedgehog, Portland is actually closer to the original British tradition (of course that tradition actually came from a Celtic pagan tradition involving a snake). Perhaps I should stop. This is all Robert Frost's fault.

Prompt and homework -- 2/3/2009

Blog prompt:  Read/work "Those Winter Sundays" 63/57/64/66.  What kind of imagery is central to the poem?  How does the imagery work to reveal the theme of the poem?

Homework:  (a)   To turn in:  Answer the questions following "To Autumn" 65/53/67/68 -- pay particular  attention to #3  (b)  Read sections I-VII -- Writing about poetry

"Pathedy of Manners" prompt 1/30

How does the diction reveal the meaning in Ellen Kay's "Pathedy of Manners"? To intelligently respond to this prompt (and why would you want to respond any other way?), you need to work the poem thoroughly first and ascertain what that "meaning" actually is.

Also, be sure to read chapter three on denotation and connotation. Two of the poems, "Naming of Parts" and "The world is too much with us", are ones we will be returning to at some point this quarter.

"Suicide's Note" -- join in the discussion prior to class Friday

Suicide's Note

The calm,
Cool face of the river
Asked me for a kiss.

--Langston Hughes

Discuss the diction, sound, personification, and tone of this poem. Explore the frame of mind that would create this comparison.

"Terence, This is Stupid Stuff" discussion

Help one another analyze Housman's poem.

Homework for 1/28

"Acquire" a copy of Perrine's Sound and Sense and bring it to class.

Get a start on Crime and Punishment. It's pretty long, so start early.

Crime and punishment is an out of copyright book, so you should easily find an acceptably translated edition online. Pevear-Volkonsky, Coulson, and Constance Garnett versions are all acceptable.

Manybooks.net
Feedbooks

Hamlet Revisions and Extra Credit

In order to received extra credit for attending theatrical performances you must turn in a 1-2 page typed review of the play and your response to it. I allow two extra-credit reviews per term, for a maximum of 20 points total.

I will be stopping by Westview on Wed. morning to pick up any Hamlet revisions I might find on my desk. Since I will have all your finals to read, I want to get through any revisions before Friday. I'll be glued to the television much of Tuesday watching inaugural events and tomorrow I will be responding to my new president's call to service, so Wednesday and Thursday are my days to grade.

Study hard for those finals!

One Acts

     I thought it would be nice if the meager amount of people who went to One Acts share their thoughts about the experience. We should try to promote the show so more people come to the next one this Friday (Jan. 23). 

     

Hard Candy gave the audience a view of certain personalities of prospective applicants to a major corporation. Ranging from old fraternity members to an "I'm-to-sexy-for-my-shirt" applicant, I got the joy of viewing the quirky ways of the hiring process in this One Act.

Terms of the Agreement was not just a play but the real deal between boys and girls. I really don't want to try to describe what goes on for fear of ruining the unexpected actions of this One Act. I just really advise people to see Terms of the Agreement. 

I'm actually planning to go back on Friday to see these One Acts again and the third One Act that couldn't go on last Friday. Does anyone know what the third One Act is titled?

Hamlet Essay Revision / The Final

Turn in your Hamlet essay revisions to Mrs. Minor's desk in lower south. Mrs. Minor will be showing up Wednesday morning to pick up any Hamlet essay revisions on her desk, so if you're planning on turning them in, please do so before then.

Remember that you need to include a copy of your un-revised essay with your revised essay. Also, you can only increase your essay score by one letter grade.

Study for the final! 45 something multiple choice questions based on the readings and authors we've had this year (Brave New World, Great Expectations, Oedipus Rex, Heart of Darkness, Hamlet, Mr. Green, Roschild's Fiddle, Cathedral), with an in class essay on one of those prompts you got handed in class. It's not your choice, it's Mrs. Minor's choice.

Just for fun, all the prompts are copied below. Preparing is acceptable and encouraged.

1; Choose a work a literature written before 1950. Write an essay in which you present arguments for and against the work's relevance for a person in 2009. Your own position should emerge in the course of youe essay. You may refer to works of literature written after 1950 for the purpose of contrast or comparison.

2; Critic Roland Barthes has said, "Literature is the question minus the answer." Choose a novel or play and, considering Barthes' observation, write an essay in which you analyze a central question the work raises and the extent to which it offers an answers. Explain how the author's treatment of this question affects your understanding of the work as a whole.

3; In some works of literature, a character who appears briefly, or does not appear at all, is a significant presence. Choose a novel or play of literary merit and write an essay in which you show such a character functions in the work. You may wish to discuss how the character affects action, theme, or the development of other characters. Avoid plot summary.

4; 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 pem 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.

5; The eighteenth-century British novelist, Sterne wrote,

No body, but he who has felt it, can concieve what a plaguing thing it is to have a man's mind torn asunder by two projects of equal strenght, both obstinately pulling in a contrary direction at the same time.

From a novel or play, choose a character (not necessarily the protagonist) whose mind is pulling in conflicting directions by two compelling desires, ambitions, obligations, or influences. Then, in a well-organized essay, identify each of the two conflicting forces and explain how this conflict within one character illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole. You may use one of the novels or plays listed below or another novel or play of similar literary quality.

6; A critic has said that one important measure of a superior work of literature is its ability to produce in the reader a healthy confusion of pleasure and disquietude. Select a literary work that produces this "healthy confusion." Write an essay in which you explain the sources of the "pleasure and disquietude" experienced by the readers of the work.

"Homework" for 1/16

Revisions for your Hamlet essay are due Friday. Remember that you can only raise your grade one letter grade, and that you get only one revision.

I wouldn't count on turning them in Tuesday until Mrs. Minor comments on this blog confirming that it's alright.

For some Extra Credit, there are those three one-act plays at Westview. 7:30 PM, 5$ paid upfront.

There is no prompt for tomorrow.

Cathedral prompt for 1/12

Raymond Carver, the author of Cathedral, wrote the following in an article about literature: "It is possible, in a poem or short story, to write about commonplace things and objects using commonplace but precise language, and to endow those things -- a chair, a window curtain, a fork, a stone, a woman's earring -- with immense, even startling, power. It is possible to write a line of seemingly innocuous dialogue and have it send a chill along the reader's spine. That's the kind of writing that most interests me."

After reading, re-reading, and annotating Cathedral (I have noticed that many of you are skipping steps two and three, i. e. you are reading but not studying), choose a passage or line to discuss that strikes you as masterfully written. Masterful writing, by the way, need not be deadly serious. Power is power, whether used in the service of humor, irony, or the pulpit. Explain your reasons for your choice and respond to the choices of your colleages.

Reminder: (1) Get a copy of Perrine's Sound & Sense: Introduction to Poetry (ed. 9, 10, 11, or 12) and bring it the first day of class after finals. (2) Get a copy of Crime and Punishment and get started -- discussion begins right after the poetry unit. (4) Have a lovely weekend!

If you have lost your copy, you may find it at: http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/instruct/cinichol/GovSchool/Cathedral2.htm

"Rothschild's Fiddle" discussion prompt 1/8

One characteristic of Chekhov's fiction is the Chekhovian Moment, the "Aha" moment when, metaphorically speaking, a light bulb comes on above a character's head and he/she recognizes an essential truth. After reading and re-reading Rothschild's Fiddle, make a decision about what you think the Chekhovian Moment is and discuss it with your colleagues.

Also, make sure your Hamlet essay is submitted to turnitin.com TODAY!

Turnitin.com is really, really accepting submissions

2009? When did that happen?

Turnitin.com is now receiving submissions

My secretary must have entered the date wrong.

Don't Count on a Snow Day to save you Tuesday

Just a reminder: Hamlet essays due Tuesday. Be sure to submit them to turnitin.com by Tuesday also.

Also -- Please re-read "Mr. Green" and the blog entries so you are ready to discuss the story. After three weeks, you need a refresher.

Finally, OPB has two interesting programs coming up: On Wed. the 7th, 9:00: Cyrano de Bergerac, with Kevin Kline in the title role; on Thursday, Jan 22 at 9:00 a 1/2 hour show on Financial Aid for college.

See you Tuesday!!