The Final Monday..

Class Reflection

1. I feel as if I've grown a lot throughout the course of this class. I feel as if my anxiety towards writing has decreased. Before I was hesitant on where to get started when I had several different options to discuss in my writing. Sure my writing still has a lot of flaws but I feel as if I am more capable to pin point a concept and focus my attention on that specifically. I will always have the problem I think to much. I always feel as if I have so much I want to say in papers and I don't know how to express all the concepts that are important for me to conceptualize.
2. I feel like the text in which I struggled with the most were the ones I enjoyed most. Everyone does hate poetry but I feel like when it's our task to sit and pull apart a small poem and try to figure out the meaning of what each line brings to the table puts a different perspective on literature. It allows you to honestly criticize the authors work and think out side the box on the common meanings of what people see at first glance at some poems. The other thing I struggled with yet some how enjoyed was Shakespeare. The text is written in what seems like jibberish anyways but when we are asked to go through and grab a concept that we enjoyed in the text and pick it apart it made me think. It allowed me to relate to the characters and grasp the true meaning of his mysterious words. The last thing I at first struggled with still ends up being my favorite were the graphic novels. There was something so complicated about reading the McCloud story, it was all too much information for me it in fact made me never want to read a graphic novel. But when we read American Born Chinese I was captivated. I finished in approximately 20 minutes. It was as if I couldn't stop reading it. I feel like when students can related to a story more, it's easier for them to engage in reading it. I hated reading The Bluest Eye, and I barely read any of it and I know Toni Morrison is a legend, it just wasn't for me. I appreciate the diversity of a graphic novel it gave a spin to having to wake up at 8am and talk about born pieces.
3. I feel like when it came to literature I never really characterized it as just a novel, with a cover and a back that was bound and sold to me at Barnes and Noble. But it was a lot of different things. It seems that now I am familiar with more types of literature that I would of never read on my own that I would consider reading again. When it came time to read Shakespeare, I remember being in the Shakespeare section at Barnes and Noble and I saw that there were several graphic novels that were done by the No Fear company that told the story of MacBeth, Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet. I believe, and I was telling my sister about how I liked graphic novels and she should considering reading one. Of course she looked at me, as all of us looked at you the first day. But I would honestly read another one if I had the choice. I think people just need to find their signature concepts they enjoy reading about. I personally enjoy reading about romance, because I suck apparently at finding it in my life. But that's a concept I enjoy. But no matter what type of genre of literature it is I will always be able to find a story about classic romance, I just need to look in the right place.
4. I personally hate speaking in front of people I don't know. But that's what this class was all about, and there were plenty of times that I had really good concepts I wanted to bring forth and it wasn't unless you called me out that I really expressed them to the class. I just feel like all we did was talk, that we were getting up at 8am and sometimes the last thing I wanted to do was talk. Occasionally I found myself struggling to get engaged because I felt like we had talked about all of this before, that we were scrounging for topics because some of the literature was repetitive. When you have early morning classes and we are driving to class in the morning sometimes when it still pitch black and we all want to go back to bed, there needs to be some spice, we can't just talk all the time. I loved the day we watched the movie. It gave a relaxing feeling. I think there needs to be more creativity, more spice, more flare. I mean maybe students can have an option of bringing in their own piece of literature that gives a sense of the same topics that relate to class. Or have students create there own panel in a comic after reading McCloud to see what the learned. And maybe all the research papers should be multi modal. I think it gave me an easier time because it was more fun to put everything i was feeling into the paper. I could pick pieces I enjoyed. I think there's a lot you can do with the class. It's just at 8am we can't always just talk because you lost us some days, especially on days with repetitive topics.
5. I think all around I am better prepared to critically analyze literature. I think the best part about this class was I was introduced to different types of literature. Many of which I enjoyed reading. I think this class gave a variety of readings that allowed me to think outside the norm and really read. Which I tend to not do, I'm in the middle of like 20 books right now... But over all I enjoy the way I think about literature now.

Classic Mistake!

In Gaiman's Dream Country, I feel as if i am left more confused that I ever was before. I feel as if Gaiman absolutely distracts and destroys the classical. For me the story leaves a sense of confusion upon me. These is a lot of mystery amongst the pages and a lot of side conversations that I can't grasp there relationship to everything else. There are bits and pieces of caption taken directly from a midsummer night's dream but this story forms around that. I personally did not reflect well upon this story. I believe it to be imaginative and I'm sure intriguing for some. But for me the story written by Shakespeare is one that can't be mangled. Shakespeare though confusing all the time wrote about something more than what this story can portray. There is a sense of beauty, light tragedy and romantic confusion in Shakespeare's a midsummer night's dream, and in Dream Country, there is a darkness, a confusion, a comedic tragedy. I don't like it one bit. Sometimes stories beginnings and ends and in betweens are to be left unsaid. The author intended for the mind to have freedom with no boundaries to limit the ability for the mind to explore. Which in a sense is what Gaiman is doing in this text. For me I, my mind goes in a different direction.

My Conference

Monday November 24 @ 11:40 - 11:50

My love, my life, my soul!

Demetrius and Helena

I dont know if im the only one but a while back there was a film released called Get Over It. This was a story about a guy who dates a girl for a long time and he tries to win her back but shes dating someone else and the girl who helps him in his attempts to win back his girlfriend falls inlove with him.. Meanwhile they are all cast member of the school play which happens to be a Midsummer's Night Dream. Funny how this works out. In tune, this is exactly like the relationship between Demetrius and Helena. Love is blind sometimes and you cant see the real truth behind things. People are willing to go to extreme measures to prove things to the one they love. In this scene there is confession of whose love is strong for Helena, Demetrius or Lysander, and the two are willing to fight to prove whom is the strong man for love.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMY4_zD27XY


Act 3 Scene 2
Lysander: Stay gentle Helena. Hear my excuse. My love, my life, my soul, fair Helena!
Helena: Oh, excellent!
Hermia: [to Lysander] Sweet, do not scorn her so.
Demetrius: If she cannot entreat, I can compel.
Lysander: Thou canst compel no more than she entreat. Thy threats have no more strength than her weak prayers. - Helen, I love thee. By my life, I do. I swear by that which I will lose for thee. To prove him false that says I love thee not.
Demetrius: [to Helena] I say I love thee more than he can do.
Lysander: If thou say so, withdraw and prove it too.

PS. We should probably watch Get Over It in class... its hilarious. People would probably relate to Shakespeare's "A Mid-Summer's Nights Dream" more after seeing this.

Best Thesis Ever!

Listen, I've got nothing...

I'll get back to you when it comes to me... it will be amazing...

... i'm planning taking a multimodal approach to a concept... i'd love to explore shakespeare but...we'll see...

In Class Persepolis vs Poetrty

With a current war going on in the middle east that the United States is actively fighting in we as Americans have to deal with many people that we know going over to Iraq and fighting for a cause. Whether or not we believe in this cause does no need to be justified. Yet we all are experiencing the same thing by having someone we care about go to war.

I personally was not involved in the war, until i began seeing a boy who was in the ROTC at Purdue when I attended. For the two years I was there we dated, though it was not a war I personally believed in and though I am not going to ever sign up to fight it he had, and it was something I had to learn to love. Though we are no longer together and he infuriates me, he is still going to have to go over and fight and I care about his safety regardless.

We are all associated to the war one way or another but how does this tie into the stories we've been reading and the poetry we've been discussing. Well in Persepolis we see a families struggle to fight in a battle that no one wants to be a part of they are fighting for a cause against the revolution. Marjane had a grandfather who was constantly imprisoned for his involvement and the mother and father protested. Marjane's father consistently put himself in danger photographing the horrific events in which occurred in her young life. Though her family knew it was dangerous and they shouldn't be fighting the cause they knew it was the right thing to do because no one should have to suffer.

Persepolis closely ties into the poetry we were reading, Yehuda Amarachi who wrote Memorial Day for the War Dead wrote "in all three languages hebrew, arabic, and death." This shows that there is a consistency around the world. Whether you were fighting a civil war, a world war or a war on terrorism. Death is the same no matter where you go, people will always die for their country and die for what the believe in. In a sense its an act of selflessness to put yourself directly in the line of danger for the common well being of others, whether people recognize this or not. It seems as if people take for granted the beauty of having the choice to fight in a war. But all people are effected by the things that are going on. And all people lose people they love.

We not only battle in actual wars but at times we as people are at war with ourselves. We fight against addiction, we fight against "the man", we fight against cancer. But most of all we consistently fight for our lives, and for some its easy, or a game. But for others life is precious, and its valuable and sacred. We take for granted all that is given to us each day, not intentionally but we are at war with ourselves most days, just to get by.

Poems

I'm happy to switch things up and have some poetry to respond on. I think that the poetry allows you to think differently about the story..