Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Friday, May 6, 2011
FB Analysis
Let’s continue to focus on analysis…but let’s analyze something near and dear to many hearts: FB. I want you to spend some time on FB (and if you don’t have an account, ask to look around on someone else’s page). We just read 1984 and the NYTimes article on “Little Brother.” With these in mind, analyze FB. You can focus on status updates, one person’s profile, or the structure of the site as a whole. But the point is to think critically (as in analytically not negatively) about this crazily popular social networking site and what its contents say about our own society.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Storm Coverage
I want you to read up on the local, regional, and national coverage of last week’s storms. Get a sense of the tone, focus, and purpose of several different articles (make sure to read articles from different publications). Then I want you to blog about your observations of this coverage. You can in whatever direction you want, but your goal is to ANALYZE (aka argue with support) the media coverage of this most recent event. Try to help us see the past few days from a different or more thoughtful angle.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
1984: Cool Stuff
Awesome NYTimes Materials on 1984 (Scroll down to see lots of links and articles on 1984)
Monday, April 18, 2011
1984 Paper Topic (Due 4/20)
Topic: Analyze Winston. I know: this is BROAD. OPEN-ENDED. To get an A, you need to teach me something. You need to argue something about this character that makes me think about him beyond what I know simply from reading. You need to stay focused, take a stand, and show how your interpretation of Winston is supported by the text. Terrible sample thesis: Winston wants to rebel against the Party (duh). Good sample thesis: Winston is smart but not keen. Awesome sample thesis: Winston thinks he is secretely deceiving the Party but in actuality he is deceiving only himself. Here are the tips I sent you via email on Friday: 1. You must have a clear thesis stated early in the paper. Please write this sentence clearly and concisely. Be intentional with your diction. 2. You must include argumentative topic sentences in every body paragraph. These TS should support the overall thesis. 3. You must include direct and specific quotations from the text to support your points. 4. You must closely analyze the wording and syntax of those quotations. Summary has no place in analysis. 5. Quotes must support a point. If they are included to provide context or summary, you have gotten distracted and need to refocus on your TS. 6. Eliminate unnecessary words. 7. Make sure (and triple check) that you aren't making any of the technical errors we reviewed weeks ago. And my notes from Saturday: 1. These are analytical papers. Do not summarize the text. 2. You must closely analyze the text in these papers. This requires the inclusion of multiple textual quotations in your papers. 3. Your ultimate goal in these papers is to teach the educated reader something. You need to argue a point and prove it with close analysis of the text. 4. Your paper must include a title, introductory paragraph, and conclusion. 5. From now on, papers must be one page, single-spaced. Double-spaced papers are simply underdeveloped and terse. Pack as much argument and support into that one page as you can. These should be tightly written. If I were you, I would write two pages single-space and then condense it down into one page. I expect a LOT of content. You are so close to the end, Team. Finish well.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Books. Glorious.
For one that I am excited about discovering with you, click here.
Katie mentioned texts about WWI or WWII. Here's a new one that has received a lot of critical acclaim.
Texts That You Wanted To Read:
The Shack (2)
One Flew Over Cuckoo's Nest
Fahrenheit 451
The Kite Runner
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Hobbit
Narnia
The Divine Comedy
The Lovely Bones
One Flew Over Cuckoo's Nest
Slaughterhouse 5
Catch-22
Nine Stories
A Clockwork Orange
The King's Speech
Siddhartha
Wuthering Heights
Little Women
Of Mice and Men
Moby Dick
Recommended Texts/Authors:
The Scarlet Letter
Oscar Wilde
Mark Twain
Flannery O'Connor
J. D. Salinger/Franny and Zooey
Edgar Allen Poe
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Ken Kesey
Percy Jackson series
Jane Austen
The Lovely Bones
Elsewhere
Looking for Alaska
Siddhartha (2)
Go Ask Alice
George Orwell
Stephen Chbosky
John Green
Briar Rose
Robin McKinley
The Catcher in the Rye
To Kill a Mockingbird
Tamora Pierce / Beha Cooper: Terrier
Jane Austen
Lord of the Flies
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Angela's Ashes
The Shack
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
HT: The END
1. Who turned her in?
2. Fill in the blank: The conclusion is ________________.
3. What is the worst part of Gilead?
4. When did you know Offred was done for?
5. Fill in the blank: Offred is ____________________.
6. What is the most powerful line in this novel?
Hehe...you can do it!
2. Fill in the blank: The conclusion is ________________.
3. What is the worst part of Gilead?
4. When did you know Offred was done for?
5. Fill in the blank: Offred is ____________________.
6. What is the most powerful line in this novel?
Hehe...you can do it!
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
The Handmaid's Tale: Ch. 31-35
As I mentioned in class, your challenge tonight is to predict Offred's fate. Is her increasing bravado going to be her saving grace--or her downfall? Will she make it out of this regime alive? Will she thrive? What is going to happen to Offred??
The key here is to ground your prediction in textual evidence. Last night's reading provides lots of little clues--for both sides. Focus in on some key passages/words that you feel like are deliberately preparing us for the end of this novel.
The key here is to ground your prediction in textual evidence. Last night's reading provides lots of little clues--for both sides. Focus in on some key passages/words that you feel like are deliberately preparing us for the end of this novel.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
NYTimes Editorial: The War on Women
This is a political editorial for sure, but it is also the most popular article on NYTimes.com right now...thought it was appropriate for what we have been reading and discussing lately...
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
The Handmaid's Tale Analysis
Okay, team, the key to this post is saying something ARGUABLE and supporting your argument with evidence from the text (because that is what analysis is, after all: a supported argument).
Try to teach us something. Get specific with your argument and support. Help us see this novel in a new way.
You have several options. Choose one of the following:
1. In her book review, Mary McCarthy asserts that "characterization in general is weak in The Handmaid's Tale. Do you agree or disagree? Follow up your general answer with a specific characterization of a character of your choice in the novel. Help us see that character more closely and analytically.
2. We talked today in class about whether this novel is an effective dystopian text. What is your specific opinion on this and why? If you answer this one, you must go beyond the chart we generated in class.
3. There are many themes explored in this novel. Choose a theme and argue what this novel says about it. If you choose this one, don't even think about reading Sparknotes for ideas; I want YOUR critical thinking and insight.
4. What is the purpose/power of the way this novel is written? You can analyze Atwood's writing style or the novel's organization or its point of view...lots of options here.
Make sure to read everyone else's posts before coming to class tomorrow. Please also come with a hard copy of both this post and your previous post (background research on global attitudes towards women). Thanks.
Try to teach us something. Get specific with your argument and support. Help us see this novel in a new way.
You have several options. Choose one of the following:
1. In her book review, Mary McCarthy asserts that "characterization in general is weak in The Handmaid's Tale. Do you agree or disagree? Follow up your general answer with a specific characterization of a character of your choice in the novel. Help us see that character more closely and analytically.
2. We talked today in class about whether this novel is an effective dystopian text. What is your specific opinion on this and why? If you answer this one, you must go beyond the chart we generated in class.
3. There are many themes explored in this novel. Choose a theme and argue what this novel says about it. If you choose this one, don't even think about reading Sparknotes for ideas; I want YOUR critical thinking and insight.
4. What is the purpose/power of the way this novel is written? You can analyze Atwood's writing style or the novel's organization or its point of view...lots of options here.
Make sure to read everyone else's posts before coming to class tomorrow. Please also come with a hard copy of both this post and your previous post (background research on global attitudes towards women). Thanks.
Monday, February 7, 2011
An Interview with Margaret Atwood
An Interview with Margaret Atwood on The Handmaid's Tale.
Q: Was there any special research involved in writing The Handmaid's Tale?
A: I clipped articles out of newspapers. I now have a large clippings file of stories supporting the contentions in the book. In other words, there isn't anything in the book not based on something that has already happened in history or in another country, or for which actual supporting documentation is not already available.
Q: It's hard to pin down a genre for this novel. Is it science fiction?
A: No, it certainly isn't science fiction. Science fiction is filled with Martians and space travel to other planets, and things like that. That isn't this book at all. The Handmaid's Tale is speculative fiction in the genre of Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four. Nineteen Eighty-Four was written not as science fiction but as an extrapolation of life in 1948. So, too, The Handmaid's Tale is a slight twist on the society we have now.
Q: You seem to see a role for the novel beyond entertainment.
A: I was once a graduate student in Victorian literature and I believe as the Victorian novelists did, that a novel isn't simply a vehicle for private expression, but that it also exists for social examination. I firmly believe this.
Q: What are we to learn from The Handmaid's Tale?
A: This is a book about what happens when certain casually held attitudes about women are taken to their logical conclusions. For example, I explore a number of conservative opinions still held by many--such as a woman's place is in the home. And also certain feminist pronouncements--women prefer the company of other women, for example. Take these beliefs to their logical ends and see what happens. As a writer, you can chose to create a mainstream novel in which these issues appear only as the characters discuss them sitting around the kitchen table. But I decided to take these positions and dramatize them, carry them to their furthest logical conclusions.
Q: How would the creation of your imagined republic of Gilead be possible?
A: First of all, ask yourself the following question: If you were going to take over the United States, how would you do it? Would you say, "I'm a socialist and we're all going to be equal"? No, you would not, because it wouldn't work. Would you say, "I'm a liberal and we are going to have a society of multiple toleration"? You probably wouldn't say that if you wanted mass support. You would be much more likely to say, "I have the word from God and this is the way we should run things." That probably would have more of a chance of working, and in fact there are a number of movements in the States saying just that, and getting lots of dollars and influence. The society in The Handmaid's Tale is a throwback to the early Puritans whom I studied extensively at Harvard under Perry Miller, to whom the book is dedicated. The early Puritans came to America not for religious freedom, as we were taught in grade school, but to set up a society that would be a theocracy (like Iran) ruled by religious leaders, and monolithic, that is, a society that would not tolerate dissent within itself. They were being persecuted in England for being Puritans, but then they went to the United States and promptly began persecuting anyone who wasn't a Puritan. My book reflects the form and style of the early Puritan society and addresses the dynamics that bring about such a situation.
Q: Why the intense focus on fertility in Gilead?
A: In a society in which the birthrate plummets below replacement, that body of people will be forced to determine whether or not it will simply slide gently into oblivion and vanish from the face of the earth. (One theory is there that will be no Germans by the year 2020 because their birthrate is so low; Germany is going to be Turkish.) Scandinavian countries are now below replacement, as is Romania. What does a society do at this point? Either it accepts the situation or it puts into existence conditions that will increase the number of births.
Q: So in Gilead this process is taken to what you see as a logical conclusion?
A: Yes. It is a society in which you have a sort of "farming" of women. Parallel to that, you have to realize that male sterility is on the increase and so are spontaneous miscarriages and birth defects. How could this be? It's because we are pouring about 300,000 different chemicals into our water and drinking it. Plus, of course, there's a great deal of radiation. They've found PCBs in polar bears and they are worried about the future of the polar bear species because PCBs build up in their systems and produce male sterility. So fertility in Gilead is at a premium. Fertile women, women who can reproduce, are prize objects for those in power. And as is the case in which prize objects are Cadillacs and you want to have as many Cadillacs as you possibly can, so too when the prize objects are fertile women, then you want to have as many fertile women as possible. Thus in Gilead we return to biblical polygamy.
Q: Are there some good things about Gilead?
A: Yes. women aren't whistled at on the street, men don't come climbing in the window in the middle of the night. Women are "protected." Sardonically speaking, in totalitarian countries the streets are much safer, for the most part.
Q: It seems that within this frightening world, certain parts of the feminist revolution have survived. Is that true?
A: No power structure can institute total serfdom (unless they kill off most of the people) without giving a few "perks." If you were to go back and study what the Germans did during World War II, you would see that what they did was move into another country and find a group of people willing to help them out. They would develop a little army of Ukrainians in Ukraine, Poles in Poland, etc. Any imperial power does the same thing; the British in India developed terrific regiments made up of Indians. And so, in Gilead, we have troops of women.
Q: But wouldn't there be violent resistance against a system such as Gilead?
A: Yes, of course we would have resistance. After all, this is United States and it is North America and it is a pluralistic society and we have many people with differing points of view. A number of people would not take this lying down.
Q: The way the reader comes into The Handmaid's Tale is through a diary or a journal, memories rescued and viewed from a time in the future. The curtain is drawn back slowly. Why did you choose to write it that way?
A: What I've written is only the view of one woman who lives in that society. I reveal Gilead through the eyes of that one woman. It would be cheating to show the reader more than the character has access to. Her information is limited. In fact, her lack of information is part of the nightmare.
Q: We can figure out that the main character lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As a Canadian, can you explain why Canada didn't take more people in who were trying to escape from Gilead in their "underground railroad"?
A: Canada's role in this novel is the role Canada has always taken in bad times in the States. Before the Civil War, Canada was at the top of the underground railroad. If you made it into Canada, you were safe unless someone came and hauled you back. That was also true during the Vietnam War for draft resisters. For the most part, if a resister did make it to Canada, he was safe--but there were some Canadians who did collaborate in hauling people back across the border. So Canada's position would be to do what she always does: try to remain neutral without antagonizing the superpower to the south.
Q: Was there any special research involved in writing The Handmaid's Tale?
A: I clipped articles out of newspapers. I now have a large clippings file of stories supporting the contentions in the book. In other words, there isn't anything in the book not based on something that has already happened in history or in another country, or for which actual supporting documentation is not already available.
Q: It's hard to pin down a genre for this novel. Is it science fiction?
A: No, it certainly isn't science fiction. Science fiction is filled with Martians and space travel to other planets, and things like that. That isn't this book at all. The Handmaid's Tale is speculative fiction in the genre of Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four. Nineteen Eighty-Four was written not as science fiction but as an extrapolation of life in 1948. So, too, The Handmaid's Tale is a slight twist on the society we have now.
Q: You seem to see a role for the novel beyond entertainment.
A: I was once a graduate student in Victorian literature and I believe as the Victorian novelists did, that a novel isn't simply a vehicle for private expression, but that it also exists for social examination. I firmly believe this.
Q: What are we to learn from The Handmaid's Tale?
A: This is a book about what happens when certain casually held attitudes about women are taken to their logical conclusions. For example, I explore a number of conservative opinions still held by many--such as a woman's place is in the home. And also certain feminist pronouncements--women prefer the company of other women, for example. Take these beliefs to their logical ends and see what happens. As a writer, you can chose to create a mainstream novel in which these issues appear only as the characters discuss them sitting around the kitchen table. But I decided to take these positions and dramatize them, carry them to their furthest logical conclusions.
Q: How would the creation of your imagined republic of Gilead be possible?
A: First of all, ask yourself the following question: If you were going to take over the United States, how would you do it? Would you say, "I'm a socialist and we're all going to be equal"? No, you would not, because it wouldn't work. Would you say, "I'm a liberal and we are going to have a society of multiple toleration"? You probably wouldn't say that if you wanted mass support. You would be much more likely to say, "I have the word from God and this is the way we should run things." That probably would have more of a chance of working, and in fact there are a number of movements in the States saying just that, and getting lots of dollars and influence. The society in The Handmaid's Tale is a throwback to the early Puritans whom I studied extensively at Harvard under Perry Miller, to whom the book is dedicated. The early Puritans came to America not for religious freedom, as we were taught in grade school, but to set up a society that would be a theocracy (like Iran) ruled by religious leaders, and monolithic, that is, a society that would not tolerate dissent within itself. They were being persecuted in England for being Puritans, but then they went to the United States and promptly began persecuting anyone who wasn't a Puritan. My book reflects the form and style of the early Puritan society and addresses the dynamics that bring about such a situation.
Q: Why the intense focus on fertility in Gilead?
A: In a society in which the birthrate plummets below replacement, that body of people will be forced to determine whether or not it will simply slide gently into oblivion and vanish from the face of the earth. (One theory is there that will be no Germans by the year 2020 because their birthrate is so low; Germany is going to be Turkish.) Scandinavian countries are now below replacement, as is Romania. What does a society do at this point? Either it accepts the situation or it puts into existence conditions that will increase the number of births.
Q: So in Gilead this process is taken to what you see as a logical conclusion?
A: Yes. It is a society in which you have a sort of "farming" of women. Parallel to that, you have to realize that male sterility is on the increase and so are spontaneous miscarriages and birth defects. How could this be? It's because we are pouring about 300,000 different chemicals into our water and drinking it. Plus, of course, there's a great deal of radiation. They've found PCBs in polar bears and they are worried about the future of the polar bear species because PCBs build up in their systems and produce male sterility. So fertility in Gilead is at a premium. Fertile women, women who can reproduce, are prize objects for those in power. And as is the case in which prize objects are Cadillacs and you want to have as many Cadillacs as you possibly can, so too when the prize objects are fertile women, then you want to have as many fertile women as possible. Thus in Gilead we return to biblical polygamy.
Q: Are there some good things about Gilead?
A: Yes. women aren't whistled at on the street, men don't come climbing in the window in the middle of the night. Women are "protected." Sardonically speaking, in totalitarian countries the streets are much safer, for the most part.
Q: It seems that within this frightening world, certain parts of the feminist revolution have survived. Is that true?
A: No power structure can institute total serfdom (unless they kill off most of the people) without giving a few "perks." If you were to go back and study what the Germans did during World War II, you would see that what they did was move into another country and find a group of people willing to help them out. They would develop a little army of Ukrainians in Ukraine, Poles in Poland, etc. Any imperial power does the same thing; the British in India developed terrific regiments made up of Indians. And so, in Gilead, we have troops of women.
Q: But wouldn't there be violent resistance against a system such as Gilead?
A: Yes, of course we would have resistance. After all, this is United States and it is North America and it is a pluralistic society and we have many people with differing points of view. A number of people would not take this lying down.
Q: The way the reader comes into The Handmaid's Tale is through a diary or a journal, memories rescued and viewed from a time in the future. The curtain is drawn back slowly. Why did you choose to write it that way?
A: What I've written is only the view of one woman who lives in that society. I reveal Gilead through the eyes of that one woman. It would be cheating to show the reader more than the character has access to. Her information is limited. In fact, her lack of information is part of the nightmare.
Q: We can figure out that the main character lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As a Canadian, can you explain why Canada didn't take more people in who were trying to escape from Gilead in their "underground railroad"?
A: Canada's role in this novel is the role Canada has always taken in bad times in the States. Before the Civil War, Canada was at the top of the underground railroad. If you made it into Canada, you were safe unless someone came and hauled you back. That was also true during the Vietnam War for draft resisters. For the most part, if a resister did make it to Canada, he was safe--but there were some Canadians who did collaborate in hauling people back across the border. So Canada's position would be to do what she always does: try to remain neutral without antagonizing the superpower to the south.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Global Snapshot of Women (The Handmaid's Tale)
Step 1: Read and annotate Ch. 1 "Night" (Yes, it is a mere 1+ page long.)
You all will quickly realize that The Handmaid's Tale is a satire. It wasn't published in a vacuum; rather, it was published with a purpose and in a context. But is it still relevant today, 25 years post-publication?
Step 2: Listen to this interview with Margaret Atwood.
Step 3: In an effort to get an answer to the above question and explore more of what Atwood references in this interview, I would like for each of you to research and compose a brief report on the state of women somewhere in the world. Choose a place; tell us about the rights and lives of women there.
Two requests:
1. You can't post about a place that someone else has already posted on. Make sure you read the previous posts before you begin your response.
2. Include your source(s) in MLA format at the end of your response. Don't worry about parenthetical citations, though.
Be thoughtful. Be accurate. Be specific. Be thorough. Be current.
General length: 1-2 well-developed paragraphs
Value: 20 points.
I look forward to your findings. See you Wednesday.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
The Taming of the Shrew
What is your response to Kate's final speech of the play?
Aim for 2 good paragraphs--and the more close reading, the better.
Don't forget to read your classmates' posts before you post your own.
Aim for 2 good paragraphs--and the more close reading, the better.
Don't forget to read your classmates' posts before you post your own.
Monday, January 10, 2011
The Taming of the Shrew: Act 2
A lot happens in Act 2. We hear a lot more from Kate, two marriages are arranged, disguises are played out in supposed success, and words are used as weapons over and over and over again. Something should have piqued your interest.
In this space, post a response to your reading. You may choose what you address, but I want you to push yourself to analyze the text closely. Therefore, your response needs to include at least one direct reference to the text, complete with citations. Excellent responses will probably include more than one direct reference.
Try to teach us something about this section of the play. Draw some conclusions, make us think, challenge us to argue with you. Whatever you do, don't summarize the plot.
Responses should be a thoughtful, well-developed paragraph. Shoot for at least 8 sentences.
I look forward to hearing what you have to say about your reading. See you whenever the roads are clear!
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