Class Notes 12/13/10 to 1/7/11

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are alive for the sole purpose of being part of the Hamlet story. Their lives are predestined. No matter what they try to to do, they will end the same way.

Tom Stoppard uses this story as an allegory to our own lives as humans, making us question if we really do control our lives or if we are just puppets like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Death of a Salesman

Arthur Miller uses nonrealistic techniques to present the play in a sporadic fashion with no discernible timeline to relate to the audience the confusion going on in Willy Loman's mind.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Outside Connections:

In the Lecture on Stoppard, it is mentioned that theater of the absurd is prevalent in today's entertainment, but is usually kept as short skits due to its absurdity. This reminded me of none other than Saturday Night Live's Digital Shorts with Andy Samberg. Though the shorts are funny, if any more length were given to them, it would immediately become weary on the viewer.

Class Notes 11/29/10 to 12/10/10

Hamlet Movies

Hamlet (1996) - directed by Kenneth Branagh

   placed the characters in a grandeur setting

   characters blond (I found this weird since I imagined them all with dark hair)

   Hamlet's character was melodramatic

   there seems to be a slight incestuous relationship hinted at between Hamlet and
   his mother

Hamlet (1948) - directed by Lawrence Oliver

   though the oldest of the three hamlet movies, it had the most risque undertones

   insinuation that Hamlet is gay

Hamlet (1980) - BBC version

   instead of placing the characters in a medieval setting, the setting was modern
   (which is exactly how Shakespeare would have had his plays performed)

   Hamlet is portrayed as childlike in comparison to his father

Class Notes 11/15/10 to 11/26/10

AP Multiple Choice Questions

Strategy #1: Know what to do

                    read very slowly and closely

                    read passage 1st

Strategy #2: Know your enemy

                   Rhetorical Function

                          asks for the purpose of something in relation to the rest of the peace

                   Context

                          identify the meaning of a word used in the context of the passage

                   Antecedent

                          asks which antecedent the quoted word is referring to

                   Style

                          asks for authors writing style

                          make sure both descriptors fit

                   Tone

                          identify the tone of the passage or a selection from the passage

                          make sure to differentiate between the speaker's tone and the 

                          author's tone

Strategy #3: Know yourself

                   Use tricks you already know for answering multiple choice

More Notes

based on Norse legend by Saxo Grammaticus in Latin (1200 AD)

      his book History of the Danes (Amleth = Hamlet)

based on Thomas Kyd's Spanish Tragedy (revenge) Ur-Hamlet

Poetics by Aristotle - tragedy is an imitation of a single unified action that is 

                                 serious, complete, and has a certain magnitude

                              - fall of good character because of hamartia = tragic flaw rather

                                than a vice

Revenge Tragedy:

      Play plot may include:

          - heroes hesitation, insanity (real or fake), contemplation of suicide, multiple 

             levels of intrigue, a scheming villain, lots of philosophical soliloquies, 

             exhibition of dead bodies or sensationalization of murder

      Dynamics of Revenge - Audience Encounters: 

          - the offense

          - the antagonist

          - clarification of strategy and marshalling or resources

          - series of delays, obstacles, diversions, mistakes

          - unforseen development that almost thwarts the scheme

          - the showdown with the revenge carried out

Revenge Tragedy also existed as "tragedy of blood"

     -  works out revenge and retribution through murder, assassination, mutilation, 

         carnage

     -  satisfies craving for morbid excitement by Elizabethan audiences

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Outside Connections:

Through learning more about Hamlet and finding out that it was not an original created by Shakespeare but rather borrowed from previous authors, I have come to realize the truth to the phrase "there is only one story". Nothing is wholly original, but rather repackaged.

Class Notes 11/8/10 to 11/12/10

~How to Write an AP Essay Thesis Statement~

Read the prompt thoroughly over and over again.

Circle and separate the individual goals the prompt requests.

Write a thesis that addresses every goal.

      (Spend around 5 minutes on writing it)

Make sure your thesis is about a theme not a subject.

     (Love is a subject

      Love sucks is a theme)

~~~~~~~~~~Outside Connections~~~~~~~~~~

All through my high school education, i was told that a thesis had to be only one sentence and that's it. Now that I know that we can actually use more than one as long as it stays focused on a point, it will be somewhat easier to write a thesis for me.

Outside Reading: Book Review due 11/15/10

11/14/10

“Hip-Hop Goes to Harvard” by Matt Labash

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704141104575588352291226856.html

Matt Labash's book review of Yale University's Press's “Anthology of Rap” is hilarious. He spends most of the review showering the book with praise heavy with sarcasm. He mainly derides the seriousness with which the book takes itself. Labash successfully discredits the book by proving his points through irony and fake sincerity.

Any reader can immediately pick up the author's mocking tone by his opening line, “Few book titles this season will cause as many involuntary titters as Yale University Press's 'Anthology of Rap.' Perhaps the 'Harvard Encyclopedia of Ridin' Dirty' or the 'Oxford Companion to Crunk' could do the same”. Diction is the main tool Labash uses to create a fake seriousness when writing about the book. For example, he refers to the editors as “Mssrs. Bradley and Dubois” and calls their book a “poetic canon”. When “defending” the artistry in rap, Labash claims “their flow, their authority, their wordplay, their verbal dexterity and pyrotechnics, are not talents easily acquired. Real craft goes into what they do. As rap legend Kool Moe Dee once rhymed: 'To say rap is not work is ludicrous / Whoever said it must be new to this.'"

Labash also uses allusions to enhance the ridiculousness of what he is stating. For example, he commends the writers for attempting to recast today's hip-hop into the “timeless poetry of tomorrow, with the 50 Cents and Lil' Kims serving as our modern Wordsworths and Dickinsons”. He even goes as far as to place lyrics like "You say, sex is good, sex is on / If it wasn't for sex you wouldn't be born / Think about it” and “The Waste Land” by T.S. Elliott on the same playing field.

At the end, Labash abandons his facade and is outright with his denouncement of the book. He refers the reader to a purposefully humorous book on dissecting rap. Labash sums up his piece with the lines “If you suspect the difference is that one is a serious book and the other an unserious one, you'd be wrong. They are both actually unserious books. It's just that only one of them knows it.”

As for the critical perspectives at work, this piece does not seem to employ any of the ones we are familiar with. This review seems to be written solely to entertain the reader and to make fun of the “pseudo-scholarship” the book takes on. This review's writing style reminds me of Stephen Colbert's “I Am America (And So Can You!)”. Both works are hilariously sarcastic and very entertaining.

Outside Reading: Editorial Column due 11/15/10

11/14/10

“Dangerous Nuclear Illusions” by Roger Cohen

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/12/opinion/12iht-edcohen.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

In Roger Cohen's “Dangerous Nuclear Illusions”, Cohen attempts to convince his readers that President Barack Obama's commitment to seek a world without nuclear weapons in his 2009 Prague speech was a big mistake. He goes on to prove why, categorizing his reasoning and addressing each assertion specifically. Yet because of some statements he makes, his argument does not come across as convincing as it could have.

Right of the bat, Cohen's tone comes of as abrasive when he writes that if the reader wants a world that brought us WWI and WWII, then “the touchy-feely “Global Zero” bandwagon is probably for you”. This upfront statement probably will rub many readers the wrong way because of the pejorative connotation of the word “bandwagon”. This comment makes Cohen seem as if he holds himself higher than the general mass to whom he is addressing and as a result, makes him less likeable.

Not long after, Cohen makes a statement that makes the reader question his reliability. He writes that Obama “should not have accepted” the Nobel Peace Prize, whose merits were “dubious”. Now it is clear that Cohen already does not hold Obama's achievements in high regard so all comments about the president made hereafter are taken with a grain of salt.

Cohen weakens his argument further when he refers to Obama's vision as “a form of utopian idealism”. He goes on to then write “Visions are nice – Marx had one of classless societies”. This completely throws off the reader because drawing a comparison between a vision of a nuclear free world and Marxism is beyond over the top. This statement alone knocks Cohen's reliability down several pegs.

Overall, the voice that Cohen developed in this piece was reasonable because of his logical approach. But it was marred by the obvious bias that he did not care to filter out of his argument. His voice also sounded slightly puffed up in the beginning, which probably alienated many readers from the get go. His argument is solid enough to convince an audience who shares the same disapproval of Obama. But as for an audience who does not hold the same view point, his argument is very ineffective.

If this piece were an AP essay, it would fare well structure wise. He backs up his assertions with proofs and whatnot. But when his tone and some comments he makes are taken into account, this piece would probably not score very high.

Outside Reading: Reflective Essay due 11/15/10

11/14/10

“An Open Letter to my Self Respect” by Cate Santilli

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/openletters/2selfrespect.html

In this reflective essay, Cate Santilli writes a letter to her self respect. The essay has a joking tone even though what she is writing is actually something that should not be funny. Santilli relates her life with brutal honestly. She does not pretend or hide what she has felt or done. This straightforward tone makes her seem very human because she is being completely open and honest about her thoughts, even if they are not the most flattering.

Santilli creates this jokey, open tone through the pretend act of writing a letter to her self respect as if it were its own entity. By personifying her self respect in this way, she removes herself from any responsibility of her actions. She places the blame on it, showing her reluctance to own up to her own decisions. She compares her sudden self-respect that came and left so quickly to a “cheap one night stand” that snuck out on her.

Usually, a reflective piece would show some insight of the writer and as a result, cause them to come to some sort of realization. In Santilli's case, she is fully aware of her lack of self respect and actively wishes it would remain absent from her life. She does not want to accept the fact that her life would be better with respect and would rather keep living her respect-less life. “I was perfectly happy degrading myself with a much younger 'friend with benefits' and reveling in my cougar-in-training status when you decided I deserved better.” This shows that she still has some maturing to do.

Santilli's essay makes the reader laugh. It seems that she uses humor as a way to deal with her life and what she has done with it. If she is not mature enough to want self respect, then it makes sense for her to write her essay in this lighthearted tone because she does not take it seriously. This tone makes the audience feel like they can relate to her because we are all human and make mistakes even when we know we are doing it. The last line of her letter sums up her essay perfectly. “Self Respect, I've managed without you so far and have only made questionable—rather than disastrous—life choices as my usual shameless self. So, like the rain, please go away, but do not come again another day.”

If this essay was submitted as an AP essay, it would probably score very low. This is because the language is too informal to score well. Also, it is written in rant-form instead of it being structured and well organized.