Outside Reading: Book Review 5 (LAST ONE EVER!!!) ;)

My Korean Deli

By Ben Ryder Howe

Review published 3/18/11

Review by Matthew Tiffany

http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Reviews-Essays/My-Korean-Deli/ba-p/4491

While reviewing this powerful memoir by Ben Ryder Howe, Matthew Tiffany not only summarizes some of the main events in the My Korean Deli, but he also delves into some of the cultural stereotypes and differences with tactful diction and a hint of a Marxist critical perspective.

Tiffany’s usually repetitive syntax typically bores the reader into a mind-numbing sense of monotony; however, when Tiffany begins his fourth paragraph with the sentence, “And so on,” the audience knows that we are in store for a dramatic change in the nature of this piece. The change is this: prior to the fourth paragraph, Tiffany does an accurate job of depicting the literary merit and interesting plot developments. After this sentence, the audience is given a chance to experience the novel in with more literary insight, such as when Tiffany writes, “Howe doesn't shy away from thorny issues of cultural differences—the double challenge of working out of your element for somebody with an entirely different approach to labor while simultaneously working for your mother-in-law gets an ample share of ink.”

The imagery that Tiffany employs is at times helpful, and at others distracting. For example, when Tiffany writes in the first paragraph, “An especially clever writer can bury all sorts of subtexts in the narrative, wringing meaning and laughs out of situations limited only by his imagination and his taste for absurdity.” Unbelievably enough, only three sentences earlier and only two sentences into the piece, Tiffany tries, and ultimately fails, to make a conclusive thought. The reader is left with this muddled excuse of an image, “A talented orchestral musician might struggle as a military fighter pilot; a gifted lawyer might find managing a fleet of long-haul truckers overwhelming.” Although the audience can see what he was trying to achieve, he spends too much time focusing on this analogy rather than the novel itself.

Details seem to come fairly naturally to our reviewer: he employs them when he needs to cushion his piece. For example, he uses the word “Concoction” a few times to stress the, “light and airy [treatment] of matters that a lesser writer might have approached with a heavy hand.” Tiffany utilizes a bit of alliteration in his closing thoughts to address the small, yet important, detail that, “If it's a cliché to call this a heartwarming tale of redemption, that cliché exists on the strength of books like this one.”

This novel reminds me of The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. In her novel, the main female characters suffered and described the stereotyping that they had to suffer through in order to adjust to the changes in American and Asian culture.

Outside Reading: Reflective Essay 5

Holidays on Ice

David Sedaris

“Front Row Center with Thaddeus Bristol”

Pg. 93- pg. 99

3/21/11

In one of his eloquently written short comedic holiday tales, David Sedaris yet again serves the reader a cup of good cheer. He begins his story with the sentence, “The approach of Christmas signifies three things: bad movies, unforgivable television, and even worse theater” (93). For the remaining pages, Sedaris cites three examples of inexperienced thespians at local elementary and middle schools.

The witty details that Sedaris brings to the table add another level of intelligence to the already humorous story he unfolds. When discussing the Sacred Heart Elementary’s production of “The Story of the First Christmas,” he mentions that the “third-grade actors graced the stage with an enthusiasm most children reserve for a small-pox vaccination.” He later adds that in this production, “one particularly insufficient wise man proclaimed, ‘A child is bored.’ Yes, well, so was this adult.” While introducing “A Reindeer’s Gift” from Scottsfield Elementary, he goes on for a (lengthy) paragraph explaining in great detail the ‘dramatic’ plot developments that take place.

Continuing to spin his web of amusement, Sedaris uses vivid imagery to give the audience the chance to participate in such theatrical monstrosities. He mentions, while ending his bit about “A Reindeer’s Gift,” a student actor “Kevin ‘Tubby’ Matchwell, the eleven-year-old porker who tackled the role of Santa with a beguiling authenticity.” One can clearly see “Tubby” fulfilling his role when Sedaris writes, “The false beard tended to muffle his speech, but they could hear his chafing thighs all the way to the North Pole.

Sedaris’ overall sarcastic tone is the result of his precise diction: he makes sure to choose words that the audience will both understand and enjoy. Sedaris chooses such phrases and words as “eliciting screams of mercy,” “excommunicated,” and “zombies staggering back and forth” to bring forth feelings of amusement, slight annoyance, and most importantly, understanding for the situations he was put in. Such phrases and words as these create a certain mood that Sedaris continues with his literary tone throughout the piece. The audience catches on to this mood after only the first couple paragraphs and hangs on to it until the end of the story.

Although I would thoroughly enjoy reading and responding to any of Sedaris’ work on an AP Test, frankly, none of his acclaimed pieces would fulfill AP guidelines. His snarky tone amuses me to no end, but however much I may enjoy his work, I doubt that the AP readers would enjoy reading my almost-as-snarky essay analysis.

Outside Reading: Editorial 5

“The U.C.L.A. Video”

Author Unnamed

New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/opinion/18fri2.html?_r=2&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Published 3/17/11

The unnamed author in “The U.C.L.A. Video,” from the New York Times, uses a partially factual voice with scraps of personality thrown in, too. The creator of this video, Alexandra Wallace, both vented and mocked the situation in question: some Asian students at U.C.L.A. were calling their families in Japan to check on them after the tsunami. The author shows their frustration at the prominent racist beliefs of the video’s creator, but also notes that she has the right, “no matter how obnoxious,” to voice these beliefs that are protected by the First Amendment.

The author uses both colloquial and elevated language separately to address the issues of racism and constitutionality, respectively. The author goes quickly from one kind of language to the other. In one paragraph, the author speaks of whether the video is protected by the constitution. The author writes, while citing an earlier reference to a ‘First Amendment Scholar at U.C.L.A., “A purpose of the American university, he said, is to debate major decisions about social and other policies — to build consensus and the foundations of community.” In the next immediate paragraph, the author almost completely changes their style of language while addressing the racism showed in the video, saying, “Her most offensive words — said while mimicking people speaking an Asian language — sound like an ethnic slur, but it would be hard to argue that they were threatening.”

The diction used is meant to deliver a clear message to the reader. Words like “victimizing,” “offensive,” and “threatening” are meant to evoke a certain feeling of cultural disgust towards Wallace, and the author makes sure that we feel the same way as them by the end.

The author also employs specific and horrifying details to further convince the reading audience of his/her beliefs. The author supports their beliefs about the video’s constitutionality by citing Eugene Volokh and even goes so far as to inform the audience of U.C.L.A’s Principles of Community. These details help add to the author’s voice by giving the audience a chance to put all of the information gained into both a specific and broad context.

Although this piece is well researched and well written, it would not serve well as an AP essay. The author cites their opinion much too often (which is expected, seeing as how it is and editorial) to be a quality AP piece.

Class Notes (3/7 - 3/18)

3/14- 3/16 was spent watching the "quality" Bollywood film, Bride and Prejudice. We finished out 3/17 and 3/18 reading Camus' L'Étranger.

Modernism:

• Many people (and writers and artists) were disillusioned after WWI
• Expatriates were moving to France
• Cri de couer (which means "Cry of the heart): aka, "Make it new"
• The "Lost Generation" term was created by Gertrude Stein; it was used to refer to the generation that "came of age" during WWI
• New narrative techniques resulted: unreliable narrators, multiple narrators, minor characters (as 1st person narrators), nonlinear narratives, and stream of consciousness

Outside Connection: The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a Modernist text. (It is also one of my favorite novels! )

Post Modernism:

• The birth of TV shows that all truth is local
• There is no "one truth!"
• The ingenious formula for Post Modernism: modernism + irony
• High and low culture is mixing is a result of Post Mod.
• The Simulacrum: a world where a flawed copy has replaced reality; idea by Jean Baudrillard; Ex: Nuclear weapons as a useable weapon (we create them, but never intend to use them)
• self-reference: people in a mediated world can manifest themselves in other places
• The picture below, taken from Wikipedia, shows a dragon that continuously consumes itself; it represents self-reference

Outside Connection: The French Lieutenant's Woman, by John Fowles, is an example of a Post-Modern text. It especially follows the idea of there not being "one truth" because Fowles gives the audience THREE different endings for the book!

Surrealism:

• defined as a movement of the arts, whether it be dramatic, literary, musical or visual, between WWI and WWII
• Surrealism uses "unexpected juxtaposition" through methods that intend to activate our subconscious associations; these focus on truths that are hidden from us when we are in logical and linear patterns of thought
• sometimes illogical, dream-like, and playful
• Freud and Jung's work influenced it
• uses the differences between images and words, decided by psychological attempts to merge the worlds of fantasy and dreams to reality; the goal is to create a "surreality," a larger and more meaninful reality

Outside Connection:

The famous piece of art, The Persistence of Memory, by Salvador Dalí is an example of one of his many Surrealist works. It has a prominent dream-like quality to it.

Class Notes (2/21-3/4)

After members of our class chose to read either Pride and Prejudice or Huck Finn, we have been discussing our book in our respective groups. This has included a few conversations of intermingling.
In the P&P group, we discussed:

• how the plot was comedic (Frye v. 6 elements of humor)
• how the characters were comedic (Frye v. 6 elements of humor)
• how the language was comedic (Frye v. 6 elements of humor)

To see notes on Frye, click here.

Notes on Comedy (From "Theories of Humor and Comedy")

There are SIX elements required for something to be humorous:

1. must appeal to the intellect rather than the emotions
2. must be mechanical
3. must be inherently human, reminding us of humanity
4. must be a set of established social norms with which the observer is familiar, either through everyday life or through the author providing it in expository material
5. the situation and its component parts must be inconsistent or unsuitable to the surroundings (ex: societal norms)
6. must be perceived by the observer as harmless or painless to the participants

• we often laught at people b/c they have some failing or defect, or suffer some small misfortune
• some stock figures of comedy: miser, glutton, drunkard
• some mistakes: incorrect answers, faulty pronunciation, bad grammar
• Superiority Theory: the pleasure we take in humor is from our feeling superior over those we laugh at; all humor is derisive; we need not be directly conscious of our superiority
• criticism for Superiority Theory: its is too narrow to cover every type of humor
• comedy is based on incongruity (see more after bullet points)
• for a comedy to work there must be an established set of cultural, human and societal norms, mores, idoms, idosyncrasies, and terminologies against which incongruities may be found
• Plays and jokes can go out-of-date
• The greatest incongruity is violating social taboos, the greates are 1) Sex, 2) Death, and 3) Biological Functions
• A pun is the weakest form of wit (purely verbal connection)
• Humor is more penetrating (real connection between two things normally regarded with quite different attitudes; or forces on us a compete reversal of values)
• many writers on humor have refused to accept the wide-held view that humorous incongruity must necessarily consist in degrading something exalted by bringing it into contact with something trivial or disreputable
• Relief Theory: affording us relief from the restraint of conforming to those requirements; the feeling of relief that comes from the removal of restraint

Three aspects of incongruity:

1. Literalization: when the joke comes form taking a figure of speech and performing it literaly
2. Reversal: reversing the normal, taking what is normal and expected and doing or saying the opposite
3. Exaggeration: taking what is normal and blowing it out of proportion

Some Important People:
Arthur Schopenhauer: all humor can be "traced to a syllogism in the first figure with an undisputed major and an unexpected minor, which to a certain extent is only sophistically [based on false logic] valid."
Thomas Hobbes: believed that the pleasure we take in humor derives from our feeling of superiority over those we laugh at; Superiority Theory
Alexander Bain: all humor involves the degradation of something; we need not be directly conscious of our own superiority; it need not be a person that is derided: it can be an idea, political institution, or anything that makes a claim to dignity or respect
Henri Bergson: comedy must be elastic, and adaptable; comedy is inherently human; laughter is society's defense against the eccentric who refuses to adjust to its requirements
Immanuel Kant: humor arises from the sudden transformation of a strained expectation into nothing; "frustrated expectation"
Herbert Spencer: all humor can be explained as "descending incongruity"; laughter is an overflow of nervous energy
Sigmund Freud: humor is outwitting the "censor" (internal inhibitions which prevent us from giving into many natural impulses); this includes both superego impulses (sexual) and malicious impluses; he finds many similarities b/w the techniques of humor and the ways in which our waking thoughts are distorted into dreams

See "Types of Comedy" Handout for complete definitions of common Comedy terms.

We also analyzed an excerpt from "The Other Paris," by Mavis Gallant, in terms of comedy.

Outside Reading: Reflective Essay 4

February 21, 2011

From The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell; published 2002

Essay: “Tom Landry, Existentialist, Dead at 75”

Pg 177-180

As per her usual, Sarah Vowell exhibits an almost uniformly sarcastic tone throughout her essay “Tom Landry, Existentialist, Dead at 75.” However, unlike her other essays, Vowell shows the audience her, often unrevealed, emotional side. Vowell discusses in this brief essay that Tom Landry, the former Dallas Cowboys head coach, was more than just a coach and a family man. To Vowell, he was one of the few people who truly understood life.

Vowell’s complex use of diction never fails to completely amuse and reach out to the reader. Vowell uses repetition near the end of her essay to push her point that Landry was a great person who knew what life was really about. She writes, “In the comic, Landry… looked back on his youth. He said that as a player he won games. He said that he fell in love, got married, had children, became a coach. And then, he said the thing that shocked me. He said that despite the wins, the love, the success, the family, he said that something was missing.”

From the above quotation, one can also note the syntax used by Vowell. When she writes, “He said that he fell in love, got married, had children, became a coach,” Vowell uses syntax that makes the reader push through the sentence with anticipation for what is to come. In the three closing lines of her essay, Vowell also uses short sentences for emphasis: “And to die. Rest in peace, Tom Landry. Something is missing and it’s you.”

Though Vowell’s tone often frightens me a bit as a reader, her quirky details add a layer of wittiness that should not be left out. We as the reader are allowed a brief glimpse into her life, and with sentences like, “My Pentecostal youth was awash in salvation testimonials that consistently backfired,” the reader cannot resist the charming nature of her essays.

Class Notes: (2/7-2/18)

During this period we have mostly been watching the film Apocalypse Now. This film is based on the novella Heart of Darkness and is set in Vietnam during the war.
In-class Discussion on 2/8/11

Types of Women in HOD:

• Maiden: An innocent, younger woman who needs to be protected (The "Intended")
• Mother: Caring figure who yields some power (Marlow's Aunt)
• Crone: Old ladies with strange and other-worldly wisdom (The knitters)

The Knitters And The Woman Who Discusses The Journey:

• symbolize the three fates who spin black wool
• The other woman tells Marlow of events to come
• In literal terms, the company controls Marlow's fate?

African "Mistress":

• Overwhelming presence
• no solid textual evidence that she is Kurtz's mistress
• So why is she so familiar with Kurtz? Either she defends her people and the ivory OR she is accustomed to going in and out of Kurtz's house.
• Her ornaments make her seem like a god, worshipped
• Personified Spirit of the Land
• ANIMA

Russian:

• Wears motley
• Holy fool
• Like Joseph (Coat of many colors) who works for the pharoh (Kurtz?)

Other HOD info:

• Kurtz's relationship with the African Woman tells the dynamic with his relationship with the Congo

Outside Reading: Editorial 4

February 21, 2011

No named author

“GPA isn’t the mark of a well-spent education”

Editorial from The State News

http://www.statenews.com/index.php/article/2011/02/gpa_isnt_the_mark_of_a_wellspent_education

Though the author of this forward editorial from The State News is unnamed, it is easy to understand the frustration in this piece entitled, “GPA isn’t the mark of a well-spent education.” In the length of this article, the author guides the reader into understanding the supposedly unfair GPA system.

The author uses syntax to his or her advantage numerous times in this editorial. Although the author generally uses medium length sentences in the piece, there are a few times in which s/he employs short sentences to achieve greater effect. The author utilizes this idea in the very first sentence of this editorial: “Labels are an unavoidable part of life.” The author also uses the phrase “It isn’t” to emphasize that the sentence before it is incorrect. In this editorial, the author also puts high-emphasis words at the ends of sentences, such as when s/he writes, “Students should keep in mind that when they see statistics that show MSU on average has posted increases in GPA and ACT scores with each incoming class, it isn’t all that earth-shattering.”

The plethora of details that the author uses helps any reader understand the concept of the GPA, no matter there educational upbringing. Almost immediately the author begins to summarize the MSU GPA system, stating, “In college classes, students are graded at .5 intervals, ranging from 0.0 to 4.0, with no scores in between. Many students complain they miss the next benchmark by only a few points.” By adding these brief details, the reader can eventually form their own opinion on GPAs without much initial persuasion.

In a matter-of-fact voice, the author’s diction is commanding, but is too informal in some areas to be overwhelming. For example, the author writes, “When it all comes down to it, there is a basic formula for education. In a perfect world, professors should work to make a course challenging, and students should enter class with the mindset to do the best job they possibly can.” Here, s/he sounds like they know what they are talking about; however, the initial phrase, “When it all comes down to it,” gives the sentence a bit of informality. Because of this voice, I feel like I cannot fully trust what the author is saying.This would not be an appropriate AP piece because most of what is said has little to no facts to support it.

Outside Reading: Book Review 4

2/20/11

Book Review

Book Author: Allison Pearson

Review Author: Veronique de Turenne

http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/t5/In-Brief/I-Think-I-Love-You/ba-p/4239

     When Veronique de Turenne begins her review on the book I Think I Love You, by Allison Pearson, one is immediately caught off guard by Turenne’s use of diction. She does a nice job summarizing the book for the reader: a 13 year old girl named Petra Williams is in love with a certain pop celebrity. Turenne, with such phrases as “Darwinian nightmare” and “Bambi-eyed pop god,” allows the reader to revel in the choice of words of both herself and the numerous quotations from Pearson that are witty as well. For example, Turenne cites Pearson’s description of the most voluptuous girl of the teen group, quoting that her breasts were, “developed overnight as though she'd got fed up of waiting and used a bike pump.”

     The charming details that Turenne presents are, of course, the result of an already charming novel by Pearson. These details are best appreciated in Pearson’s description of characters. As another addition to Pearson’s lovely description of Petra’s womanly friend, Pearson also writes that she handles her breasts, “like they were hamsters, even getting them out occasionally and petting them.” Such overflowing details add to the overall whimsical nature of this review.

     The imagery created by Pearson is not only believable for an audience, it is also quite humorous. For example, Turenne quotes Pearson when Pearson is describing what Petra Williams does in her day: “She devours fan mags, memorizes David Cassidy facts, and sleeps on her back ‘so my face was ready to receive a kiss in case he came in the night.’" With this irresistible humor, the reader is ready to receive this book, and its review, with open arms.

     Although I do not argue that this review is written with a specific critical perspective, I could see it potentially being called a New Historicism piece because Turenne does mention and comment on the author’s “wit and skill.” One connection I can make with this review is during a brief discussion that we had during class in which we discussed the difference between true literature and mass fiction. Turenne does lovingly note that this novel is a bit of “chick lit,” which is understandable because of its lighthearted plot developments.

Class Notes (1/24-2/4)

Literary Terms to Know (Worksheet):

Anaphora: emphasizing words by repeating them at the beginningsof neighboring clauses
Ex: "We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in france..."
Antistrophe: the repetition of the same word or words at the end of successive phrases, clauses or sentences with an emphasis placed on the last word in a phrase or sentence.
Ex: "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child."
Anadiplosis: repetition of a word or phrase from the end of one clause or phrase at the begining of the next clause or phrase
Ex: "Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering."
Polysyndeton: the repetition of conjunctions in a series of coordinate words, phrases, or clauses
Ex: "I said, "Who killed him?" and he said, "I don't know who killed him but he's dead all right," and it was dark and there was water standing in the street and no lights..."
Alliteration: the repetition of initial sounds, usually consonants
Ex: Silly Stacy sat slouched.
Assonance: use of similar vowel sounds repeated in successive or proximate words containing different consonants
Ex: " A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid."
Consonance: the repetition of consonants, especially at the ends of words
Ex: "We ought to head straight, right?"
Chiasmus: figure of speech in which two or more clauses or related to each other through a reversal of structures in order to make a larger point; the clauses display inverted parallelism. In its classical application, chiasmus would have been used for structures that do not repeat the same words and phrases, but invert a sentence's grammatical structure or ideas; note, when a piece of text involves grammatical structure, it is also antithesis
Ex: "He knowingly lied and we blindly followed."
    -Antithesis: subcategory of Chiasmus; establishing a clear, contrasting relationship b/w two ideas by joining them together or juxtaposing them, often in parallel structure
    Ex: "To err is human; to forgive, divine"

Lecture Summary: Archetypal and Mythological Criticism (Packet):

• AMC defintion: how an individual text is faithful to and how it deviates from common patterns
• a myth is a complete story often believed to be true by cultural insiders but believed false by cultural outsiders
• an archetype is any element of fiction taht we see repeated over and over w/its core meaning unchanged
• archetypes are literary reflections of experiences widely shared by humanity
• James Frazer noticed that myths tend to have striking similarities from culture to culture
• Carl Jung, an early 20th Century Swiss psychiatrist, thout the reason for reoccuring patterns in myth might be an underlying structure of the human mind
• "Collective unconsiousness" with a repository of emotions, ideas, instincts, and even memories shared by all humans and that archetypes were symbolic representations of this hidden part of ourselves

• Northrop Frye was the first theorist to try to organize schemes of literature; he postulated that there is one story being told over and over; some works tell whole story, others just parts of it

*See worksheet for other lovely definitions :)

What makes it a novel? (handout):

• any extended fictional narrative almost always in prsoe
• character ocurs either in a static condition or in the process of development as the result of events or actions
• "novel" doesn't imply a certain structure; they can take other forms aside from the standard five-part plot
• novels always conntain narrative, though it may be non-traditional (ex: stream of consciousness)
• in contemporary popular usage, the nerm is generally only applied to works with enduring literary merit
•  before 18th century -> ROMANCE
•  after 18th century -> NOVEL
•  less than 50,000 words -> NOVELLA

The Novel (A Handout):

• "little new thing"; the term novel is roman-derived from the medieval term romance
• novella: b/w 12,000 and 30,000 words
• in a novel, the fictional prose narrative is conveyed by the author through a specific point of view and connected by a serquence of events involving a group of persons in a specific setting
• the first European novel is usually considered to be Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (1605)
• novel took to England in first half of the 18th century: Daniel Defoe (Robinson Crusoe), Samuel Richardson (Pamela) and Henry Fielding (Tom Jones)
• By the second half of the 19th century, the novel had displaced all other forms of literature because of the growing middle class (increased literacy rate and disposable income), cheaper production and distribution of materials, publication of novels in serial form, and the introduction of a system of circulating libraries
• Early 20th century novel was influenced by new social attitudes ans psych insights; authors paid close attention to character though and motivation, and this is still the dominant form of literary expression today
• the novel can cover a wide range of tastes and interests

See Worksheet for more depth, but here's the lists of some common types of novels:

Prose Romance
Novel of Incident
Novel of Character
Novel of Manners
Epistolary Novel
Picaresque Novel
Historical Novel
Regional Novel (*connection* Huck Finn!)
Bildungsroman
Roman a clef
Roman-fleuve
Sociological/Roman a these (*Connection* Children of Men)
Stream of Consciousness
Gothic
Gothic Romance (*connection* The Handmaid's Tale)
Satirical: (*connection* Twelfth night, if it were not a play, would qualify)

Outside Reading: Editorial 3

1/10/11

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/10/opinion/10mon1.html?ref=opinion

(No listed author)

The editorial “Bloodshed and Invective in Arizona” (no named author) addresses the tragic events surrounding the shooting at a public event sponsored by Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D-Az) in Tucson, Arizona. Though the tone of this piece is a bit bland and dull, one cannot help noticing some of the controversial topics (such as insanity pleas, border control, and gun rights) that are being addressed by this unnamed speaker’s matter-of-fact voice.

Although this is probably quite stereotypical of me, I feel like the author of this piece is most likely a man. I feel like, as a girl, if I were writing about a topic as tragic as this, I would end up discussing the feelings of those directly and indirectly affected by this atrocity. The voice of this author, although it does lightly address how many people were killed or injured at the shooting, to me, does not seem exactly personable. The author, rather, prefers to focus on the political causes and ramifications of the shooting.

I definitely dislike the voice of this particular author. ‘He’ assumes too much, like when ‘he’ says, “It is facile and mistaken to attribute this particular madman’s act directly to Republicans or Tea Party members. But it is legitimate to hold Republicans and particularly their most virulent supporters in the media responsible for the gale of anger that has produced the vast majority of these threats, setting the nation on edge.” Because I am politically independent with a Republican leaning, I take offense to ‘his’ quick reaction to point fingers to the Republican Party.

One thing that I wholeheartedly approve of, however, is the author’s use of structure in this piece. ‘He’ begins with a recognizable event prior to the subject he will be discussing. ‘He’ gives us background information on the shooter. ‘He’ informs us, the audience, of the major increase in threats against Congress members. The author then closes with a laundry list of issues that pertain to not only the southwestern region of the country, but also the United States as a whole. This clean-cut structure gives the reader a sense of comfortable repetition to cling to while reading.

Of all of the outside readings I have completed, I could see this piece as an AP essay the most easily. The speaker’s tone is simplistic, yet well-learned. Informative, yet mildly interesting. In other words, the speaker knows enough about the subject to correctly inform the reading audience of all the relevant facts, while also presenting one person’s “spin” on the causes and effects of this subject.

Outside Reading: Reflective Essay 3

The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell; published 2002
(borrowed from Ms. Holmes)
Essay: “Wonder Twins”

January 10, 2011
Pg 141-146

As usual, Sarah Vowell’s unusual humor catches the reader pleasantly off-guard in her essay entitled, “Wonder Twins.” “In December 1999,” she writes, “the Associated Press released a photograph of Luther and Johnny Htoo, twelve-year-old twin brothers commanding a ragtag guerrilla army in the rain forest of Myanmar (formerly Burma)… Every time I saw the picture the first thing that popped into my head was this: I miss my sister.”

Being a fraternal twin, Sarah uses the Htoo brothers as a way of comparing her domestic twin life with her sister, Amy, to that of the Htoo brothers and “God’s Army.” Using her obviously sarcastic tone, created by the absurdity of some of her comparisons, Vowell makes references to both her childhood and adulthood with Amy. “I’m a single careerist with a walk-up apartment in New York City; she’s a married, dog-owning mother in Montana with a, swear to God, white picket fence.”

Amusingly, Vowell writes, “The similarities are uncanny. Luther and Johnny were illiterate, Baptist, messianic insurgents struggling against the government of Myanmar, and my sister Amy and I shared a locker all through junior high.”  Vowell cites these kinds of “domestic” events to contrast the unstable childhood of their Myanmar counterparts. I wonder if the creative phrasing of her life’s events just comes naturally to her…

Vowell’s unorthodox voice makes me laugh, ponder, and sigh, all at once. I laugh because of some of the ridiculous remarks that she makes about events that have happened to her and her sister, such as when her sister threw up on her and how her sister thought it was so funny that she went and got their parents, who took a picture. I ponder what it would be like to have a twin. Because my father has an identical twin, I can understand many of the feelings that Vowell discusses, but on the other hand, being an only child, I never got to experience the benefits and many disadvantages of having a sibling.

I could potentially see this piece being used as an AP Prompt, or possibly as one of the essays that the ACT uses on the reading section. Students could easily write an essay in response to reading this essay: whether it be to discuss Vowell’s voice throughout the piece, or whether it be to analyze her relationship with her sister in contrast to that of the relationship between the Htoo twins.

Outside Reading: Book Review 3

1/10/11

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/02/books/review/Romm-t.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=review

Book: THE LIFE AND OPINIONS OF MAF THE DOG, AND OF HIS FRIEND MARILYN MONROE By Andrew O’Hagan

Review titled: In Aphrodite’s Arms

By ROBIN ROMM

The witty review by Robin Romm, titled “In Aphrodite’s Arms,” summarizes both the literary and stylistic highlights of the novel “THE LIFE AND OPINIONS OF MAF THE DOG, AND OF HIS FRIEND MARILYN MONROE” by Andrew O’Hagan.

Romm begins his review by discussing the somewhat unique perspective that the book is narrated in: the perspective of a dog, that is. Mafia Honey, a “fluffy but sharp-eyed Maltese terrier” ends up, after various owners, in the hands of Marilyn Monroe. As Romm explains, Maf witnesses Marilyn’s actions during times when no other “person” could have, such as during her psychoanalytic sessions. Romm goes on to call Maf “a proponent of the working class” while simultaneously being “a bit of a pompous snob.” Romm also mentions that “As appreciative as [Maf] is of the underdog, his life is such that he never has to be one.”  Romm continues by thoroughly discussing how Marilyn is portrayed by Maf in the piece, specifically noting Maf’s educated language that allows him to depict Marilyn Monroe in deeper detail.

After discussing some of the unique qualities of the book, Romm goes on to lightly criticize the story-telling abilities of Maf the dog. “Despite his ease with language and his rich turns of phrase, Maf’s name-dropping can be slightly overwhelming.” Yet, Romm goes on to give the novel a half-criticism half-compliment, stating, “[Maf’s name-dropping] slows the pace of this precise, impressively researched book.”

Romm uses a Formalistic Critical Perspective, mainly discussing the stylistic and plot techniques used by Andrew O’Hagan to piece together this fantastic storyline. He notes the tone used by Maf as “studious and perceptive,” while also alluding to one of the novel’s themes: not understanding human emotion. Romm, throughout the entire review of the novel, hints to the audience that using Maf as a narrator further perpetuates this theme.

Although it is hard to relate the storyline of this novel to any other, I am reminded of the importance of the narrator. Some books have generic and boring narrators, where all the audience learns about is the frailty of the flowers and the wind blowing through the trees. Other books have eccentric narrators who sometimes get caught up with any little detail that they deem important. And yet other books are told by a narrator who specifically fits into the book itself. In this novel, Maf is a foil to Marilyn. Making this connection, Romm notes Maf’s dialogue in which he states that Marilyn baby-talks him and, in doing so, makes up his personality for him. Brilliantly, he then goes on to say that this is what the studio bosses are doing to her.

Week 4 Notes (1/3-1/10)

This past week we have been watching the film "Death of A Salesman" and discussing the text. We have been focusing on:

• The relationship between Willy and Linda. (Does she mother him too much? Is their dynamic healthy?)
• The relationship between Willy and Biff. (Why is Biff the favorite and not Happy?)
• The relationship between Linda and her sons. (How does she favor Willy over her sons? Is this okay?)
• The relationship between Willy and his dreams/society. (Why/Is Willy a failure? What led to his downfall?)
• The significance of "The Woman."
• Why is Happy/Harold such a failure?
• Is Willy responsible for his death?

The Lowman family reminds me a lot of the Joad family in the novel "The Grapes of Wrath." The entire Joad family heads to California in search of a new life, but society gives them nothing in return except for death and exploitation.

Week... 3? December 13-17

Okay, so i'm really confused if we needed to post notes for this week or not. I believe this is the week we watched Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and discussed the "Lecture on Stoppard." Maybe? Possibly? If you know whether we're supposed to post notes for this week, let me know!