Survey

Most of the time I like using the blog.

No, i don't use blogs in any of my other classes.

I like the excitement of doing something new. I don't like Mr. Hughes being able to give us assignments at any time.

The blog is easy to use. The hardest part was remembering my password and the URL.

I'm glad that no other classes use these blogs.

Yes, I have the internet at home.

I usually post from my house.

I feel that I learn better by handwriting assignments.

The only blog I have is on blogger.

Dead Poet Society

Sorry about the lateness of this post, the first time that I had a chance to check my email was at 6:30. I was at the play all weekend.

I would give the movie a ten out of ten. It was an amazing story about teaching and thinking. The characters were dynamic and believable. The situations that the students find themselves in were relevant to teenagers today. The talk about English was kept to a bare minimum. I think the message was also very potent.

I think that there were two ways that this movie was relevant to studying poetry. One is that poetry cannot be defined my graphs or mere relevance. This was seen when the class is told to rip out their intro to poetry.

The other way that it is relevant is that it shows poetry's power to change people's lives. Handersen loses his fear of speaking. Neil confronts his father and follows his dream to be in theater. Osman (i think) uses poetry to help him get the girl of his dreams.

I would argue that if the focus is on poetry that you only show the clips that are relevant. The movie was not all about poetry. It was definitely about the fulfillment of teaching and learning to think for themselves. But i don't think that the whole movie was about poetry.

Poetry promt 1

Both of these poems tell of adults trying to protect the minds of children. Each takes a different view of children. The authors use two different tones and different words to express contrasting views of children.

A Barred Owl by Richard Wilbur shows parents reassuring a young girl. Wilbur uses dark imagery to show how scary the real world is. Words like “stealthy” and “raw” help send a chill down the audience’s spine. The author uses this technique to show his view of children and the world. He says that innocence in children is real and needs to be protected from the world while they are young.

The History Teacher by Billy Collins takes a different approach to children. While Richard Wilbur believes that children are innocent, Billy Collins thinks that kids behave just as bad as Adults. Collins references the Atomic Bomb and the War of the Roses, two common references to Adults being irresponsible. Then the author drops us into an account of childhood bullying. He shows that kids and adults are just the same.

The authors use two very different tones. The History Teacher uses small and common words to make the teacher’s lessons seem absurd. The first two examples also take credibility away from the teacher’s plans. In the first half of A Barred Owl the tone is set by the words “friend” and “odd.” This tone changes dramatically and uses words like “fear.”

The tones of the two poems are used to examine two different perspectives of children. One is of the innocence, the other of cynicism. Hopefully most of the readers still believe in the innocence of childhood.

Can You Take It?

It's easy to be nice, boys
When everything's O.K.
It's easy to be cheerful,
When your having things your way.
But can you hold your head up
And take it on the chin.
When your heart is breaking
And you feel like giving in?

It was easy back in England,
Among the friends and folks.
But now you miss the friendly hand,
The joys, and songs, and jokes.
The road ahead is stormy.
And unless you're strong in mind,
You'll find it isn't long before
You're dragging far behind.

You've got to climb the hill, boys;
It's no use turning back.
There's only one way home, boys,
And it's off the beaten track.
Remember you're American,
And when you reach the crest,
You'll see a valley cool and green,
Our country at its best.

You know there is a saying
That sunshine follows rain,
And sure enough you'll realize
That joy will follow pain.
Let courage be your password,
Make fortitude your guide;
And then instead of grousing,
Just remember those who died.

- Anonymous

Pod cast post

I didn’t really like the song. It felt like a stream of consciousness that was too long. I think that if it was broken into several individual songs it would be amazing. Each time the music changed he uses a different style and tone. The only consistent musical theme is the melancholy overtones and occasional parts of loud anguish. I also didn’t like the author changing the way he sang. Sometimes he would be 50’s and then change to a 70’s style. It just doesn’t seem right to me. That style change was also characteristic of the guitar.

There does not appear to be any rhyme scheme to the lyrics. The author relies too often on repetition and alliterations. This style gets old, especially after forty five minutes.

The time was another bummer for me. After about thirty minutes I stopped listening for the meaning and just tried to get through it so that I could turn this in. It does make good background music while I was writing.

I also don’t like the author’s tone. It seems whiney to me, and I don’t like whiney things or people. There is no benefit to looking at whiners or what they are whining about.

I think that the author addressed too many themes at the same time. He talked about dying and keeping the house clean, all in the same song. Sometimes he talks about how lucky he was to still be alive. Other times he talks about wanting her back so much that he will do all of the things that he never used too. This even includes doing the laundry.

I am definitely not the right audience for this song. It is written for a woman who is not with him anymore. I know that it was also written for a larger audience than just that, but that is who it is addressed too. This perspective loses most of the meaning for me. I have never had anyone break up with me, so I can’t really relate to this man’s experiences. This limits the impact. I think it may have a broader appeal, if it wasn’t so long.

It was incredibly hard to find onomatopoeia in this poem. There were not a lot of similes or metaphors either, which surprised me. This poem was rich with symbols and imagery, but I didn’t trust myself enough to pick that many out, or what they stood for. What was the gold mine of the first or second section? What about the open window or the colors spilling in?

The imagery was easier to pick out. It thought that the writer did a fine job of using everyday objects and describing them in such a way that they take on new meaning and power. The imagery was definitely mixed up in the symbolism.

I don’t understand where the end about dying came from. Is she dead? Is he actually dying? Or is the dying just another symbol?

Mr. Hughes, Was this song very popular? Who was it written by, and when was it written?

Metamorphosis 2

In the Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka most of the nouns double as symbols. They help to give the maximum amount of impact to the short allegory. Three of the symbols play a central role to the novel and add meaning to the story.
The first is Gregor Samsa. He represents the 20th century man. He gets up every morning and goes to work. He is the sole provider for his family, until his transformation. Franz Kafka uses Gregor’s status as a symbol of the difficulties and joylessness of the worker. He is constantly abused by his father. His family forces him to do something he doesn’t like. If anything is out of the ordinary the company comes down on the workers head. All of these are themes of the novel.
Another symbol is the Boss. He represents the established institutions. His arrival at Samsa’s apartment is a representation of the cruelties of business that are placed on the common working man. Samsa is given no compensation and no sympathy from the company. The 20th century worker expected this type of treatment. One of Kafka’s purposes was to show the injustice of this system.
The next part of the theme of mistreatment for the worker was Gregor’s furniture. His sister Greta tried to take out all of the furniture from his room before Gregor realizes that it is his link to his past life. Since he can no longer work, his family is no predisposed to give him any of the respect and privacy they had given him. His whole past was nearly swept away when he is the most defenseless.
These three symbols worked together to show the plight of the 20th century man. This theme was far ahead of its time.

Hunger artist rewrite

The prestige of and interest in Hunger Artists had slowly declined over the past decade. The true artists could no longer make any real money by starving themselves in front of the large crowds. Most had toured Europe in their prime. The whole city used to come out and watch. Some of the local men were put in charge of making sure that the artist didn’t eat anything during his fast. Most of those whom were put in charge weren’t very careful about watching him. They thought that they were being nice by letting him sneak a little food into his locked cage. The assumption that he would cheat hurt the artist, especially since he thought that fasting was easy. The guilt that he might be deceiving people by making them believe that it was hard made the artist want to fast longer, but the Impresario never let him. He could only fast for 40 days, because after that interest tailed off and the Impresario would lose money.

The Impresario was always concerned about the profits. That was the main reason he always dramatized the pains of fasting. He gave long speeches for the crowd about the difficulties and sold dramatic looking photographs of previous performances by the artist. The artist would shake the bars in frustration, but the Impresario would just claim that his little fits were caused by the hunger. The worst was when the Impresario dragged him from his cage at the end of the 40 days. It turned into a huge spectacle, with hundreds of audience members. The artist would protest and try not to cooperate, but this was always taken as proof of the difficulty involved in fasting. After he was helped by two of the women from the crowd he was forced to eat dull hospital food.

But, eventually, there was no more money to be made in the big productions. The artist left Impresario and joined a small circus. He was not the main attraction so he did not get a lot of audience members. No when remembered him or forced him to stop, so he pushed himself to fast as long as he could. Since no one kept track of the number of days he was denied his full credit. When the circus owners finally remembered about him they found him lost in the straw of his cage. He finally told them the reason he didn’t eat was because he hadn’t found anything he liked. If he would have known of a food that he liked he would have eaten it as often as he could and gotten fat. Unfortunately, he had fasted so long that after he talked to the operators he died. His cage was cleaned out and a panther was put into it. The panther had been recently captured, but he did not mind his imprisonment. He was fed his fill of food without having to hunt. He was content, and unlike the hunger artist, his cage was always surrounded by curios onlookers.

Meaningful questions

1. What or whom does the Artist represent in the 20^th century?
2. Why is it significant that the Artist fasts but doesn’t do anything else?
3. What is the food a representation of?
4. What is the Panther, and why is he a panther and not a goldfish?
5. Why did the Impresario try to hurt the artist (when he talked about the difficulties of fasting?)

Metamorphosis 1

Metamorphosis #1

Kafka is torn in two directions in Kafka by Steven Soderbergh. The force of habit opposes the force of reason. The secrets of the Castle can not be ignored, and Kafka is finally forced to do something about it.
In the beginning of the movie Kafka just stays home and ignores the revolutionaries. He wants no part of their fight. He says that he has no reason to distrust the authorities. He has a common problem. Many people have the mistaken belief that they are unaffected by other’s problems.
As so often happens, Kafka’s problems become intertwined with the revolutionaries during the attack at his apartment. Another obedient man kills his friends. The brothers come for him and try to take him to the Castle. He knows that he has to do something after his rescue. There is no one else that can do it. Everyone needs to feel that responsibility at some point in their life.
Therefore, this conflict of emotions shows one of the themes. The movie shows how society can only be changed by action. Society can not be changed by staying home on the couch. Additionally, we have to help others so that there will be someone left to help us. Steven Soderbergh showed us that we can change our world and that sometimes we have to even when we don’t want to.
Even though Kafka doesn’t want to get involved, the secrets of the Castle compel him to take action. Steven Soderbergh uses Kafka to show the audience that awareness and action are needed in life. Evil will never triumph as long as good men take action. Will you do your part?

Kafka

I am not sure exactly how my perspective on the Metamorphosis has changed. I try to distance the story from the author. After the movie, it became harder to do that. It was obvious that Kafka was both sick and a whiner. The movie showed how Kafka would take little things in his mind and blow them out of proportion until the truth was obscured. He took the dredge of his family and his work life and wrote it down into the Metamorphosis. It is for this reason that I don't feel that he is a genius, or even pretty good. His book is just a linguistic complaint about life and how terrible it is and what a drag his family is on him. It is well written, but even Hitler's speech are long and beautifully composed complaints. Complaints have become increasingly more common since the fall of man in the garden.
The moral is that life is one big rat race where everyone scrambles to make as much money as they can. He shows how pathetic humanity has become. He feels that everyone is just trying to take advantage of everyone else. This is especially true for families. Kafka's experiences with his own father make him feel that families are no longer places of love or security. The parents just want to use their children as workers. The same is true of the other human Institutions. The companies and governments can only surcice and thrive by using the labors of the common people. They no this. So they try and keep the men down so that they can keep on living. Kafka's time in the accounting firm, which he blames on his parents, is the basis of his belief that humanity has been subjected into a permanent working role in modern society. This is contrary to what god wanted, and what he believes. He knows that now humanity is just one more species of draft animal, but that they should be something more.
The glorified work horse can be seen between the similarities between Kafka and Gregor. Gregor is forced into working for a company that he doesn't like because of the debts of his family, a feeling that mirrors Kafka's belief that his family could have kept him out of the insurance office. Both our godless men who still have a basic belief in the rights of man and that men have at least a higher purpose than money. If I were to write an AP question it would be; Sometimes Authors use their characters as cameos. Show how Gregor is a representation of Kafka and the time perriod inwhich he lived.

WHy the future really doesn't need us

1. Joy’s thesis is that current technologies could become so advanced that humans could lose control of them, and the survival of the human species could be endangered.

2. Joy suggested two different techniques for avoiding humans becoming obsolete or unnecessary. He theorized on either complete government control of development or scientists voluntarily slowing down research until safe guards could be developed. Both involve slowing down the development of these three technologies.

3. I think that Huxley would not believe the world destruction scenario. He would believe that the government would take control of the development before it got too out of hand.

4. One rhetorical strategy that Joy used was asking questions that the readers had to answer for themselves. He tries to involve the reader’s emotions. His arguments are very logical and demand to be listened to.

5. I think that Joy was a fear monger. Fear can be a powerful motivator. Fear is an appropriate emotion to use since the topic is the survival of the human race.

6. Joy uses several literary devices. He refers to specific historic and science fiction examples. He also uses outside conversations to give credit to his own theories.

7. One connection to Brave New World is government control of science for the greater good. This is a reality in the Brave New World, but Joy talks about is as an option to save the human race, (see 2.) Both the essay and the novel acknowledge how powerful science can be and what destruction it can cause. In Brave New World science only threatens social stability, but the government still views that as a danger.

Harrison Bergeron

I think that Vonnegut is satirizing society's issues with equality. People these days are so worried about how everyone is treated and not offending people that they don't develop their own potential. This story argues for letting every thing happen naturally and let everything develop on it's own. This story is told as if an observer was showing us about the future. This is more effective because it is able to use a tone that is not very serious. If the story was told from Harrison Bergeron's point of view Vonnegut would not have been able to show how the normal people, his parents, reacted to sadness and affliction.

The ones that walked away from Omelas

1. The reading was boring at first, but that made the punch at the end just so much more powerful. I read it and thought, "Wow, I hope that I would just walk away." I did not appreciate the fact that LeGuin insisted that no clergy lived in the town, or that people had sex as some kind of religious experience.

2. This piece tied in nicely with 1984. It expanded on the theme of individuals taking action. These actions were even more encouraging because only one person was being mistreated, and everyone else was happy. They took action eventhough there was no mass executions, no tyranny and no deprevations. It also showed that no gesture is too small too make a difference.

3. The author teased the reader a lot. She gave only a hint of detail, just enough to let you make assumptions. Also, the author did not give away her impact too early. She waited until the very end, and then dropped the bomb. Another way she increased the power of the impact was to end almost as soon as she finished delivering her message.

4.
1. Do you think that the little girl in the closet is meant to symbolize one specific person in history, or is she just included to show how some people will not tolerate any injustices?

2. Will walking away actually change anything?

3. Do you think that there are any other socitieis that "the ones who walked away" could join, or will they have to make their own?

4. How does keeping the little girl/boy in the closet keep all evil out of society? Would this actualy work in real life?

5. Would you like to live in Omelas? Why or why not?

Why the future doesn't need us

1. What are the Luddites and what do they stand for?

2. Should the Genetics and nanotechnology and robotics be controlled more than nuclear tecnologies?

3. Are any of the control options for the GNR weapons actually feasible. Why or why not?

4. Will transferring our concience in to robot bodies actually grant humans immortality, or will it be different than actually living.

5. Would it be possible to erect a shield to protect against all of these different threats?

6. Do these technologies present to dangerous a threat or do they have enough benefits to be worth continuing?

7. Is it possible that in the future men will be replaced by robots?

Goals

1. My top three choices for College are Yaler University, Dallas Theological seminary and MIT

2. I want my average GPA to be a 4.0 this year

3. I want my AP tests to be all 5's, as an actual goal

Asimov Reading Response

First, sorry about the lateness of this post. I did not come on to post or check until after the deadline.

There are several similarities between 1984 and Robot Dreams. Both are told in a high tech future. Both feature a government that oppressed and used a helpless race of workers. Both Governments will kill anyone who challenges them. (pg.10-11)

The list of differences is longer. Robot Dreams is written from the point of view of the overlords, and they don't know exactly what type of rebellion that they couldface from the robots. (all of pg.9) In 1984 the Party knows exactly how to look for rebellion and what to to with trouble makers.

I think that if George Orwell and Isaac Asimov were to have dinner Orwell would have told Asimov, "Well, I'm glad that somebody was paying attention."

THe two authors would most likely agree that unchecked power will corrupt people. They would also agree that giving this generation a warning would be the best way to try and stop the tyranny, since both of them wrote books doing just that.

I think that they would disagree on whether or not the individuals could actually change the government after it has come to power. In 1984 all resistance is futile. The individual is crushed and only the Party survives. After reading Robot Dreams, i was left with the impression that the robots actually have a chance, "...What might this have brought about as robotic brains grew more and more complex..."(pg. 9 para. 6)

Watts Reading Response

Watts thesis is that there is something out there in the world that will help us figure out the meaning of life, but it is so hard to grasp that it is almost taboo. (pg. 6 para. 3)

Watts views religion as a social institution that used to help men discover truthes about the universe. He thinks that in this day and age those truths are not as relevant as they used to be. (pg.4-5 para. 2-3)

Watts believes that since we are a part of nature, it is wrong to insist that humans "conquer" nature. In order to conquer something you must come from beyond, but humans come from inside the universe. (pg. 8-9 para. 3-1)

Watts believes that the new experience a new understanding of what humanity is. 9pg.11 para. 2)

Watts believe that myths are stories where we use symbols in an attempt to teach about human existance. They should just be look upon as symbols. (pg.s 12-13 para. 2-1)

Watts says that we must train ourselves to think in terms of more than just an ego. it will just take practice. (pg. 20-21 para. 2)


Watts claims that people are just flashes of energy that are forms of the higher being. (pg. 12 para. 1) In 1984 the Party views itself the same way. The people are not the reprentaions of power. The Party holds all of the power and does not need any titles or special lineages. The Party takes anyone and everyone, in an attempt continue on. Their is no hereditary passing on of power, only the Party.