Outside Reading: Reflective Essay

It's a Lot Harder to Fly a Plane Using the Force Than Star Wars Would Suggest.
By: Jordy Greenblatt

Jordy Greenblatt writes a comical reflective essay on the history of him piloting aircraft with his eyes closed. He has the most emergency stops and most deaths of any of the other pilots. He uses simple diction to make it so that the reader does not spend any time looking at the words but can concentrate on what he is actually saying. The syntax that is used is repetitive, he uses yes and no to start sentences to hammer home the ridiculous things he is saying. He does a similar thing when he starts his sentences with “you”, it is to show that he is directly addressing the reader when he is speaker, later in the account the reader finds out why he is addressing them so obviously, he is the pilot of the plane the readers on. Oh crap.
The strength of this essay is the strong shock value at the end when the reader realizes they are on the plane with this crazy pilot. The weakness though is that it lacks depth to this story, it is limited to what is explicitly said.
The uses a comical tone, saying things like, “but the first time I tried it they really chewed me out”. These short sentences with common joking and funny phrases lead the reader to think that he is kidding and it is perfectly reasonable to look at everything he says as ridiculous
His tone is not appropriate for an AP exam at all because the joking manner in an AP essay would allow for the audience to ignore what the writer has to say because by taking that tone the writer can no longer be seen as a trustworthy source of information.

Outside Reading: Column

Based On A Few Primitive Lego Assemblies I Am Confident In Proclaiming that My Toddler Will Become America's Next Great Architect
By: Coleman Larkin

In this column, Larkin uses humor, and plenty of it. He creates this using different techniques, but most notably his diction and sarcastic tone. The diction he uses is strikingly different than the reader is expecting from a parent discussing his two and a half year old son. He uses technical terms related to architecture to exaggerate the apparent intelligence of his toddler. This along with the sarcastic tone creates a narrative persona that is one of a untrustworthy, jaded parent looking at every creation of his Childs through 'love goggles'. He expands upon this by quoting a famous architect and claiming that is son said that as his first words.
For a column I think that this definitely improved my response to the piece because it made me laugh, and made it much more engaging than an accurate description of his sons "skills". If he had chosen to be accurate it would have been one of those moments where the parents honestly thinks that the thing there kid did was the coolest thing they had ever seen, when really it was not, but i think we will all go through that.
For an AP essay I would say that this is not an effective means to convince the graders of your point, by the sake of the persona, the writers not a reliable source of information. And I would think that obvious exaggeration should also be avoided.

Outside Reading: Book Review

How Gandhi became Gandhi
By: Geoffrey C. Ward

In this book review of "Great Sole" by Joseph LeLyveld, ward discusses how this book is not an entire biography, but it is written by a well qualified author, Lelyveld, who reported from India in the sixties and has worked covering Southern India in the eighties. In this review, ward praises the complexity of the book, and how some knowledge of Gandhi's life is expected for a comprehensive reading.
Ward uses a lot of detail about the book itself and how it corresponded to Gandhi's life, or how he responded to the book. At times this review veers away from the book and back onto Gandhi's life and what he accomplished, using mostly quotes directly from Gandhi, ignoring the text that he is reviewing
This is a definite weakness of the piece as it is almost as if he never answered the question of how the actual book, making it seem to the reader as though he was somehow bored of it, or at least uninterested. Along the same lines is one of the strengths though, this way of including gave more information about Gandhi to the reader than the go in thinking. This is nice, but unexpected and at the end It feels more like a piece on Gandhi referencing "Great Sole" instead of a book review.
Unless it was a open prompt the usage of mostly detail would not be good for an AP essay. The roundabout way that he does not get to the point would also be destructive in an AP essay, because it would sound as though the reader were trying to BS the answer.

Class Notes (3/07- 3/21)

Modernism
-disillusionment after WWI

• many expatriots
• stein "lost generation"
• new narrative techniques

-"le crie de couer" creates a "make it new" mentality
-believe the arts play a critical role
-exist in limbo between whether arts reinforce culture or culture has no goal to reinforce
-suspicious of the tools of art
-old era was a flawed contract:

• artist too manipulative
• audience too submissive

-new forms of narrative:

• unreliable narrators
• multiple narrators
• minor characters as 1st person narrators
• nonlinear narrative
• stream of consciousness

-superimposition, multiple layer; intersection = truth
-television drives the rise of postmodernism

• after WWII in USA
• 60's in England

Post-modernism: response to the "failure" of modernism
-television makes it clear that everyone thinks differently

• modernism the loses the aspect of universal truth and gains "all truth is local"
• incredibly ironic
• blending of high and low culture; Elvis opera
• self reverence: references other media; Daily Show
• the simulcrum: Jean blahblah, copies or the simulated world becomes more real than the original, original is lost, the copy  IS reality then

Surrealism
-cultural rules govern though
-unexpected juxtaposition breaks through those rules; + reality or -reality
-dreamlike, playful, sometimes eerie or bizarre
-freud and jung

Class Notes (2/21-3/4)

Comedy

-six necessities of comedy

• it must appeal to the intellect, not emotion
• must be mechanical
• inherently human, to remind us of our humanity
• must be relevant to the set of societal norms, where the readers is familiar with them
• the situation and its parts must be inconflict with those norms
• must be percieved as harmless or painless

Types of Comedy

-low comedy: lacks seriousness of purpose or subtlety of manner and has little intellectual appeal quarreling, fighting, noisy singing, buffoonery, drunkenness...blah blah etc.

-high comedy: pure or serious comedy, appeals to the intellect and arouses laughter by exhibiting the inconsistencies and incongruities of human nature and displaying the follies of social manners

-burlesque: characterized by ridiculous exaggeration and distortion, switching expectation serious turned frivolous, frivolous made serious

-farce: light dramatic work in which a highly improbable plot, exaggerated character, and slapstick elements are used for humorous effect

-lampoon: broad satirical piece that uses ridicule to attack a person or group, a more pointed or aimed satire

-parody: parody is to literature as caricature is to art, making fun of a well known and/or original work 

-satire: holding up to ridicule the follies and vices of a people or time

-slapstick: boisterous form of comedy marked by chases, collisions, and crude practical jokes

-travesty: presents a serious subject frivolously and reduces everything to its lowest level, always serious where as burlesque and parody don't need to be

The Comedic Ladder

-Comedy of Ideas

• characters argue about ideas like politics, religion, sex, marriage
• characters use their wit and clever language to mock their opponent in an argument
• subtle way to satirize people and institutions like political parties, governments, churches, war, marriage 

-Comedy of Manners

• amorous intrigues among the upper classes
• focus is on witty language, clever speech, put downs are traded by the characters, ie: my lunch table 
• society is often made up of cliques (exclusive) in crowd; everyone else, not incrowd

-Farce

• plot is full of coincidences, mistiming, mistaken identities
• characters are puppets of fate
• loss of identity because of birth, fate or accident
• sometimes they are twins separated unaware of their double; Twelfth Night

Low Comedy

• dirty jokes, dirty gestures, and sex are subjects of humor
• exaggeration or understatements are the extremes with a focus on physical - long noses, cross eyes, humped back
• slapstick, pratfalls, loud noises, physical mishaps, collisions, etc  

Techniques of Comedy

-caricature: representation in which the subject's distinctive features are deliberately exaggerated to produce a comic effect

-colloquialism: use of slang or informal language; regional dialects included 

-deflation: an object assumes or is given elevated status and then is treated in such a way that the estimation of the object decreases

-disparagement: to speak of in a slighting way; some teachers.

-euphemism: a less offensive substitute for a generally unpleasant word; escort vs. hooker

-hyperbole: exaggeration or overstatement

-incongruity: surprising contrast that occurs through situation, image, allusion, character, diction, anachronism

-invective: harsh abusive language directed against a person or cause; bitterist of satire; tool of anger

-irony

• verbal - discrepancy between what is actually stated and what is really meant
• situational - discrepancy between what is expected and reality
• dramatic - discrepancy between what the reader or audience knows and the character knows

-knaves & fools:  only rogues (knaves)  and suckers (fools) in comedy

-litotes: understatement in which a thing is affirmed by stating the negative of its opposite

-malapropism: an improper use of a word in which one word is replaced by another which resembles it (different meaning)

-non-sequitur: inference or conclusion that does not follow from the premise or evidence

-oxymoron: a group of contradictory terms suggesting a paradox; jumbo shrimp 

-paradox: a statement that seems self-contradictory which upon further thought contains some degree of truth

-parody: a work that closely imitates the style or content of another with the specific aim of comic effect or ridicule

-pun (zeugma): play on words based on the similarity of sound

-sarcasm: bitter language meant to hurt or ridicule something

-stereotyping:conventional, formulaic, and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image

-understatement: when what is said falls short of the magnitude of whats being talked about

-wit: now often refers to clever uses of language to arouse laughter

Outside Reading: Reflective Essay

Mano A Mano
By: Susan Schorn

In this reflective essay Schorn recounts an encounter she had with a magazine subscription seller who had scars he was showing her, with a story behind them, but also her take on violence. She takes a relaxed friend to friend kind of tone that works very well to convey her ideas because they are the kinds of things that you complain about to a friend. She creates this tone using conversational syntax and every day diction. She uses comas frequently in her sentences which makes it feel like she is taking a breath or pausing for effect in a conversation. The diction that she uses never extends far beyond the smaller group of words that tend to be uses everyday, using typical verbs, never getting technical or using flowery specific words. this makes it easier for the reader to connect to her as a reliable source or atleast someone with a thought through position. Her tone shifts to one that is still friend to friend but more heated in her opinion as she discusses her opinion on Bush. It shifts because Schorn uses more sarcastic diction.
Personally, this tone made my response to this piece more on the side of humor. It was funny but I think that if she had used a different tone it would have been harder for my to connect to the content. On the other hand this wouldn't be the best tone to strike on an AP exam because it does not portray the author as a reliable source, more like an opinionated friend.

Outside Reading: Column

Ten Ways to Jump-start Your Finances
By: Alison Rosen

In this column, Rosen uses different techniques to create a funny column. She makes rediculous claims of her ways to "jump-start your finances". Rosen creates a narratives persona that makes it clear that she is not to be taken seriously, using diction and details along with asking unanswerable questions of the audience. She uses diction that one usually uses when they are joking around, for instance she says things like "don", "suacy", "pluck". The most obvious example of how she uses detail is in the common, sometimes cliche way she words her final sentences and the expressions people use when tryink to get you to do something crazy, ""live a little", "play the odds", "best if what you love is embezzling".
This definitely influenced my response to the piece, if it was not obviously meant to be a piece of humor I would have read it and thought that she was crazy and let it slip from my mind. Since it was funny though, I imagined myself in those situations and it made it a more enjoyabe read.
Appropriate for an AP? No. For sure not, the humor that Rosen uses would be looked at with a definite negative light by the AP graders, either thinking that the writer was not taking it seriously, or was trying to mock them. A serious more authoritative voice would be a much better appraoch for the AP.

Outside Reading: Book Review

Freedom
By: Sam Tanenhaus

This book review is about "Freedom" by Jonathon Franzen. In this review Tanenhaus is not just stating facts about the book and showing its strength an weaknesses but he is praising the book quite a bit, and compares it to Frenzen's previous work, "The Corrections". He describes how Franzen has done an excellent job of using the politically charged connotation of freedom to his advantage. He praises the book with diction that support the complicated themes he says are present in the book. He uses words like intricately, majestic, and dynamically. He also uses vivid imagery to praise Franzen and draw his comparison to "The Corrections". At one point in the review he says,"Franzen cracked open the opaque shell of postmodernism, tweezed out its tangled circuitry and inserted in its place the warm beating heart of an authentic humanism." This is a vivid way for him to create an image of just how important he thinks this work is. Drawing connections to Dickens an other writers based on the techniques that Franzen used makes the reader more intrigued by the review because it may be a book worthy of the comparison to "those giants". This is one of the strengths of the piece, along with the imagery and his use of details, but one of the weaknesses is his heavy handed praise, it makes it seem as though there is no other option but to love this book, and it will turn readers off to this book if they generally don't like books of this genre.
This review is from a new historicism perspective because it takes into account the social environment at the time, and obviously the author's background and previous book.

Core Concept Notes (2/07- 2/17)

Heart of Darkness
-geography

• the idea that marlowe is decening into hell, references to dante and lots of demons
• as well as hell, it is also eden, lush forest and the "birthplace of man"
• heading south to run amuck

-characters

• the two women, the Intended and Marlowe's aunt are in need of "protecting"
• the african woman )mistress) on the other hand represents the fertility and soul of the congo, she is an Anima
• Kurtz has fallen in love with the congo and can never go back
• the old woman at the beginning spinning black wool are the Fates
• the russian trader is the "fool"

-HOD is an ironic guest, although the quest has meaning, it is lost on Marlowe, so for him it was meaningless

Apocalypse Now
-set in Vietnam instea of the congo
-the anima is not as present in this version
-the ending is different, we are lead to believe he heads deeper into the jungle
-for whatever reason (probably film) it seemed more graphic

Core Concept Notes (1/31- 2/04)

The Novel
-comes from the Italian word novella, meaning little new thing
-usually 30,000-100,000 words
-it has plot complexity, using characters
-Three early british writers

• Daniel Dafoe
• Samuel Richarson
• Henry Fielding

-novels soon became so poular becuase of four things

1. a larger educated middle class with a little extra money
2. cheaper production and circulation
3. publication of novels in serial form
4. a system of circulating libraries

Terms
-Repetition

• anaphora: emphasizing words with repetition at the begining of the clauses
• antipostrophe: the repetition of words at the end of successive clauses
• anadiplosis: the repetition of a word from the en of a clause to the beginning of the next
• epizeuxis: repetition of words in amediate succession
• polysyndeton: the repetition of a conjunction
• alliteration: the repetition of initial sounds
• assonance: the repetition of vowal souns in close proximity, with different consonants
• consonance: the repetition of consonant sounds, usually at the end

-Parallelism

• antithesis: juxtaposing two ideas by joining them together

-Inversion

• anastrophe: inversion of common western word order ie: yoda
• chiasmus: two or more clauses are related by inverte parallelism
• antimetabole: the repetition of words in successive clauses with transposed order

Outside Reading: Reflective Essay

I Think I Found Your Cat
By: Sef Willen

This is a slightly disturbing reflective essay about an encounter that the author, Sef Willen, had. She is trying to inventory a burned down home for the insurance company. The disturbing aspect of this essay begins when she enters and describes its state as the home of a hoarder. It gets worse until the answer to the overarching question is answered, where is the family cat. Well needless to say, not alive.

Willen takes a tone of humor at the beginning, until the cat is found, when her tone switches to one that makes it sound as though she is genuinely sorry for this family and the illness they are dealing with. She creates this tone, at first, by displaying how ridiculous the home is. She uses almost unnecessary amounts of detail and comparisons to make it easy to picture the mountains of pink gumballs and other trash that is heavily detailed. She uses this detail when explaining her fall through the ceiling, which is funny but also disarming, lightening the mood and making the situation even easier to laugh at. When she switches her tone, she uses the twisted humor of some high school kids helping her, to make it obvious that this is not funny because she has stopped joking.

This switch in tone is a strength in this essay because it strikingly highlights the change in the situation that she is writing about. She is able to show what she finds funny, and what she thinks was not funny but undervalued during the experience. The weakness of this essay is the detail itself, even though it helps her to create the tone, the detail is disturbing. This much detail of the gross half-burned contents of the house makes it difficult to continue reading as the reader imagines wading through molten candy sludge and things that may once have been valuable.

The tone of this essay would not be appropriate for an AP essay because any of the evidence that was used would not be able to be taken seriously. This would defeat the purpose of writing the essay because it would be difficult to convince the reader to take the writer seriously. The way she created this tone on the other hand would be perfect for an essay. The descriptive details and comparisons would be excellent for supporting your evidence and claims. They would also help when describing the evidence itself, the more clear the evidence the better it will be able to connect to the claims.

Outside Reading: Book Review

Hearts full of Sorrow
By: Rebecca Goldstein

This Book review is about the book “Great House” by Nicole Kruass, Rebecca Goldstein discusses how Kruass’s new book compares to “The History of Love” that many readers already like, and how it stands out as a book of its own also. She comments on the tone of the two books and how they differ to portray a similar plot, but also how “Great House can stand on its own in a new and effective way.

Goldstein’s tone shows how much she really enjoyed both of Kruass’s books; she praises the new book with comments that support the complicated characters and relationships that the author has created. This tone is made by Goldstein’s diction choices; she uses words that make it evident that she is speaking positively of the books. For instance, she uses “immaculate” to describe the way the two contradictory tones of the book blend perfectly. She also describes some of the content of the books almost poetically because she enjoyed it, enriching the way it sounds to make it even more motivating for the reader to go get a copy.

The strongest part of this review is the detail of the book that is included in it, without any spoilers, and the positive response to the book, which makes it very motivating. Although, in some ways this is also a weakness, by taking such a firm stance on the book, and drawing connections to the author’s other book, she alienates and discourages readers that may not like this kind of book or didn’t enjoy “The History of Love”.

This review is from formalist perspective, analyzing the different things in the text that Kruass has accomplished well, she also makes a comparison to the author’s other book drawing in some of her past, adding a new historicism aspect to the piece.

One of Goldstein’s main analyses of the book has to do with the tone, which is a subject that we learned about earlier in the year. She discusses how the two distinct tones in the book create the complex main character.

The way all these things are accomplished is very different then the other two book reviews that I have read. It definitely takes a much more strikingly positive spin, and encouraging the reader, emphasizing the positive attributes of the book, but nowhere are any shortcomings mentioned. In the other reviews it was a more unbiased approach, where both sides were displayed and it is up to you to decide whether the book is right for you.

Core Concept Notes (12/13-1/7)

Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are dead:
-explores the idea of what happens to characters when the play is over
-the opening scene represents their birth as the play begins, and then they die at the end

Death of a Salesman:
-Willy is portrayed as a child
-Linda is motherly, but more so towards Willy than her own children
-Happy is striving to get out of Bif's shadow but can't, and so continues to pursue
  Willly's goals to prove they were worthwile
-Bif grows the most throughout, and discovers who her is
-explores the difference between being loved and well-liked

Core Concept Notes (11/29-12/10)

Existentialism:
-Claims

• Mankind has free will
• Life is a series of choices, create stress
• Few decisions are without negative choices
• Some things are irrational and absurd
• If one makes a decision, he or she mst follow through

-A philosophical system concerned with free will, choice, and personal responsibility. Since it is based on choices that each of us make individually, there are no concrete guidelines
-refer to the Existentialism 101 sheet

Theater of the Absurd:
-extravagant humor masks meaninglessness being portrayed
-anti-heroes replace the common heroes
-people are seen as bewildered in a incomprehensible world

Hamlet Films:
-we watched three different versions of Hamlet
-the BBC film took a traditional stance with a minimalist approach to the set and wardrobe choices
-the Olivier decided to show Hamlet as gay
-the Branaugh version showed Hamlet as angry and insane

Outside Reading: Column

The Rules : Time-Tested Secrets for Getting and Keeping a Job in this Economy

By: Alison Rosen

As enlightening as the title leads you to believe this column will be, it’s really just about a good laugh. Rosen creates a light atmosphere and a joking tone, using a persona crafted to be someone who can be trusted for advice, like a coworker, or friend.

The syntax that she uses adds to this persona because she uses series of questions to create a sense of a conversation, as though the reader is being badgered by the persona into making confessions about their workplace. This acts to actively engage the reader and has them examining their job.  The diction that she uses creates the persona, she uses common conversation words, easy low level language that makes the persona read like the reader is discussing these secrets face to face. This works to disarm the reader and encourages them to be more open to the joking message.

In general I think this persona makes the joking tips easier to laugh along with because it is like playful banter between coworkers, it works well to deliver the tips and make it clear that these are not actually supposed to be put into practice. I like the column and I think personally it was funny and it appealed to my sense of humor. The funniest thing that was mentioned in the column was to have an egg timer with you at work, so that you can make sure to hang up on your boss after three minutes, after all you need to get back to ignoring your work.

The persona is a strength, in that it is able to deliver the message more effectively. Although it makes an excellent vehicle for the jokes it is also a weakness because someone going into the column actually looking for tips would not only be disappointed by the information, but would also not be in the mood for lighthearted banter, and so would most likely have a poor response to the column.

This would definitely not be an appropriate persona to create on an AP essay because by definition this persona is not trustworthy. The joking tone is the worst way to address the AP essay because it is self defeating. A writer who does this would not be very convincing while trying to answer a prompt effectively, and it would be impossible to come across as a reliable source of information, since it would be difficult to determine whether or not the writer was serious.