Everything I needed to know I learned in IB Language & Literature Year 2...

As I started to think about what I wanted Blog Post #15 (the last one!) to be, I tossed a few ideas back and forth- Did I want it to be something more creative (as in creating something)? Did I want it to be reflective? I thought about having you write the stereotypical letter to a rising freshman, or to your future self. I thought about having you compliment one another, but then I didn't know if that would get a bit awkward or forced.

However, the more we look at Whitman and Leaves of Grass, I realize that there isn't really a set anything that I can ask you to do. It's really more of a rally or challenge, a charge, much like Whitman leaves us over and over again. For Blog Post #15, I'm only going to give you one phrase (really two...I'm a girl who likes options): It was OR I was. All I'm asking is that you use these phrases (or just one of the phrases) for a jumping off point for this final blog. You can do whatever you want in the space- a Vlog, a collage, a poem, a letter, a reflection; simply leave your mark, a looking-back or a looking-forward (I am reminded of Whitman's words in "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry": "These and all else were to me the same as they are to you,/ I loved well those cities, loved well the stately and rapid river,/ The men and women I saw were all near to me,/ Others the same- others who look back on me because I look'd forward to them,/ (The time will come, though I stop here to-day and to-night").

A side note to get you started: I write a letter to my seniors every year because I'm nerdy and normally nostalgic at the end of the year. Here's a bit of what I wrote to 2014's group:

     1. “We must be cautious about passing moral judgment upon the Gileadean. Surely we have learned by now that such judgements are of necessity culture-specific...our job is not to censure but to understand.” – The Handmaid’s Tale, “Historical Notes on the Handmaid’s Tale”

Y’all know how I feel about Atwood/ The Handmaid’s Tale, but indulge me one more time with this one- is there really any better advice than “our job is not to censure but to understand”? * Nolite te bastardes carborandorum is also good to remember in times of frustration...or if you are losing a game of sexy Scrabble. *

2. “Grendel is no braver, no stronger/ Than I am! I could kill him with my sword; I shall not,/ Easy as it would be. This fiend is a bold/ And famous fighter, but his claws and teeth…/Beating at my sword blade would be helpless. I will meet/ With my hands empty-unless his heart/ Fails him, seeing a soldier waiting/ Weaponless, unafraid. Let God in His wisdom/ Extend His hand where He wills, reward/ Whom he chooses!” – Beowulf, lines 491-701

Don’t be afraid to show weakness- I think vulnerability and honesty are some of the most powerful traits we can offer one another. Also know that you are just as valuable as the next person- sure, the other guy might have an angry monster-mama to back him up, but you have an IB Diploma. Get at me, Grendel/college/life.

3. “This Nicholas anon leet fle a fart/ As greet as it had been a thunder-dent.” – The Canterbury Tales, “The Miller’s Tale” (Translation: This Nicholas then let fly a fart/ As great as if it had been a clap of thunder)

Laugh! One of the things that stuck with me this year was when Brian said something to the effect of, “No one in IB laughs.” I don’t think you need to fart or stab anyone with a red-hot poker, but do find someone to laugh with and something to laugh at. It makes you a more likable person #teammiller #justsaynotothereeve

4. “Yet I will try the last. Before my body/ I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff,/ And damn’d be him that first cries, ‘Hold, enough!’” – Macbeth, Act V, scene viii

While I am not advocating that you take advice from three hobo-witches you meet on the wild heath, I do think you should stand for what you believe in. If you truly think you are meant to be the King of Scotland, keep trying. However, also know that it’s okay to accept failure (especially if you notice the forest moving up to kill you…that also might be the time you call it a night).

5. “You start a question, and it’s like starting a stone. You sit quietly on the top of the hill and away the stone goes, starting others…” – Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Chapter 1

We’ve got a semi-Sisyphus situation going on here. Even though Stevenson is talking about starting rumors, let’s look at it as if he’s talking about questioning only. My one hope for you is that you never stop learning- you don’t always have to love it, but at least keep doing it (and maybe with that you also find something you love learning about.  Roll that stone up the hill, Sisyphus, but also don’t forget to watch to roll back down and take a moment to appreciate what you’ve accomplished and what you’re about to start. Just don’t Jekyll it up and squash people with your stone. At least not on purpose.

6. “A part of us stayed like that: fearful of the world around us, and-no matter how much we despised ourselves for it- unable quite to let each other go.” -Never Let Me Go

Remember who you are and where you've come from; remember what you’ve accomplished. You have done amazing things and you will continue to do amazing things. Help and support one another. Be cautious, but also don’t be afraid to leap into the unknown. This incredible life you are leading is not yet complete (Get it? Complete? Pun.).

7. “If something is going to happen to me, I want to be there.” – The Stranger

Be present. It is easy to question Meursault’s sanity, but he sort of was on to something. Is it best to go through life anticipating what the next or better thing will be, or is it best to appreciate what is before you in that moment? .........

As you write, think about what verse you will contribute!

Witty Whitman

(If you're watching Breaking Bad right now, don't watch the clip above)

On page 19 of Walt Whitman's notebook, amid notes including addresses and information about people he had met, Whitman writes, "small in theme yet has it the sweep of the universe." Though no explanation accompanies the statement, we (or maybe just me...those #englishteachertingles) might interpret it as the desire to explore universal themes, or maybe just the universe (!) through our own experiences. It's almost as if Whitman is challenging us to do so, challenging us to notice the seemingly mundane (like you do when looking at page 19). In "A Noiseless, Patient Spider" Whitman, while observing a spider weaving a web. becomes aware of his "soul … Ceaselessly musing, venturing, … Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere."

Sometime during the late fall or winter of 1860-61, Walt Whitman began an imaginary conversation with Abraham Lincoln that would continue for decades to come, inspiring several of the most famous poems in American literature. The poet began his dialogue with the president-elect “as in a dream.” Most of the notebook pages reproduced here have never before been published. — ADAM GOODHEART

Whitman's notebooks were characteristic of his writing process- using the notebooks as a source of the personal experience and universal themes explored in his poems. We'll consider this question during our study of Leaves of Grass: How does Whitman's poetry reflect his attempt to combine universal themes with the individual experiences and feelings? 

Before you start reading Whitman's poetry, spend some time reading his notebooks. The task for Blog #14 is below (the response to each step should be at least a paragraph...but I challenge you to explore even further than that): 

From The New York Times- “Disunion: Inside Walt Whitman’s Notebook”

Complete the following for Blog #14 (each should be at least a paragraph):

STEP 1) Go to https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/documents/walt-whitman-and-abraham-lincoln. Click on the "Document" tab. Scroll through Whitman’s notebook and write down anything you notice- can you make out any words? Images? What might be significant? What is revealed about Whitman through his inner thoughts?

STEP 2) Now click on the "Notes" tab . Click on each yellow tag (or click “next”) to see what Whitman actually wrote and why he wrote it. Look back at your original observations and add to them. Again, consider what is significant and what is revealed about Whitman. 

"Breathing dreams like air..."

The American Dream originated in the early days of the American settlement as immigrants searched for new and hopefully better opportunities. It first manifested in the Declaration of Independence, which describes an attitude of hope. The Declaration of Independence states that “all man are created equal and that they are endowed with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.” In The Great Gatsby, the American Dream is almost an additional character.

F. Scott Fitzgerald describes a new kind of American Dream, one that his audience in the 1920s would appreciate, be a part of, or perhaps even still simply yearn. Most of the people appearing in The Great Gatsby are full of hope, especially Gatsby who hopes  to win Daisy back. He has an "extraordinary gift of hope" (Fitzgerald 6, 10) and he sacrifices himself, his identity perhaps, to fulfill his dream.

For Blog #13, explore the idea of the “American Dream." This should serve as a reflection of who you are now and who you wish to become- hey, we’re studying the 1920s; in that spirit, let’s be optimistic. It would also be wise to consider culture, social values, etc. AND connect your own thoughts to what you see Fitzgerald doing in The Great Gatsby. Remember, we’re thinking about TEXTS and CONTEXTS for this part of the course.

To help you get started, here are four guiding questions that will ask you to consider your opinion, contemporary society, and Fitzgerald's context:

1. How would you describe the “American Dream?” Compare your own definition to the American Dream of the 1920s, and the American Dream in Fitzgerald's novel. 

2. What is your definition of wealth? Consider your definition with regards to how Fitzgerald defines, depicts, and develops the concept of wealth in the novel. 

3. What are Americans’ attitudes toward wealth and poverty? Discuss key scenes or events in the novel where wealth and poverty are compared or contrasted. Notice the subtle social commentary by Fitzgerald!

4. What is your attitude toward wealth and poverty?

                                         

You down with the IOC? Yeah, you know me!

First, a Naughty By Nature cover by The Muppets to pump you up:

Okay, now that we've gotten that out of the way: 

1) Complete a 20-minute "prep" for your passage (absent when Mrs. G handed out the passages? Let her know and she'll send one your way)

2) Next, record your practice IOC (remember, try to be in that 8 to 10 minute mark) and post it to your blog. See the instructions below if you need help with recording or posting.

3) Listen to your recording and score yourself. For each criterion, provide a brief justification/explanation. THIS SHOULD BE POSTED ON YOUR BLOG. You should also include the passage analyzed and your planning.

HELPFUL LINKS:

IOC Rubric 

IOC Overview Presentation

Sample IOC

IB Language A – IOC Practice

Instructions for using Voice Record (you may also choose to use vocaroo.com, another voice recording app, OR may decide to post a video):

PREPARING

1.       Open the Voice Record App

2.       Hit the red “RECORD” button (this will not start your recording)

3.       Make sure it is set to medium quality

 RECORDING

1.       Hit the “start” button

2.       SAY YOUR NAME FIRST, then start your commentary

3.       Stop your recording at 10 minutes (unless you finish earlier; don’t record silence until the 10-minute mark)

4.       Hit the  “STOP” button to end the recording

 SUBMITTING/ SHARING

1.       Of all the options, choose to email it to you AND post it to your blog. If you have an issue or aren’t sure how to post it, share or send it to me (lgenesky@wcpss.net)

Nothing Really Mattress (?): Kafka, Camus, and the Importance of Translation

First published in 1915, Franz Kafka's novella Metamorphosis tells the story of Gregor Samsa, who wakes to find himself transformed into a large insect. Though the cause of the transformation is never revealed, the novella focuses on Samsa's struggle  to adjust to his new identity. 


Between the 1920s and 30s, Kafka's works were published and translated (from the original German) and are considered iconic works of the twentieth century. Kafka emphasized the absurdity of existence, the conflicts that come with authoritarian power, and the alienating experience of modern life, which resonated with public after World War I. Though we can certainly find parallels between Samsa and Meursault's stories, Camus acknowledged that Kafka's work represented a description of the absurd condition, but that Kafka failed as an absurd writer because his characters and his work maintain a sense of hope. 


Take a look at the four translations below to the first line of Kafka's Metamorphosis. For each, provide a brief observation (can be a few sentences or a list- include in your post) of the following:

- diction (connotation/denotation)

- syntax

- imagery/details

- structure

- any other stylist/figurative elements

*Remember that the first line of The Stranger (or The Outsider) is sometimes translated as "Maman died today.", while another translation might read "Mother died today."  (Here's a great article from The New Yorker about this: "Lost in Translation" )
Translations: 
#1:Gregory Samsa woke from uneasy dreams one morning to find himself changed into a giant bug.


#2:When Gregor Samsa awoke from troubled dreams one morning he found he had been transformed in his bed into an enormous bug.

#3:As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.

#4:One morning, upon awakening from agitated dreams, Gregor Samsa found himself, in his bed, transformed into a monstrous vermin.

Original: Als Gregor Samsa eines Morgens aus unruhigen Träumen erwachte, fand er sich in seinem Bett zu einem ungeheuren Ungeziefer verwandelt.

After analyzing each, respond to the following questions in a well-developed (2-3 paragraphs) response- think about the translations as a whole: How does the word choice, syntax, punctuation, and imagery shift in each affect meaning? Is one more effective than another? Why? What does this exercise bring up about the difficulty of reading translated texts? How do different translations effect the tone of the sentence?

I've got you covered...

Examine the four covers of Never Let Me Go below. You will need to discuss all four, but will eventually choose two to compare using the guidelines provided to complete a thorough analysis.

   


Cover Analysis Guidelines: 

- Focus on the images and their intended purpose. 

- What similarities and differences do you find? Speculate on the reasons for the various covers.

- After briefly comparing and contrasting all four covers, choose two to examine more closely: 

1) What are the first words that come into your mind when you see this image?  What does it make you think of?
2) If you hadn't read any of the novel, what would this image make you think the book was about?  Now that you've read the novel, what kind of relationship(s) does this image have to the text?
3) Who seems to be portrayed?  From whose viewpoint are we looking?
4) Does this image spark any ideas about the cultural construction of the book?
5) What kinds of people would make this book, and what kinds of people would read it?

*These questions are only a starting place. Please feel free to explore and think about more issues raised by the images.

Once upon a time...

Set in an alternative 1990s Britain, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro is like a Greek tragedy, inciting both pity and terror...but also love and compassion. In a review of the novel for The Guardian, M. John Harrison explains that the novel, though often categorized as science fiction, is about life as we all experience it. Harrison ends his review with the following: “It’s about why we don’t explode, why we don’t just wake up one day and go sobbing and crying down the street, kicking everything to pieces out of the raw, infuriating, completely personal sense of our lives never having been what they could have been.”

In Against the Gods, Peter L. Bernstein contends that people are not so much risk averse as they are loss averse. We can imagine a few things that would make us feel better, but “the number of things that would make you feel worse is unbounded,” and some losses we know we could never recover from.

As we begin our study of Never Let Me Go, we will look deeply in to what it means to be human, what experiences make us human, and how those experiences are the stories we hold within ourselves. Blog #9 asks you to begin this examination by selecting and analyzing a TED Talk.

1) First, choose one of the TED Talks that deal with storytelling: https://www.ted.com/talks?topics%5B%5D=storytelling

2) After watching your selection, complete a rhetorical analysis of the talk/speaker. Be sure that you include a link to the talk so I can watch it as well. Use the following  to guide your analysis:

- A summary of the talk in your own words, starting with the argument of the talk (the point that the speaker is trying to convince us of) and moving through other ideas of the talk in a sequence of descending importance (your sequence might be different than the sequence of the talk). Don't add commentary at this point, simply recast the original. Remember that there is a transcript  included on the talk's web page so that you can read the talk as well as watch it.

- Analyze how the speaker gets his or her point across by working through the tools that the author uses to illustrate the concepts of the talk (it might be helpful to use the ethos, logos, and pathos breakdown below)

- Analyze your own relationship to the talk. Discuss what made you pick it and how it relates to you (think about some of the concepts we'll cover in this next unit, and also consider ideas we've discussed in the past)

Purpose: Identify what the purpose is of the Ted Talks presentation. What is the speaker attempting to communicate to the audience, and what is he/she hoping to achieve through this communication?

Ethos deals primarily with credibility.: Examine the author’s reputation, authority, and/or expertise.Should we put any stock in what he/she is saying? Why or why not? Identify  elements that contribute to the ethos of the writer/speaker.

Logos is concerned with the logic of the writer’s argument: In considering the writer’s use of logos,  analyze issues such as the quality and quantity of supporting evidence. You may also want to consider any bias that the writer might have toward the subject and the effect of that bias upon the argument being presented. Is the writer’s reasoning sound? How have they structured the arc of the presentation? In short, you will want to address any weaknesses and/or strengths in the logic of the argument. Identify evidence regarding the logos of this presentation.

Pathos deals with emotion: You should identify any attempts on the part of the writer to evoke a particular emotion from the audience. Additionally, you will want to consider whether or not appealing to emotion is an effective strategy for the argument being discussed.Identify examples of how the presenter is appealing to his/her audience’s emotions within his/her presentation.