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"What is art?"
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| | 9 | 5/6/2012 8:22 PM | This is sort of in response to the posts going around with people complaining about how a dot on a sheet of paper isn't true art.
I'm wondering when effort was required in order for something to be art. If a piece means something to the artist, or to someone else, why does that piece have to have taken hours to create for us to want to like it? Do time and effort equal value and meaning? Why are we so quick to say when something "isn't" art but as soon as we get to a poem we accept it as the "art" that it's taught to us it is? | | | | 12 | 5/6/2012 6:28 PM | I was reading this article the other day (http://www.av1611.org/tattoos/rebel.html) that pulled all these biblical and social examples of tattoos signifying rebellion which, apparently, is as bad as witchcraft and is punishable by death. The article also, however, went on to quote an author of a tattoo book who pointed out that "Since body art is still not mainstream, having marks on your body that you put there on purpose shows the world your rebellious and unconventional nature". However, if we look at tattoos as an art form--which I believe they are--and we compare them to, say, clothing, then the "outrageous" trends over the years must also be considered as the same caliber of rebellion, yes?
My question is this, is it possible for art to evolve in any conditions other than from the ashes of rebellion? | | | | 1 | 5/6/2012 4:27 PM | Whoever came and saw Syd and I perform Sloth Love truly got to experience real art. Thank you. | | | | 8 | 5/6/2012 4:20 PM | While I may have my own opinion on the content and message of the viral video, I must say that the video itself was an awesoe piece of work. In Intro to Video we watched it merely to discuss the way it was edited. With the high definition sun shots, the instagram like effects, multiple inspirational shots, and music consisting of dubstep AND Mumford and Sons, one cannot disagree that this video at least got their heart pumping, adrenaline rushing with either motivational activism or enraged disagreement. | | | | 10 | 5/6/2012 4:10 PM | What are your opinions on absurdist theatre? do you subscribe to its central message? is it a farce due to its self-contradictory nature? | | | | 12 | 5/6/2012 12:13 PM | As I go throughout high school I'm beginning to notice my problem with procrastination. Well, everyone says that procrastination is a problem, but I'm starting to believe that it's an art form. The ability for my peers and me to not do homework and then magically find a way to finish it during school by fifth hour is fantastic! Could procrastination be an actual presentation of art? How so? | | | | 5 | 5/6/2012 11:15 AM | Somebody pointed out to me the other day that "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mixalot is the newer or re-vamped version of "Fat Bottom Girls by Queen. It struck me that there are many older songs that have been put in different context, remixed, or simply redone in a different style of music just to fit the era music is in. So many different styles and forms of music have been made over the years, it is amazing to think what people will come up with as the next popular genre in the next 10 or 20 years. | | | | 0 | 5/3/2012 7:38 PM | http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/magazine/why-afghan-women-risk-death-to-write-poetry.html?
“You won’t allow me to go to school.
I won’t become a doctor.
Remember this:
One day you will be sick.”
—Poem written by an 11 year old Afghan girl
This article is pretty amazing. It's basically about a group of Afghan girls and women who find release and comfort in writing poetry, usually 2-4 lines, in secret about their lives. Whether it be their dislike of their home issues and confinement of being a woman in this society, about each other, or any other variety of topics, they give a peek into the lives of these girls and what they have to deal with. It's interesting to see how they deal with problems that are so different from the ones we have to deal with, yet they are also similar to us in many ways, too. But, it's also rather heart wrenching to see how, if they were to be found out by the males of the household saying their poetry and defying them, their lives would be affected. | | | | 16 | 5/2/2012 12:25 AM | WHy is swearing so bad? Pretty much everyone in high school Swears but the first time we swear we still always feel bad, or cool, or some random feeling. Swearing is becoming more cOmmon with younger kids. Now it is more common fOr middle schoolers to swear so in 50 years will it still be considered unacceptable? Or will it just be like the word shut or crap? | | | | 13 | 4/30/2012 11:45 AM | So we have prose, limericks, sonnets, slam poetry... is rap merely poetry set to music? I believe it is, but only when it conveys a meaning, not just ho's and money. Thoughts? :) | | | | 18 | 4/30/2012 11:23 AM | In first hour last week we were talking about the Ethan Frome movie and how Hollywood ruined it. We then started to discuss how this also happened to the twilight series. How instead of making the series about vampires they made it more of a love story. This conversation then came to the hunger games! I have been in the process of reading these books and i'm completely obsessed!Now that they are making a movie we talked about how they could easily ruin the films and make it a love story. These books are not a love story! Love is a minor theme in comparison to the major theme which is surviving the hunger games! So to anyone who has read the books, thoughts on the film adaptation? | | | | 1 | 4/30/2012 12:22 AM | So lately Ive been watching a lot of Downton Abbey and I noticed the absurd attention to the littlest details, in which seems an artform in itself. The details of the food, the etiquette and patterns when it comes to meals and inviting guests, etc. It is a little sad that many of those details have escaped this fast paced world of the 21st century but I would think that I would go out of my mind if I had to remember all the specific "dances" of everyday life. There is something to be said about our lazy ways and how it makes us more comfortable in our own homes and lives. | | | | 0 | 4/29/2012 5:30 PM | Swan Lake was a beautiful and fantastic. I was fascinating and mesmerizing - just watching the foot work and the movement of the dancer's leg muscles - it was beautiful. I had the misfortune of having someone with a rather round head sit right in front of me for the first half but the beginning of the second half, I had an unobstructed veiw...it was the most beautiful ballet I have ever seen. Even two days later I am still dreaming of the ballet. The costumes, the setup, the scenes, everything emphasized the beauty of the performers and their hard work. | | | | 6 | 4/29/2012 11:14 AM | Friday's lecture articulated a couple of thoughts that have been plaguing my mind. Mainly.... the idea that there could be "too much" art in the world. I know that this was not said explicitly, and it might sound crazy at first, but I realized on Friday that we are shown so many images, so much art, we are fed words and words and more words. The tv at my house is almost always on flipping from a commercial to a baseball game to PBS every 10 seconds. When the tv isn't on, my dad's teaching piano and I'm hearing every variation of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." Last night I saw Swan Lake (which was incredible!).... but all of these things, every creation that we see or hear is just that... a creation... it is not part of the real world. It is not a life experience or a factual occurence. It is an escape.
For those of you that know me, you know how INTO art I am. I freaking love music and theatre and dance and all of that stuff. And I've always known that that stuff is an illusion to make us feel differently. But is having so much art bad? Is being surrounded by art all of the time bad for our own health? Living in constant disillusionment? AHHHH!!! Aren't we all there? If we erased the art from the world, would it change that? What about religion? Or science? | | | | 17 | 4/29/2012 11:03 AM | I attached a file but the topic hardly needs a visual aid...Scarification.
I think the general consensus is that tattooing is an art form but do you guys think that the removal of skin is art? or a medieval torture strategy making a comeback? | | | | 5 | 4/29/2012 8:04 AM | "Poetry is the eloquence of truth." - Joseph Campbell
Poetry is often defined as a "literary work in which special intensity is given to the expression of feelings and ideas by the use of distinctive style and rhythm". That being said, I personally disagree with Campbell. In poetry truths are exaggerated and fabricated. Portraying truths in such a way takes away from the facts. On the other hand, what is truth? If signifiers can never accurately depict truthful events, must the essence of an idea be expressed in alternative, ambiguous ways? | | | | 19 | 4/29/2012 1:19 AM | We all know that school publications and kids in school in general have very few rights when it comes to the first amendment freedom of speech. School administrators and school boards generally have the final say in what can and can not be said and worn and expressed in the school building. But in my opinion this administrative privilege is sometimes taken too far, and becomes oppressive of the positive social, political, and artistic endeavors of a student body. What are your thoughts on freedom of speech in public schools? | | | | 11 | 4/15/2012 10:03 AM |
How cool is this?! Someone actually took the time to put together all these legos and create this person who looks as though he is trying to put himself back together. Personally, I have the attention span of a 2yr old pretty much and would never be able to focus long enough to make anything even remotely resemble the foot...But, one a more serious note, the whole symbol of him piecing back his arm is a beautiful concept - when you are broken, it is you who has to put yourself back together and move on. | | | | 3 | 4/6/2012 5:28 PM | Okay, so one of the questions that constantly pops up here is, "what exactly IS art?" So, I decided to create this post so we can try to answer that exact question.I know an exact definition is a tricky thing, because words are meaningless Derrida Derrida Derrida, so reply to this post by stating what you believe is the best possible definition of art. You can also state any aspects of my personal definition that you disagree with. My personal definition is this: Art is any form of external medium that is specifically created for the purpose of eliciting an emotional reaction in the audience in order to expose them to important idea or issue in the world. | | | | 8 | 3/25/2012 1:07 PM | Hey y'all! So I just found out about Kony today (call me ignorant, uninformed, whatever) but it seems that the online world is blowing up with this whole "Stop Kony" thing. I find it pretty damn inspirational! Here's a link to the video for anyone that hasn't seen it yet-- It's a worthwhile 30 minutes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5SqcThe basic premise is that we are in the age of social media, the online community, etc: we can see things, hear things instantly, and still we don't do anything about it. Still, there are billions of "invisible children." If we as people can help keep Kony at the top of the government's to do list, save some of the children in Uganda, then this social media thing is worth it. First of all, I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts about this. And second of all, I'd like to propose that we as AP Lit students participate on April 20 to cover the streets with Kony's face. Let's do it!! What do y'all think?
| | | | 1 | 3/25/2012 10:17 AM |
Brings an entirely new meaning to Bride-zilla.......... | | | | 3 | 3/23/2012 9:43 PM | Last weekend was the Detroit Kennel Club (DKC) Dog Show at Cobo Center downtown. We have some english setters that were bred especially for conformation (show ring) judging. Our puppy, Lexi, was graded to be the second best bitch out of the litter so, of course we were showing her at the DKC show. I was looking around and watching all the dogs get prepared and all the grooming and finishing touches that were being put on these dogs and couldn't help but wonder what was all the fuss about? Is there any difference between a rugged, au-naturale dog than a prim and properly trimmed dog? Well, of course DKC and AKC will say absolutely but then where does the true beauty lie? Is it necessary to breed dogs (and really any other living thing for that matter) in order to get the most prefered features? Why do we have to have all these guidelines for beauty (in dogs or in humans)? Why do we feel the need to follow them so closely? | | | | 5 | 3/23/2012 9:16 PM | http://museumofbadart.org/
This is a link that I thought would be interesting to discuss. It is a museum that is meant to display all of the bad art that the curators find, it might be hard to decide what art is, but what is bad art? What is good art? | | | | 12 | 3/4/2012 9:46 AM | I'm not exactly sure what the painting is called, but it is at the DIA and is apparently very famous. I was shocked when I heard this. The painting in a single white line painted horizontally across the middle of a plain red canvas. THIS IS NOT ART. A half dead sloth could have painted that. Art is something with meaning, value, or something that people can relate to in their own way. How are you supposed to relate to what looks like a boring ping pong table? If you are one of the people who says you see something in it or can relate to it, you are full of it. Simply making an effort to be "different" than everyone else and be artsy and hip by looking at this as art shows you probably don't really know what you are talking about. Then again, neither do I. | | | | 5 | 3/3/2012 11:02 PM | You probably know him as the really chill guy with the afro who used to be on PBS painting a new nature landscape every week. I started watching him a few years ago as a joke, laughing at how calm he was and how he called things in his paintings "happy trees" or "happy little clouds." Soon I actually began to appreciate his works, watching his unique paint style and techniques form a magnificent natural world in only 30 minutes. I later found out that he used to be an army drill sergeant,"the guy who makes you scrub the latrine, the guy who makes you make your bed, the guy who screams at you for being late to work," as he put it. Soon he found painting to be a relaxing outlet, and vowed never to yell again. It's difficult to picture a genuinely relaxed and kind person like him yelling at people to get work done. It's also amazing how art can change a person like that too, going from a screaming drill sergeant to a soft spoken painter. I actually got the Bob Ross official paint set and have painted a few things myself, and while they aren't good by any means, it's cool how relaxing an art form that simple really can be, especially if you get good at it. | | | | 3 | 2/26/2012 12:26 PM | This post is in response to a belief that seems to be rather prevalent among people that angst is art. I find this to be...irritating. But what is art, really? Well, nobody really knows because nobody can agree on an exact definition because words are meaningless and signifier is not signified Derrida Derrida Derrida. Mr. Chisnell claims that art comes from pain, but I don't quite agree with this. I suppose if I had to define art, art is some form of external medium which causes you to have an emotional or intellectual response. Of course, even this definition is imprecise because you could claim that rape is art because it's causing you to have an emotional response in the form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and this just goes to show you that words really are a meaningless and ineffective form of communication Derrida Derrida Derrida. But I realize I'm digressing. I don't dismiss angst as art because it's annoying (although it is {fly to Africa and find one of those starving 12-year-olds whose parents have died of AIDS and see if they want to hear you whine about how your boyfriend broke up with you after you two dated for three whole months}), I dismiss angst as art because it's selfish. You're expressing your own emotions, not trying to elicit an emotional response in others. So that sums it up. I realize that this post was really long and rambling but I couldn't help myself. DON'T JUDGE ME! I'M NOT FAT, I'M JUST BIG-BONED! "FAT" IS JUST A MEANINGLESS WORD DERRIDA DERRIDA DERRIDA. | | | | 8 | 2/26/2012 11:57 AM | I've long been dreaming about writing a musical in the style of hip-hop-a-pop-a-rock-a-pella-opera. If you haven't guessed, it would fuse hip-hop, pop, rock, opera, and of course, it would be all a cappella. My question is this: is that too many different genres? I would do my best to smooth the kinks between them, but would I lack an audience for this new style because it is in fact, too many styles?
Now to broaden this crazy question: are artists forced to write/ create/ perform in one genre so that the audience doesn't get confused? Fantasy novels, sci-fi, and historical fiction have different audiences than self-help, psychological thrillers, and travel books, but it doesn't make each genre any worse or less important. Before I spend time writing a hip-hop-a-pop-a-rock-a-pella-opera, I want to know your thoughts on the subject! | | | | 9 | 2/26/2012 11:51 AM | Let me start off my saying that I admire the work of Barbara Kruger. While simple, each piece is poignant. To me, this work symbolizes society and the media's inability to see someone for everything they are. Instead, they see what they want to see. After studying this piece my sophomore year I was introduced to the idea of the "male gaze"; a feminist ideal stemming from the objectification of women in advertising. In this case, they see the subject as an object, seeing the side of her that they choose to see and nothing more. Kruger most likely intends to portray this idea of the male gaze from the perspective of the woman. I, on the other hand, have also received a much more personal message. Many of us have been the victim of direct or indirect attacks in school. When you feel targeted, it's as if the gazes of your peers can be physically painful. This gives the term "hits" a new meaning. I have experienced this sensation in situations regarding my parents. Whilst being chastised, whether seen or unseen, the stares of a parent are felt. Are there any other meanings that one could derive from this work?  | | | | 9 | 2/22/2012 5:04 PM | I saw this on Facebook today and found it really interesting!
"A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that 1,100 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.
Three minutes went by, and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace, and stopped for a few seconds, and then hurried up to meet his schedule.
A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping, and continued to walk.
A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.
The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried, but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally, the mother pushed hard, and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.
In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money, but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.
No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the most talented musicians in the world. He had just played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, on a violin worth $3.5 million dollars.
Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.
This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste, and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?
One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be:
If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?"
So would you stop and listen to the violinist? What if you were unfamiliar with the difficulty of the Bach pieces? Can you blame those who were naive?
| | | | 9 | 2/19/2012 12:25 PM | Ashley posted about tattoos deriving from the ashes of rebellion, and this got me thinking about different types of rebellious art forms, so instead of making things confusing I just decided to create a new post. What I was curious about is how artist rebel against the temporary canvas, and broaden their work spaces to not just paper, but skin, walls, or even food. We talked about how marking your skin with tattoos, that are forms of art in themselves, is a rebellious art form. Isn't it just art on a new canvas? We see murals painted from spray paint on the side of buildings, and it's considered illegal. Why do artist choose to paint and perform in places where they have a chance of getting in trouble or going against what society views are right? | | | | 16 | 2/19/2012 11:03 AM | This is one of my favorite paintings. Pablo Amaringo created art in hopes of conveying his hallucinations while under the influence of psychedelic drugs and "home brews". I suppose this post is in response to the initial "Is It Art If You Have To Be High" thread, whereas I wanted to see others response to viewing a piece created while high and created for those who aren't under the influence of the same drug. There is little "meaning" to his work, except in that he is telling a story, much like you would tell a friend how a film was after you saw one, Amaringo depicts his experiences through scrapped art supplies to share his visions under the influences of salvia and ayahuasca. So, is this art? Do you have to be high to appreciate it? Discuss with me! | | | | 1 | 2/19/2012 10:35 AM | I don't know how many other people are doing the Ayn Rand scholarship thing, but I am. I absolutely love the book, but I can't tell how realistic it is. Both main characters in the first section are exaggerations of real people that used to juxtapose each other. My assumption is that this is supposed to bring out her big objectivity argument, but it's making me feel like this fiction has no real ties to the real world. Thoughts? | | | | 5 | 2/18/2012 1:29 PM | This line was stood out extremely for me, as I'm sure it did for everyone else. Throughout the poem, everything seems to be dying, decaying, falling apart and turning into nothing. A "shadow" keeps falling, and a kingdom continues to be referenced as a part of the Apostle's Creed prayer. Towards the end of the poem before the last line, instead of saying "For Thine is the Kingdom", the narrator can't finish the sentence. It seems as though the world ends with no hope, no kingdom to go to, no big explosion to end our lives. Instead a decaying, slow fall of everything we once were. | | | | 8 | 2/18/2012 1:24 PM | I got into a strange discussion the other day about the meaning of art. This person continually stated that they thought art meant something different to everyone, because no two people are exactly alike, and therefore no two people can have an identical emotional/logical/psychological reaction to art. They were very affronted that I would suggest that their feelings about the art had nothing to do with its meaning. I tried to explain that I wasn't saying their appreciation of art and its influence on them didn't matter - merely that I believe the meaning of art is found within the work, and that the MEANING of a piece of art/writing/music is NOT the same as "what it means to them."
Now to the question:
Is AP English teaching us to completely disassociate our appreciation of art from analyzing its content?
On one hand, being educated about the intricacies of writing helps us to effectively decipher works of literature and - if not learn that its widely accepted meaning is off the mark - at least discover subtle nuances within it that we wouldn't otherwise have seen. But then, shouldn't art also be about recreating and expressing beauty and pain and everything in between? In evoking an emotional response? In conveying an idea or Truth? Could analyzing art take away from this aspect? Or does the ability to fully understand literature give us deeper appreciation for it? | | | | 7 | 2/18/2012 8:57 AM | Why couldn't Beethoven find his composition teacher??
..... cuz he was Hayden.
What do you get when you drop a piano on an army base?
...... A Flat Major.
What do you get when you play New Age music backwards?
...... New Age music.
----Okay I love these joke. Perhaps more than other jokes because they make me feel special in a way. It's like the "This is not in the score" picture that was going around facebook a while ago. At the bottom of the picture was the warning: If you are not a music reader, you won't get this...
The jokes are not meant to exclude people, but rather unite (in a very small way) the people that get it. In this case, the music folk. Not to be confused with the folk music. Haha. I'm still shelling out the puns.
But on a different note. Omg I did it again. Note. Lol. But on a different note, look at all of the literature out there that is geared toward one specific audience. There's the childrens book, the romance novel, the athletic anthology (that probably exists, right?), Suze Orman's books, etc. Each screams of the type of person that will read it.
If I laugh at a music joke or tell puns in a place where people won't get them, is that considered exclusion?
If literature and art excludes-- which by defintion, it HAS to, (by being ambiguous to a certain group of people whose experiences do not allow for understanding), isn't that kind of mean?
And my main question, shouldn't art ULTIMATELY promote good behavior? I know that it often doesn't, but SHOULDN'T IT? If art indirectly connotes exclusion, then it shouldn't exist anymore right? But if we burned all of the books that excluded, we wouldn't have any books.
This is a lot of circles that I just talked in, but lemme know your thoughts! | | | | 1 | 2/13/2012 6:35 PM | | | | | 15 | 2/12/2012 12:58 PM | I was just curious as to what others wrote about for the poem "Blackberry Picking" that was given to us on the Midterm. I personally wrote about how the diction accented the narrators forbidden pleasures of lust and greed, and how he always wished for these sensations to be infinite, although each year they tragically ended. However, that was just my interpretation. What are some other thoughts? | | | | 5 | 2/12/2012 11:45 AM | The poem What are years by Marianne Moore was dicussed in class today and I really haven't stopped thinking about it so I thought to jump right one her and share my thoughts. The poem made me kind of realize that there isn't just one certain standard to try and live up to. I love the paradoxes throughout the poem such as "dumbly calling" and "deafly listening" they made me do a double and even triple take to try and decode what was going on. I also loved the line "All are naked, none is safe. I thought of this as saying we all have to go out and just take whatever comes our way, good or bad. No one is completly safe. | | | | 7 | 2/11/2012 8:20 PM | So, I did my poetry presentation yesterday on Sylvia Plath's "Mad Girl's Love Song," and my question was whether the poem was based on a psychological or real situation. However, as we discussed it, it became clear that there was no definite solution, and it was most likely both, or that her psychology is her reality.
It struck me again yesterday how much this class is changing how I look at the English language and literature. I feel like we used to be asked "or" questions a lot in previous years, and there was always a definite answer that the instructor was looking for. Are there others who are still kind of set in this structure as well, or am I the only one who is still having trouble shifting out of my former writing/interpreting habits? | | | | 15 | 2/10/2012 9:14 PM |
I used to dislike abstract art because I always found it difficult to see a clear message that is more often more clear in paintings have more percise, specific lines. I am starting to like the seemingly disorder of more abstract pieces more and more but I still can't necessarily find a 'meaning' or 'message'. Does art, especially abstract art, have to have such? If so, what do you think this one is saying? | | | | 1 | 2/6/2012 7:10 PM | Now, maybe I'm just not couth enough to adequately appreciate Einstein on the Beach, but the entire time I was watching it I was considering how it was similar to watching paint dry with one track of modern classical music on repeat for two hours. I will call it art, because it certainly is, and I cannot image the amount of skill it takes to be an actor in that opera, but come on. Taking into account that I only stayed two hours, there is always the possibility that it got better, but wow. I have never walked away from a production with the feeling of relief to be leaving it. Please, weigh in. | | | | 7 | 2/4/2012 11:00 PM | You know those shape poems or whatever they're called? Lord in heaven I hate those things. For one thing, I think that they imply that the reader is stupid. "Don't get the message of this poem... well it's about our destruction of nature... I got it! Now it looks like a flower, you can't possibly miss it!" I'm not saying that I think all shape poems poets think that we are stupid, but I think that it is a a little condescending. Furthermore, I think that they make the poet seem incompetent. "Hi, I can't get a message out without making a picture of it." I also think they make the poem super childish. And here's another thing I don't like about them- they aren't realistic. I am strictly talking margins here. I make programs and flyers and junk. And making margins and spacing right sucks. It is waaaaay too much work. So after writing their poems these people or the guys who wrote the poetry book have to space it out to look the way it is supposed to, in a shape. Additionally, the shape poems created before computers and printing tech aren't exact;y as they appeared when the poet first wrote them, because he WROTE them, not TYPED them. So I think that it is a giant waste of effort and time to make shape poems and it looks silly and childish and it really annoys me because I would not want to be the typist who had to print these things. I hate them lots and lots. | | | | 2 | 2/2/2012 12:41 AM | Today in class, we read the poem The Hollow Men by T.S. Elliot while watching a video off the movie Apocalypse Now, where the poem is read by Kurtz. In the fifth part, he lists many different elements, such as reality, conception, creation, essence, existence, etc., and states that in between these things "falls the Shadow." At first, we thought the shadow could represent the corruption and eventual fall of civilization. However, the elements Elliot lists suggest something much broader. According to this, the Shadow could represent some kind of descent into madness for all of mankind. | | | | 13 | 1/30/2012 11:21 PM | I've noticed that in class every time someone gives a new interpretation on a poem everyone jumps on the bandwagon and exclaims "Yes, I agree with that now!" It happened four times in third hour on Friday. I think that we are all in danger of this though. In the beginning of the year we would challenge each others ideas and create our own interpretations. Now it feels like the entire class shifts their agreement each time there is a new interpretation. Even if they have agreed to the last three dissenting opinions. I think we are getting lazy. | | | | 11 | 1/29/2012 9:54 AM | Last week during Rachel's poem we talked a lot about how women will judge each other based on the clothes they where and how they look. I think men do the same thing just on a different level. When I see guys from different schools walking by me, I swagger walk. I judge them because I don't know them and they don't go to my school. It's not just me either. I notice almost every guy do the same thing. If I see a kid wearing strange clothes, I'll think "what a fruit." This could be considered stereo typing because that's what it is. But everyone does it, maybe not on a conscious level, but that is what we naturally do and it's impossible to avoid. | | | | 5 | 1/22/2012 1:33 PM | SO- this is a poem I wrote a couple of minutes ago. So don't judge! Actually, judge all you want, I don't care! But the quote from "Heart of Darkness" seemed to slither right in and I thought I would put it the poem on here just to get all y'all's take on it... if you think it is super dumb, let me know! If you hate it, let me know! Basically, I'm using these boards for selfish means because I know all y'all are smart and have awesome opinions about things and I'd like to hear your take on this. So here it is!
Like a Scab
My stomach coiled the rest of me around it
And there I was, a destitute ball
Pitiful as a prostitute
Nightfall plummeted
And there I was, a jarring gall
On the edge of the earth
Waiting to be picked off like a scab
The sun swathed the wet ground
And there I was, in the feverish
Hot white bright light
And though the sun shone strongly on the key
And though it was close enough for me to
Reach, I kept myself in the golden chains
Waiting to be picked up like a scab
To be viewed with his look of disgusted captivation
“the fascination of the abomination”
And I prepared my look for this person:
Grateful for, and just as captivated with, abomination. | | | | 1 | 1/22/2012 9:41 AM |
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening off the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep. | | | | 8 | 1/15/2012 6:43 PM | In 3rd hour Jorah read the poem "In Medias Res". Concrete (meaning it was also a picture), this poem in a way told the story of a man and his bellies girth, which continued to grow with time. While the class had debate over whether the poem was humorous or grim, it was decided that either way the poem still emphasized the theme of "inevitability." | | | | 13 | 1/15/2012 2:01 PM |
This painting is by William-Adolphe Bouguereau. I saw it while visiting the DIA, and I overheard a woman explaining to someone else how one of the girls in the picture is actually a highborn girl, and the other is more like peasantry, and the higherborn one is somehow seeking information about the world from the more worldly and experienced one. I have no idea if she was right, or if I heard what she was saying right, but the idea that there is more to this painting than meets the eye was intriguing. _-_The_Nut_Gatherers_(1882).jpg/400px-William-Adolphe_Bouguereau_(1825-1905)_-_The_Nut_Gatherers_(1882).jpg) | | | | 20 | 1/14/2012 9:07 PM |
I thought this was sweet-- But what I found even more interesting was that it was a sand sculpture (a medium of art which has become quite popular!). The crazy thing about sand art and chalk art, etc is that they have their moment of beauty, their "moment onstage," but then the wind or the rain or time carries them away. Of course this particular piece of art will continue on because it was captured in a photograph, but that isn't true of all 'temporary art.' This is so sad to me! Why even put energy into creating something that you KNOW won't have lasting impact? Why? If it cannot physically last the test of time, then it certainly can't become a classic. So why even do it? | | | | 7 | 1/14/2012 12:28 AM | SO GUYS!
you know when RAS is riding around on his big white horse trying to provoke destruction and rebellion? well there is this painting at the DIA that shows a young "ghetto" black man on a big white horse, with a sword, in a white wifebeater and sagging jeans
the painting is full of color and texture. The posing is actually based of a historic portrait of a european general going to war, and all of that flamboyancy and power is on display. but it is somehow deeply unsettling to see the hoodlumesque man on this horse, it seems ridiculous and contrary and wrong.
the painting is a lot about that reaction, our preconceptions regarding race and situation and about power regarding socioeconomic and racial status
RAS is on his big white horse, which is actually a vegetable cart horse, riding around with his spear and old old shield, just as ridiculous seeming as the painting.
I wish I could post a link to the painting for you guys, but I can't remember its name or find it. | | | | 22 | 1/13/2012 11:49 AM | Are films like 2001 a space odyssey art if they were created for viewing while stoned? My father and I were discussing this while watching Naqoyqatsi. | | | | 6 | 1/8/2012 7:45 PM | In 3rd hour we read the poem "Dover Beach", which coincidentally is one of Mr. Chisnell's favorites. The poem seemed to give a depressing, end-of-of the world setting for two lovers who seemed worried about what to do next. A theme emphasized in the poem was how love could be used as a security blanket in a world of uncertainty. Turns out that this poem is actually a love poem/ pick up line on how the "the world is bad, but we've got each other babe" | | | | 3 | 1/8/2012 7:21 PM | Last week we read the poem The Colonel in class. We had a long disscussion on why it was considered a poem. It all had to do with the format. It seemed like a paragraph from a book, but many still thought of it as a poem. Anna made a good point. She said that if it were from a book, she would be looking for context instead of focusing solely on the paragraph. She wouldn't have looked as deeply at it. I think that it could be considered a poem. | | | | 10 | 1/8/2012 12:07 PM | The poem that I presented this week, "In Just", was a very good example of reading deeper into the poem. If you just read it lightly, it seems to just be a happy poem about children just being carefree. But, if you read deeper into the poem, you will see that it is not at all carefree, it is about molestation. " A balloonman" summoning children to him, a "goat-footed balloonman." Also, the odd spacing suggests that there is something behind the "happy" feel. | | | | 4 | 1/8/2012 1:04 AM | The poem that was presented today was The Whipped. Our main discussion was distinguishing speaker shifts and the number of speakers. We concluded that having multiple speakers in a poem adds another dimension to the poem. | | | | 3 | 1/8/2012 12:21 AM | Sonnets are generally considered to be the classic poetic form. They are, in fact, almost 800 years old. Almost all of the famous poets revert to writing sonnets at some point in their lives. My question is why this type of poem has stood the test of time. Why have sonnets outlasted so many other forms, and remained so popular? The sonnet's structure is very strict, and does not seem to offer much room for artistic variation. This appears counter intuitive to its longevity as a poetic form. I'd imagine that these strict rules appeal to poets, who view the iambic pentameter and consistent rhyme scheme as more of a challenge than a hindrance. | | | | 3 | 1/5/2012 8:00 PM | | | | | 2 | 1/3/2012 7:36 PM | I hope so. Anyway this is an admissions essay I wrote where yo were supposed to be a nerd. So I talked about HP vs. Twilight.
A great debate has gripped our nation, has gripped the world. While the media focuses on protests against despotic dictators and presidential campaigns, I am bringing to light a matter that the citizenry of the world must finally take a stand on. Each of us must decide if they are on the side of good or the side of evil. Each of us must decide which is better: Harry Potter or Twilight?
There can be no question of who should be the righteous victor. Harry Potter must triumph. If the world wishes to continue to value well-written literature, positive role-models and relationships, and to uphold the public morality it cannot allow Twilight to succeed.
Harry Potter has a plot. An orphan wizard boy and his friends have magical adventures, endure adolescent trials, and battle the nefarious Lord Voldemort. The proclaimed plot of the Twilight series is the relationship between Bella Swan, the protagonist, and Edward Cullen, her sparkly vampire boyfriend. That isn’t a plot, unless you’re dealing in C-rated romance novel’s in the dollar section of Walgreens next to a sheaf of the Dora the Explorer stickers and a box of shoe insoles that someone has already opened. JK Rowling can weave a story using dynamic language, imagery, and realistic dialogue. Stephenie Meyer abuses a thesaurus, utilizes no variety in section structure, pens nauseating purple prose, and tries to make dialogue as awkward and silly sounding as possible.
The Boy Who Lived is a hero. He always puts the greater good before himself, risking his life countless times to save the wizarding world. The Vampire Who Sparkles can’t see past his fawning girlfriend long enough to do any good to anyone but himself. Bella and Edward remain completely self-absorbed throughout the entire series, never sacrificing anything for others, obsessed with their ‘forever’ together. Relationships in Harry Potter form out of mutual experience, respect, and love. The relationship between Bella and Edward constitutes abuse. There are constant power plays, stalking, physical violence, and emotional manipulation. Edward removes the engine from Bella’s car so that she can’t see her friend because he’s jealous. Both of them decide that self-harm and suicide are the best options when their significant other leaves them.
The success of Harry Potter over Voldemort is a symbol of love’s defeat of hate, of tolerance’s triumph over bigotry. Voldemort is prejudice against non-wizards and cruel to those who oppose him, while Harry Potter is accepting of all backgrounds and harms only in defense of himself and others. It is only through love for the people he befriended through his great adventure that he is able to sacrifice himself to save them, and that sacrifice allows him to return and destroy Voldemort at last, as love is a “power the Dark Lord knows not”. Twilight’s duo revel in their vampiric superiority over humans and struggle against no real evil except the freakish cesspool that is their relationship, which they inevitably succumb to.
I am genuinely interested in what people think on this topic. | | | | 9 | 1/1/2012 6:24 PM | Yesterday in sixth hour we read a poem called The Colonel by Carolyn Forché. This poem, however, was in a slightly different format than the poems most are used to: it was in paragraph form. Just one paragraph, but a paragraph nonetheless--this confused a lot of us, even Chisnell (at least he pretended to be confused). Where do you draw the line between poem and paragraph; what makes a person decide to write a poem and not a short story? A lot of people in my class came to the conclusion that a poem is made by emotion--both the emotion put into the work and the emotion taken from it as a reader. However, I've read some novels that evoke similar emotions as a lot of poems... Is it really such a fine line between mediums of art? Is it really that important? | | | | 10 | 12/30/2011 11:07 PM | As we discussed the Seven Dwarfs poem, we brought up many interpretations of why she chose to go to a nunnery after leaving her marriage. One interesting view that was brought up was that the speaker wanted to get away from all men, and so a nunnery would provide that. But then a point was raised, when you are in a nunnery, arn't you still under men's control? Another point was raised that she wanted to redeem herself and free herself from her sins. But the church hurt her. The passage represented from the bible in the poem, stated that all women must obey there husband, but what if you are abused or unhappy? So why would she go to St. Ann's? | | | | 2 | 12/30/2011 10:59 PM | So in discussing Little Red Riding Hood Mr. Chisnell has talked a lot about Into the Woods and it's perception the Little Red story. It doesn't hide he fact that it's about sex. Little Red sings a song about how she should have listen to her mother, and not strayed from the path, and how the wolf "seemed so nice." However, the comment on archetypes is prevalent throughout the play. The character of the wolf traditionally also plays Cinderella's prince. The prince that cheats on his wife. In the first half of the play the Baker's Wife goes into the woods with her husband to help him, and always encounters good people ON THE PATH, namely Cinderella. In the second half when she sets of into the woods when the path is shattered, she meets Cinderella's prince and is seduced. Then she dies.
Okay, so here's a list of all the people that die in Into the Woods and why I think they were chosen to die in parenthesis: The Baker's Wife (she cheats), Rapunzel (she abandons her mother for a man), The Witch (uhh.. she's a witch), Jack's Mother (she tries to control her son and yells at authority figures), The Mysterious Old Man (he abandons his family), and the wolf (he assaults a young girl).
Now all the important people that live. The Baker (he's the protagonist and he is never tempted), Little Red (she strays yes, but learns from this to not stray, regrets her decision, and gets a knife to protect herself from men), Cinderella (she's beautiful and kind and never does anything wrong), Jack (he's a boy, and he kills only bad things like giants), and the Princes (they cheat. So why do they live?)
Obviously Sondheim is telling us the people that deserve to live. Yes, Into the Woods is a commentary on fairytales, but it also propagates the messages of fairytales. The princes don't die because, well, they're men. They are animalistic in their desires, wolfish if you will. But they are all charming, and handsome, well mannered, considerate etc (sorry if I messed that up guys). So they can live. Only when they turn into wolves and pray on young girls can their punishments be justified. I think a lot of this is summed up in one of the chorus songs of the show. During it all of the men first sing "Into the woods but not to stray!" and then the girls echo with "Or tempt the wolf." Men shouldn't stray, and girls shouldn't yield to temptation.
| | | | 16 | 12/18/2011 12:25 AM | So I keep saying Twilight isn't art. /but I haven't explained why. In the comments is an essay I wrote sophomore year about why Twilight is crap (it's a little over the top because we were supposed to be writing emotionally like Patrick Henry). | | | | 7 | 12/17/2011 9:27 PM | The discussion about 'what is art' got to be two pages, and I have a question that I want answered, but I feel like it was about to get lost...so here it is:
Is art about growing as a person (and what is that?) or is it about pointing out humanity's traits, or is it both? Or none? | | | | 5 | 12/17/2011 8:03 PM |
In 6th hour on Tuesday, Angelica presented the poem " Curiosity" by Alastair Reid. (click "Curiosity for link to poem!) It compared the free-living "cats" of the world and the obedient "dogs." Both sides look at the other and think that they are missing something or doing something wrong in their lives. The poem seems to have a preference to the cat way of life, almost encouraging the dog-types to try it out. The cats are the ones who have the interesting and exciting stories to tell! From their point of view, you are not truly living unless you are curious and try new things out, rather than staying at home and not experiencing anything. It seems to show that being curious and trying new things will not be the death of you, it will only make you live more. The dogs may think that the cats can only get away with such things because they have nine lives, but they could do it too, if they only tried it out. Not everything that strays from the normal flow of their lives will get them in trouble or hurt or whatever the dogs may think will happen if they try them out. The cats seem to be saying that we're going to die at some point anyway, why not have a good time while we're still here!? | | | | 12 | 12/17/2011 7:59 PM |
Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.
Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.
Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends
..............................................................................
I just thought that I would bring up a more modern poem that everyone might be familiar with from elementary school. I know that there are many different interpretations as to the general meaning, but what I want to know the most is why the grass is WHITE. So whatever you want to say about the rest of the poem, fine, but I want to to know what the significance of the white grass is!!! | | | | 7 | 12/13/2011 6:30 PM | This poem obviously related to the catholic church. She wanted to escape to a nunnery, most likely to avoid marriage. I wonder if the seven dwarfs stand for anything is the poem, otherwise the author could have just calle dit Snow White. I think that the seven dwarfs might stand for the seven deadly sins? | | | | 1 | 12/11/2011 1:54 PM |
Constantly Risking Absurdity was the poem I presented on Thursday in first hour; it was a poem using a metaphor about acrobats to compare a poet and his work. The structure went all over the page resembling the moves and tricks an acrobat performs like performing entrechats, sleight-of-foot tricks and death-defying leaps and how they move all over the stage which is similar to some poets. Their work is risky and there is a chance that they could mess up and push their work too far. The last couple lines, beauty stands and waits with gravity to start her death-defying leap And he a little charleychaplin man who may or may not catch her fair eternal form spreadeagled in the empty air of existence describes that at the end they take risks sometimes risks that he or she might not be ready to do. Charleychaplin man shows that if the poet messes up he will be viewed as the comic just like if the acrobat were to mess up he or she will be viewed as a joke. Lastly the crazy structure was a way for the poet to try to break and establish new rules but by using rhythm and rhyme he kept it original. | | | | 1 | 12/11/2011 12:47 PM | Hey guys! Just wanted to give a little history that I found interesting about the Bonstelle.
It was originally built as the Temple Beth-El by Albert Kahn, a prominent architect during the early 20th century. Kahn built many things in the city of Detroit, including the Fisher building and the Belle Isle Zoo, many buildings on UofM's campus, and hundreds if not thousands of buildings commissioned by Mr. Henry Ford. He also built the Edsel and Eleanor Ford Home in Grosse Pointe Shores (which is gorgeous, by the way. I just visited it yesterday, and highly recommend it.)
Anyways, the Bonstelles bought it in 1922 and converted it to a theatre, was sold a few times, then came into the hands of Wayne State, who initially rented it, and eventually purchased it. | | | | 2 | 12/11/2011 10:15 AM | Last Tuesday in 3rd hour I lead a poetry discussion on "Riddle," which you can read here:
http://kitkat211.blogspot.com/2008/03/riddle-by-william-heyen-along-with.html
My question was, "What is the answer to the riddle Heyen is discussion, and how does repetition and parallel structure lead you to this conclusion?" We answered pretty quickly that the parallelism within the 2nd, 5th, and 6th stanza suggested that Heyen was saying everyone, no matter their direct proximity to the Holocaust, held some responsibility.
This lead to a larger, inevitably more unsettling question. To what degree are we responsible for the wrong, death, and persecution happening nationally and internationally today? If we know about and do not act against these atrocities, are we aiding the wrongdoers? Do we then share the guilt, the blame? What if we aren't aware of the issues? As the Invisible Man brings up, to what and to whom are we responsible? | | | | 7 | 12/10/2011 2:39 PM | In first hour, we read a poem called In Just, by EE cummings. Chisnell said that when students read the poem last year, they thought it was a nice poem about a man giving balloons to children, and nothing more sinister than that. First of all, the ending word of each line didnt rhyme. How could you have a childrens poem if it doesnt rhyme? THat obviously shows that things are not all thgether right, and that there is some kind of tension between the children in the story and the balloon man. | | | | 15 | 12/9/2011 9:58 PM | Today in 3rd hour, Mr. Chisnell brought up an interesting concept. He said all art follows a time of suffering, for all good literature and art is the spawn of either pain or redemption from pain. I had never thought of art this way. It's kind of morbid and depressing, but also very true. | | | | 0 | 12/7/2011 11:35 PM | Notes from the beginning of the year on a poetry discussion that first hour had. Thought I would share:
"Poetry- To His Coy Mistress
Adds accents to add syllables to words to keep meter constant. Take out letters of words to take away syllables. Poem says: 'Hey, we don't have forever, so you should have sex with me instead of dying a virgin... cause that's stupid.'
MEDIEVAL PICK UP LINE #WAT
-Starts off sweet then gets sexual. Not an innocent poem. 'Dying a virgin is lame.'
I really hope I have improved on my note taking and analyzing skills since the beginning of the year. | | | | 0 | 12/6/2011 6:05 PM | Today in first hour we read the poem Crossing the Bar, which uses an extended metaphor relating to traveling on a boat to an instance of death. It was first unclear about whether the speaker was facing death at that moment, or if he was simply speaking the death he knew he would have to face eventually. In my opinion, I believe the speaker was addressing his death as he saw it in the future, using language suggesting that, when the time came, he would accept it. He was accepting of the death he knew was inevitable. However, there was also language suggesting that he was apprehensive, insecure, or uneasy about death, as any human would be. The last line in every stanza was a phrase that referred to death: "When I put out to sea, Turns again home, When I embark, and When I have crossed the bar." He keeps repeating the idea of death over and over, which gives off the fact that he is somewhat fearful of it.
Also, I searched deeper into the meaning of the phrase "moaning of the bar." I found that when there is not a sufficient amount of water over a sandbar to clear it with a boat, it makes a moaning noise with the wind, letting sailors know that it is unsafe. If this moaning is not present, it means the tide is high enough to sail over the bar. The poem states, "And may there be no moaning of the bar, When I put out to sea, But such a tide as moving seems asleep, Too full for sound and foam..." Going along with this information, the phrase states that there is a full tide, or high water, making the passage over the bar safe. This could be the speaker assuring himself that the journey over the "bar" into the afterlife will be a safe and easy one after he has passed. | | | | 6 | 12/4/2011 8:19 PM | In 3rd hour we read the poem "I felt a Funeral, in my Brain". This poem seemed difficult to decipher, and after reading it over multiple times, the class still had difficulties interpreting the literal vs the symbolic meaning. My interpretation was that the poem involved a conscious mind that is slowly slipping away, perhaps even into madness. As each stanza continues, the conscious mind loses more and more of its senses, first with feeling, then with sound, and finally reason and comprehension. | | | | 4 | 12/4/2011 1:49 PM |
My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk, Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains One minute past, and Lethe- wards had sunk: 'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot, 5 But being too happy in thine happiness, That thou, light-wingèd Dryads of the trees, In some melodious plot Of beechen green, and shadows numberless, Singest of summer in full-throated ease. 10 O for a draught of vintage! that hath been Cool'd a long age in the deep- delvèd earth, Tasting of Flora and the country-green, Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth! O for a beaker full of the warm South! 15 Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene, With beaded bubbles winking at the brim, And purple-stainèd mouth; That I might drink, and leave the world unseen, And with thee fade away into the forest dim: 20
Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget
What thou among the leaves hast never known,
The weariness, the fever, and the fret
Here, where men sit and hear each other groan;
Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last grey hairs, 25
Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies;
Where but to think is to be full of sorrow
And leaden-eyed despairs;
Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes,
Or new Love pine at them beyond tomorrow. 30
Away! away! for I will fly to thee, Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards, But on the viewless wings of Poesy, Though the dull brain perplexes and retards: Already with thee! tender is the night, 35 And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne, Cluster'd around by all her starry Fays But here there is no light, Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown Through verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways. 40 I cannot see what flowers are at my feet, Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs, But, in embalmèd darkness, guess each sweet Wherewith the seasonable month endows The grass, the thicket, and the fruit-tree wild; 45 White hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine; Fast-fading violets cover'd up in leaves; And mid-May's eldest child, The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine, The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves. 50 Darkling I listen; and, for many a time I have been half in love with easeful Death, Call'd him soft names in many a musèd rhyme, To take into the air my quiet breath; Now more than ever seems it rich to die, 55 To cease upon the midnight with no pain, While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad In such an ecstasy! Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain— To thy high requiem become a sod. 60 Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird! No hungry generations tread thee down; The voice I hear this passing night was heard In ancient days by emperor and clown: Perhaps the self-same song that found a path 65 Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home, She stood in tears amid the alien corn; The same that ofttimes hath Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn. 70 Forlorn! the very word is like a bell To toll me back from thee to my sole self! Adieu! the fancy cannot cheat so well As she is famed to do, deceiving elf. Adieu! adieu! thy plaintive anthem fades 75 Past the near meadows, over the still stream, Up the hill-side; and now 'tis buried deep In the next valley-glades: Was it a vision, or a waking dream? Fled is that music:—do I wake or sleep? 80
My question to third hour was this: Has the speaker achieved negative capability? Or, does he want to?
Now, in order to answer that, we must understand what negative capability is. It's complicated at first. Especially the bits about conflict. I urge you to click on the link. Please. Keats Resource on Negative Capability
Mr. Chisnell was very adamant that we not run away from this poem because of its language. He made it clear that you will see some of these Romantic poems on the AP test. He said it's best to not get caught up in trying to answer the question about negative capability right away; but, to instead analyze the language first, and then go from there. He also said to consider the last stanza carefully as it it may change your entire view on the poem.
About negative capability: There is negative capability as Keats tried to define it (albiet loosely - he was pretty shifty about the whole affair and only discussed it in letters to his brothers), there is negative capability as to the speaker's psychological desire, and there is negative capability's application to things (like in real life: is it all about empathy, etc). Wrestling with that is part of the question's answer.
Even though I know we won't have dictionaries on the AP test and the footnotes will be spartan, I inserted hyperlinks to help with the allusions (Keats ♥'s Mythology) and vocab (Romantic poets ♥ flowery language). Some definitions are exclusive to this poem, like "embalmèd" means perfumed. Click on the words.
I'd say a good start would be to notice the patterns of the stanzas; the repitition of ideas like wine (intoxication), woodlands, suffering; to notice the differences laid out with the up-here-down-there deal, and the knowledge-ignorance deal; and the use of sounds and personification (or, as is more correct with the Romantic poets: pathetic fallacy [which, when first defined was more or less an insult about bad poets personifying things, but is now more or less about nature-as-human deals]). With the bird: do remember that it is a plot element; do remember not to project connotations of "birds" onto this particular poem; also, Mr. Chisnell said a great thing to do would be to make a Structuralist opposition T-chart, with the bird on one side and the speaker on the other.
Negative capability...according to Keats, Shakespeare had a lot of it - does the speaker in Ode to a Nightingale have (or desire) it? | | | | 3 | 12/4/2011 10:13 AM |
In class on Tuesday we discussed the E. E. Cummings poem In Just-, and the question that was asked was how does the structure affect the tone of the poem? We came up with many different combinations of tones but what I thought that fit the best was disjointed joy. The structure of the poem was all over place it looked like a child could have written the poem; it was care free. When I first read this poem it seemed like a pleasant poem about kids playing during the spring, but the closer I looked into the poem the more I realized how creepy and dark this poem really was. The name balloon man was repeated three times in this poem and each time the balloon man was describe with words like old, queer, little lame, and goat-footed. Also the balloon man in the poem would whistle far and wee and kids would go running; sounds like a molester. The structure partly masked the dark side of this poem along with the words mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful, those words sound like something a child would create. Also when the balloon man came around the children trusted him they would drop what they were doing and run to him. | | | | 3 | 12/4/2011 10:02 AM |
"Sun and Moon"
A strong man, a fair woman,
Bound fast in love,
Parted by ordered heaven,
Punishment prove.+
He suffers gnawing fires:
She in her frost
Beams in his sight, but dies
When he seems lost.
Not till the poles are joined
Shall the retreat
Of fierce brother from lost sister
End, and they meet.
In first hour last week Tuesday we talked about this Sun and Moon and the question that was asked was how the figurative language tells the relationship between the sun and the moon. We discussed the sun and the moon as more than just objects in the universe we thought they represented a brother and a sister. The line that stood out to me was the second to last line “of fierce brother and from lost sister.” The brother in this story knows that he wants his sister in a romantically and is certain that he can make it work and the sister is confused, I feel like she does not know if this is the right decision. Also the word gnawing at the beginning of the second stanza really describes his passion and how much he wants her. What other thoughts do guys have on this? | | | | 8 | 12/4/2011 1:19 AM | In 6th hour we discussed this very short poem called suicide's Note. Although the poem was only two lines long, it seemed to allow for a lot of discussion. The poem was:
The calm,
Cool face of the river,
Asked me for a kiss.
The question asked was how does the title effect the poem. I think that if it wasn't for the title, I wouldn't know what the poem was even about. The poem is calm and nice, but when you read the titile it becomes disturbing. | | | | 29 | 11/29/2011 5:03 PM | Alright - because I always find it interesting to see what kind of music people consider "art": Rap? New/Old Country? Classical? Jazz? Techno? Pop? Lyrical? R&B? whatever else?
Which ever you consider to be "art" [by your definition], how can you compare the very different generes fairly and consistantly?
Is it even possible? | | | | 7 | 11/27/2011 6:04 AM |
Metaphors by Sylvia Plath
I'm a riddle in nine syllables,
An elephant, a ponderous house,
A melon strolling on two tendrils.
O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!
This loaf's big with its yeasty rising.
Money's new-minted in this fat purse.
I'm a means, a stage, a cow in calf.
I've eaten a bag of green apples,
Boarded the train there's no getting off.
I found this poem interesting because it claims to be a riddle and I've yet to figure it out. It has nine lines, nine syllables in each line. I noticed many references to growing; a loaf of bread rising with yeast, a calf. Also it seemds that she is describing something large; this fat purse, a bag of apples, a melon. I think there could be references to pregnancy but perhaps I am reading the signs wrong. Any other thoughts? | | | | 6 | 11/27/2011 12:38 AM | In sixth hour on Tuesday, Anna read us a poem called "Suicide's Note" by Langston Hughes. The poem was only three lines long, yet our class sustained a half-hour discussion about it. As Mr. Chisnell said, this speaks to our growing knowledge and understanding of literary theory. I, for one, am proud of the accomplishments we've made. I think it's easy to overlook how much we've learned this year, since each week we try to find time to write our posts, and spend time in class each day participating on instinct... Just take two seconds to let how much we've actually accomplished sink in!
That being said, I thought this poem was fascinating. Here it is:
"The calm,
Cool face of the river
Asked me for a kiss."
That is the entirety of the poem, and yet it tells an incredible story. I'm sure each person has a different immediate understanding when they read it, pulling in past experiences and understandings of suicide and rivers and kisses... The juxtaposition of the words "kiss" and "suicide" immediately get the reader thinking. There is SO much to analyze in just three small lines. | | | | 9 | 11/26/2011 10:15 PM | This has been a topic that has been bothering me lately, and I am curious as to what others think. In my class, with some of the literary theories, we discussed if certain movies could be of literary merit. It is also generally accepted that plays performed live are of literary merit. I want to know your thoughts on how far it should go, however. Should a literary critic scoff at analyzing song lyrics to the same depth as non-musical poetry? Would it be understandable if they were loath to analyze a television series to the same extent as a play? Is it even fathomable that a graphic novel or video game could have literary merit?
My thoughts on the matter is that literary merit should not be dependent on medium. One could take a work of Shakespeare and place its script into a movie, graphic novel, or game. As Chisnell pointed out in our class, one could set Emily Dickinson's poems to the tune of Gilligan's Island. In a different time, these works could have been in these different mediums, so if it is impossible for them to be of literary merit, there must be something inherent in those mediums to make them flawed.
Thoughts? | | | | 12 | 11/26/2011 11:59 AM |  So I was talking to some folks in sixth hour about people's obsession with dead things--more specifically an innate human desire to understand the cause of death. "Haven't you had the urge to look at that dead bunny on the side of the road to see the tire track that sliced through its belly?" I questioned. They all responded negatively (I think they were lying!!). But Jessica Brumfield whipped out this picture from the blue book on our desk. A little background: This PHOTOGRAPH (Yes, it's a photograph) was taken in 1928 by Thomas Howard (a photographer for the NYTimes, also the great-grandfather of Jason Sudeikes--whaaa??) Anyway, he snuck in to this electrocution and had a miniature camera snapped to his ankle. He grabbed a "front row seat" if one may call it that and held down the shutter right at the moment of electrocution (explaining the movement in the photo). The picture was printed the next day and has been observed millions of times. The paper had to run 750,000 extra copies of the paper that day because it was so popular. Ever since then, people were searched before executions and asked to hold up their hands so they could not operate hidden cameras. Obviously, this photo has a lot to talk about-- the art itself: whether the art of the picture is what makes it interesting or the subject? You could also go the route of human psychology-- Why are we attracted to this shrine of inhumanity? Another topic that interests me is the position of the state. Why wouldn't they allow photographs after this one was taken? Obviously, they feel guilty about what they are doing! Let me know your thoughts on this thang! | | | | 17 | 11/26/2011 12:27 AM |
My friend posted this on her facebook the other day, and I have been staring at it ever since. I really love how the artist captured the physical tightness and tensity and struggle in breaking free. Plus I just love how the free-est sculpture is feet away, planted in the sidewalk, rejoicing amongst pedestrians daily. In my background and even in my ancestry, there hasn't been a whole lot of 'breaking free' or yearning for freedom, yet I am still drawn to this image all the same. Why?
There has been discussion on the boards about what defines art? But what defines art that speaks? My initial answer would have been, 'well, certain art will speak to different people based on their circumstances,' but is that really the case? As we are switching between the New Critic lense and the Psychological lense, I thought this might be fair game to bring up. Please, people, tell me why I like this image so much!! Is it because of the art itself or because of something in my brain that connects with the art? | | | | 3 | 11/25/2011 9:40 PM | Today in sixth hour anna presented Nurture by Maxine Kumin, an interesting poem about animals, communication, language, and self-knowledge.
While this poem has a myriad of fascinating facets that we can and should discuss, Anna encouraged us to focus on the last line, which I'm going to do here as well.
"Laughter our first noun, and our long verb, howl."
Why is Laughter a noun, and howl a verb? To laugh and howl are both actions, laughter and howling both nouns. Why draw this distinction? Does Kumin or the speaker mean to say that laughter is something we can describe abstractly before we are able to quantify or express anguish or loneliness? That laughter, a sense of silliness and comfort, are vital to communication of lonelier emotions? It's something we approached, but never fully resolved in my class. Input? | | | | 2 | 11/25/2011 9:26 PM | I think this seminal work by Alan Moore is loaded with interesting things to discuss - from its relation to the occupy wall street movement to its value as a piece of literature.
What seems particularly relevant to me is this books treatment of the en-soi / pour-soi issue. In the book, one of the main characters undergoes a transformation, from an innocent, victimized, en-soi school girl to an empowered, anarchistic, pour-soi hero. Her journey is long and traumatic, but I think reflects the struggle we all share as we stumble towards self-actualization.
For this character, her shift from en-soi to pour-soi is displayed in an impressive choice - her choice of death before the compromise of her integrity. Freed by her lak of fear, the character goes on to do all sorts of good things.
Her choice is what fascinates me so. To choose the truth above one's life - to refuse to sign a false confession, and instead be taken behind the chemical sheds to be slaughtered - is one I think few people would make. We tend to value life - any kind of life- above truth, or honesty, or dignity. But not her. Evey has an epiphany in which she realizes her integrity is the final, untouchable inch that can never be taken from her, and she refused to give it up.
This may be another way to define humanity - by the values we are willing to die for. Someone unwilling to die for any cause, any morality, any truth, may not, in fact be human. After all, we hold up men and women willing to die for their countries as heroes, and condem those who don't as cowards.
But how many of us are really willing to die for what we believe in? To preserve that final, precious inch? | | | | 2 | 11/20/2011 8:18 PM |
In first hour on Thursday we read this poem, I thought it was interesting because the title was needed to help understand the poem. Most of the poems we have been reading the title is repeated in the poem not adding to its meaning. The title Subalterns means a group of people that are in a subordinate position and are forced to learn their language and way of life for example the Indians were forced by the British and French. It could also mean a group of people learning another language so they are able to communicate.
During first these ideas came up, in the poem the elements of nature the sky and the North are speaking to the wanderer in his or her language to help lead him. The sickness and death are being repressed by humans each time we make advancement in technology or medicine.
"Poor wanderer," said the leaden sky,
"I fain would lighten thee,
But there are laws in force on high
Which say it must not be."
"I would not freeze thee, shorn one," cried
The North, "knew I but how
To warm my breath, to slack my stride;
But I am ruled as thou."
"To-morrow I attack thee, wight,"
Said Sickness. "Yet I swear
I bear thy little ark no spite,
But am bid enter there."
"Come hither, Son," I heard Death say;
"I did not will a grave
Should end thy pilgrimage to-day,
But I, too, am a slave!"
We smiled upon each other then,
And life to me had less
Of that fell look it wore ere when
They owned their passiveness. | | | | 7 | 11/20/2011 7:34 PM | Today in 3rd hour, Dan read "To an Athlete Dying Young." A lot of people had brought up the idea of how an athlete starts out small, eventually peaks, and eventually his fame dies out and no one really remembers who he is. ("And the name dies before the man".) I thought that it might even be how there's always that star athlete in high school but after we're all done with school, no one remembers who they are. After a few idea's were thrown out, Dan said that this was actually about an athlete who dies young. Personally, after reading this poem, although death being sad and probably the worst part about life, it's kind of bittersweet. The athlete got to live in their glory and pursue their dream, but by dying young, they don't have to go through the pain of retirement and not being remembered. | | | | 2 | 11/20/2011 11:15 AM | In first hour last week we analyzed the poem In Medias Res by Michael Mcfee. The poem starts off with describing how a man has grown older and larger over the years, then, in the second half, it talks about a bunch of different items that seem to have nothing to do with each other or the first half of the poem at all. The poem is also composed of lines that grow longer until they get to the middle, where they get shorter and shorter until the end.
As we looked into the poem, it really began to bother me that I couldn't understand what all these different things in the last part had to do with the first, and how they tied together to form a message. When I figured it out, I put together that this poem is basically about time. The first half of the poem describes a man becoming larger, growing and growing just as the lines get longer. In the middle of the poem, Mcfee uses the phrase "swung in the same centrifuge of years that separates a house from it's foundation..." then begins to list random things such as grim joggers, families, loose graves and collapsing stars as the lines in the poem shrink. This is the line that connects the two halves of the poem. The first speaks in figurative language of a man growing larger, showing that time allows things to build and grow, but the second half shows that time also lets thinks decay and fall apart. The random objects in the last part of the poem are all things that fall apart in time. "Grim joggers," even though they attempt to keep healthy, will grow old and sickly as time passes. Graves will decay, families fall apart, and stars die as they collapse in on themselves. | | | | 3 | 11/20/2011 11:01 AM | This is a poem I found online written about Invisible Man:
The White Men
A young black man waits
A scholar comes to give a speech
He's to be praised by noble whites
As the Savior of his race
He's taken up, an article of convenience
A warrior for the pleasures of drunken man
Beaten and abused, he's told to like it
And he's electrocuted for worthless change
His speech, an afterthought
When the main event is done
Cheered and hailed by these kings of men
He's given the gift of an education
But tomorrow they won't remember
Even once the headach's gone
They'll recall the dancing girls
And the Battle Royale | | | | 5 | 11/20/2011 12:56 AM | This week, I chose the poem Richard Cory for the poetry day. Discussing it in class allowed me to see the poem in different ways. The question I asked was How does the 4 lines in 4 stanza structure effect the poem. I was thinking about the simplicity of the poem when I asked this question, but our class came up with many good points. The rhyme of the poem is never interrupted, not even by Cory's suicide. The structure reminded some of a nursery rhyme, which leads to the shock at the end of the poem. | | | | 0 | 11/13/2011 1:14 PM | This is a poem I found that relates to the prologue in Invisible Man: Prologue
I’m just a man that nobody sees
An Invisible Man, outside the rules
Society’s a party, and I don’t have to pay
Let me illuminate your dark corner
Share with you the shades of my ghostly past
The characters of this Shakespearean farce I call
My life
Any thoughts? | | | | 3 | 11/13/2011 12:16 PM | During sixth hour on Thursday Myah read a poem called Her Kind. This poem made many references to witches and i witch burnings. I was intrigued by this poem because to me it spoke of a woman's alienation from society. At one point it talked of how she "made meals for worms and elves" which i interpreted as her spending time with others who have been cast away by society. When the poem talked about her ribs being broken by wheels and something about flames still biting at her thighs i interpreted that as her being persecuted by society perhaps, because she was so different. She said that she was "misunderstood" but in the end came to except this because "a woman like that is not ashamed to die." I just felt that it was an extremely powerful piece of poetry, it really made me think. | | | | 1 | 11/13/2011 12:07 PM | What Are Years?
By Marianne Moore
What is our innocence,
what is our guilt? All are
naked, none is safe. And whence
is courage: the unanswered question,
the resolute doubt,—
dumbly calling, deafly listening—that
in misfortune, even death,
encourages others
and in its defeat, stirs
the soul to be strong? He
sees deep and is glad, who
accedes to mortality
and in his imprisonment rises
upon himself as
the sea in a chasm, struggling to be
free and unable to be,
in its surrendering
finds its continuing.
So he who strongly feels,
behaves. The very bird,
grown taller as he sings, steels
his form straight up. Though he is captive,
his mighty singing
says, satisfaction is a lowly
thing, how pure a thing is joy.
This is mortality,
this is eternity.
I read this poem to the class last Thursday in 1st hour. I didnt really have a question in mind to be honest until I sat in the seat and said "How does the structure of this poem affect the meaning or message Marianne Moore was trying to get across to us?" Yet, I think the more important question that I should have asked was "What is the meaning or the message?" - plain and simple. So, even with some great ideas from 1st hour, I was wondering what other people might think the meaning of this poem is - or even if you think the structure is significant. | | | | 7 | 11/13/2011 11:59 AM | Commonly, when we are discussing poetry, Mr. Chiz will comment that what we are discussing is really irrelevant to the meaning of the poem. This always confuses me! I can't quite grasp what is relevant and what is not. Wouldn't everything be relevant when talking about the meaning? | | | | 5 | 11/13/2011 11:51 AM | Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.
And he was always quietly arrayed, 5
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
"Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked.
And he was rich—yes, richer than a king,
And admirably schooled in every grace: 10
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.
So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night, 15
Went home and put a bullet through his head.
I found this poem a couple weeks ago in the book and thought it would provide for an interesting discussion. My question for this poem is, "Why did Richard Cory put a bullet through his head." I foresee two ideas. Either he did not have a truly happy life even though he was wealthy, or the fact that having so much wealth while the townspeople did not gave him immense guilt. | | | | 0 | 11/13/2011 7:08 AM | I understand that this is an old Couth Night, and people are done discussing this, but I thought that this would be interesting. I was trying to think of stories where I could refute the monomyth, and thought of Billy Gould in Hell. It was perfect to refute it, right? It all takes place in one room, all of it is a conversation... but then I thought more about it. The limits of the play simply mean that many of the elements of the monomyth happen almost simultaneously. The call to adventure and crossing of the first threshold is implied before the play begins (Billy dies and goes to Hell), but even when he is there, in the belly of the whale, Billy is still refusing the call ("I am not a bad man"). The road of trials is Billy's argument with the Devil, which also serves as the meeting with the goddess, strangely enough. The woman as temptress is of course when Billy's ex is called into Hell, but also before the setting of the play as revealed by the Devil and his assistant. Things are a bit out of order after this. The Devil offers Billy his freedom if he goes back and changes things for the better, but with Billy asking what happens if he doesn't, he refuses the return. At this point, Billy realizes he is a bad man, and goes through both atonement with the Father and apotheosis. The ultimate boon is also this truth that he is a bad man, and it is only after this that he can actually return. The events after the return are not elaborated upon, but one can assume that upon the crossing of the return threshold, Billy at least made an attempt to spread his truth. | | | | 4 | 11/13/2011 12:27 AM | The way to begin is always the same. Hello,
Hello. Your hand, your name. So glad, Just fine,
And Good-bye at the end. That’s every story we know,
And why pretend? But lunch tomorrow? No?
Yes? An omelette, salad, chilled white wine?
The way to begin is simple, sane, Hello,
And then it’s Sunday, coffee, the Times, a slow
Day by the fire, dinner at eight or nine
And Good-bye. In the end, this is a story we know
So well we don’t turn the page, or look below
The picture, or follow the words to the next line:
The way to begin is always the same Hello.
But one night, through the latticed window, snow
Begins to whiten the air, and the tall white pine.
Good-bye is the end of every story we know
That night, and when we close the curtains, oh,
We hold each other against that cold white sign
Of the way we all begin and end. Hello,
Good-bye is the only story. We know, we know.
I was flipping through the pages of the poetry book and I found this one. It really fascinates me. I like the theme of it. Obviously it can be about life, each beginning ends. I also interpreted it to be being about relationships. But I a curious as to what the meaning is in the details. Why, for instance, does she choose to talk about "an omlette, a salad, a chilled white wine." and the "white pines." ? I'd like to explore that. | | | | 5 | 11/9/2011 8:06 PM | Anna and the rest of the cast of the Crucible did a stupendous job!
I think it would be interesting to talk about similarities that both the Crucible and Turn of the Screw share.
any ideas?
also, the parking deck traffic jam was horrid, why did new found glory have to be playing tonight? better question, why does new found glory have to exist?!? | |
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