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Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Monday, November 3, 2008
Quarter Two Outside Reading Assignment
Choose one of the works listed for each marking quarter. Read the entire work and annotate it. All annotations must be done in the book, either in the margins or on Post-It notes. No annotations will be accepted on separate paper.
Each week, you must post a key passage from the work on your outside reading blog and explain the importance of each in relation to the work as a whole. Then, in a 50 to 100 word analysis, discuss the importance of the passage with reference to specific literary and rhetorical devices.
You must print and post a final response to the book as a whole on your outside reading blog.
Books and annotations will be collected at the end of the quarter.
Quarter Two Book Choices:
· Collected Poems, 1909-1962 – T.S. Eliot, ISBN-13: 9780151189786
· Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson – Emily Dickinson, ISBN-13: 9780316184137
· Robert Frost's Poems – Robert Frost, ISBN-13: 9780312983321
· Leaves of Grass: The Original 1855 Edition (Dover Thrift Editions Series) – Walt Whitman, ISBN-13: 9780486456768
· Paradise Lost (Norton Critical Edition Series) – John Milton, ISBN-13: 9780393924282
· The Essential Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) – Edgar Allan Poe ISBN-13: 9781593080648
· Young Goodman Brown and Other Short Stories – Nathaniel Hawthorne ISBN-13: 9780486270609
· The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Writings (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) – Washington Irving, ISBN-13: 9781593082253
· Dracula (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) – Bram Stoker, ISBN-13: 9781593080044
· Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte, ISBN-13: 9780451529251
· 1984 – George Orwell, ISBN-13: 9780451524935
· A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess, ISBN-13: 9780393312836
· The Picture of Dorian Gray (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) – Oscar Wilde, ISBN-13: 9781593080259
Book choices are due Friday, November 7, 2008. Blog posts are due every Friday. Quarter Two assignment is due January 26, 2009.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Macbeth vs. Lear
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Friday, October 3, 2008
MISSING PAGE!!!
THE LAST PAGE OF "THE ELEPHANT VANISHES" IS MISSING FROM YOUR PACKET!
HERE IT IS:
“I don’t know,” I said. “All I’m trying to do is recall what I saw with my own eyes, as accurately as possible. I’m hardly thinking about what happened after that. The visual image I have is so strong that, to be honest, it’s practically impossible for me to go beyond it.”
That was all I could say about the elephant’s disappearance. And, just as I had feared, the story of the elephant was too particular, too complete in itself to work as a topic of conversation between a young man and woman who had just met. A silence descended upon us after I had finished my tale. What subject could either of us bring up after a story about an elephant that had vanished--a story that offered virtually no openings for further discussion? She ran her finger around the edge of her cocktail glass, and I sat there reading and rereading the words stamped on my coaster. I never should have told her about the elephant. It was not the kind of story you could tell freely to anyone.
“When I was a little girl, our cat disappeared,” she offered after a long silence. “But still, for a cat to disappear and for an elephant to disappear--those are two different stories.”
“Yeah, really. There’s no comparison. Think of the size difference.”
Thirty minutes later, we were saying goodbye outside the hotel. She suddenly remembered that she had left her umbrella in the cocktail lounge, so I went up in the elevator and brought it down to her. It was a brick-red umbrella with a large handle.
“Thanks,” she said.
“Good night,” I said.
That was the last time I saw her. We talked once on the phone after that, about some details in her tie-in article. While we spoke, I thought seriously about inviting her out for dinner, but I ended up not doing it. It just didn’t seem to matter one way or the other.
I felt like this a lot after my experience with the vanishing elephant. I would begin to think I wanted to do something, but then I would become incapable of distinguishing between the probable results of doing it and of not doing it. I often get the feeling that things around me have lost their proper balance, though it could be that my perceptions are playing tricks on me. Some kind of balance inside me has broken down since the elephant affair, and maybe that causes external phenomena to strike my eye in a strange way. It’s probably something in me.
The papers print almost nothing about the elephant anymore. People seem to have forgotten that their town once owned an elephant. The grass that took over the elephant enclosure has withered now, and the area has the feel of winter.
HERE IT IS:
“I don’t know,” I said. “All I’m trying to do is recall what I saw with my own eyes, as accurately as possible. I’m hardly thinking about what happened after that. The visual image I have is so strong that, to be honest, it’s practically impossible for me to go beyond it.”
That was all I could say about the elephant’s disappearance. And, just as I had feared, the story of the elephant was too particular, too complete in itself to work as a topic of conversation between a young man and woman who had just met. A silence descended upon us after I had finished my tale. What subject could either of us bring up after a story about an elephant that had vanished--a story that offered virtually no openings for further discussion? She ran her finger around the edge of her cocktail glass, and I sat there reading and rereading the words stamped on my coaster. I never should have told her about the elephant. It was not the kind of story you could tell freely to anyone.
“When I was a little girl, our cat disappeared,” she offered after a long silence. “But still, for a cat to disappear and for an elephant to disappear--those are two different stories.”
“Yeah, really. There’s no comparison. Think of the size difference.”
Thirty minutes later, we were saying goodbye outside the hotel. She suddenly remembered that she had left her umbrella in the cocktail lounge, so I went up in the elevator and brought it down to her. It was a brick-red umbrella with a large handle.
“Thanks,” she said.
“Good night,” I said.
That was the last time I saw her. We talked once on the phone after that, about some details in her tie-in article. While we spoke, I thought seriously about inviting her out for dinner, but I ended up not doing it. It just didn’t seem to matter one way or the other.
I felt like this a lot after my experience with the vanishing elephant. I would begin to think I wanted to do something, but then I would become incapable of distinguishing between the probable results of doing it and of not doing it. I often get the feeling that things around me have lost their proper balance, though it could be that my perceptions are playing tricks on me. Some kind of balance inside me has broken down since the elephant affair, and maybe that causes external phenomena to strike my eye in a strange way. It’s probably something in me.
The papers print almost nothing about the elephant anymore. People seem to have forgotten that their town once owned an elephant. The grass that took over the elephant enclosure has withered now, and the area has the feel of winter.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Important Updates
Your papers have been graded. Please check www.turnitin.com for your grade, comments, and the rubric scoring breakdown.
The due date of the Eggers vs. Murakami paper has been changed to Friday, October 3rd. Please use this time to develop a thorough analysis of the literary and rhetorical devices used by each author. No blog posting will be due on that Friday.
Rewrites of the "Interpreter of Maladies" paper are due by Thursday, October 9th. it is STRONGLY recommended that you make arrangements with me for extra help in writing your paper.
Please get a copy of the Folger edition of King Lear by Thursday, October 2nd. Copies are available in the library.
The due date of the Eggers vs. Murakami paper has been changed to Friday, October 3rd. Please use this time to develop a thorough analysis of the literary and rhetorical devices used by each author. No blog posting will be due on that Friday.
Rewrites of the "Interpreter of Maladies" paper are due by Thursday, October 9th. it is STRONGLY recommended that you make arrangements with me for extra help in writing your paper.
Please get a copy of the Folger edition of King Lear by Thursday, October 2nd. Copies are available in the library.
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