Simulacrum: a slight, unreal, or superficial likeness or semblance; effigy, representation
"simulacrum of God, simulacrum of Aphrodite"
Apocryphal: of doubtful authorship or authenticity
"The student spread apocryphal rumors about the teacher she disliked."
Venal: incapable of being corrupted
Canonical: authorized, recognized, established
Gambit: any maneuver by which one tries to gain an advantage; ploy; stratagem
"It was an interesting gambit he used to win the round of chess."
I don't really understand the beginning half of the story - the part about the old man - and how that plays into the plot. But the second half is more clear. The boss in "The Fly" finds a fly in his ink pot while mourning the death of his son.
Here are several different ways you can look at it:
1. Because his son never had a second chance at life, he doesn't think the fly deserves it, so he uses a gambit to kill it. He uses the death of the fly as a simulacrum of the death of his son.
2. Because his son didn't survive the war, he wants to see the fly survive.
3. The gradual death of the fly represents the gradual death of his memories and grief over his son. When the fly finally dies, so do his painful memories of his son.
Inveterate: settled or confirmed in a habit, practice or feeling; firmly established by long continuance
Pinquid: fat, oily
"You're so pinguid." (if you want to be nice :P)
Teleological: moving forward in a purposeful manner
Which stories have followed this pattern?
Kids movies are very teleological - their endings are always happy and predictable. And they always seem to teach a lesson.
The purposes of the movies are to resolve the big conflicts.
Sophism: a deliberately invalid argument displaying ingenuity in reasoning in the hope of deceiving someone
"The man used sophism and tricked the woman into paying him money. At first she said no, but he argued that if she paid him, she would eventually receive more money in return."
Endemic: native to or characteristic of a specific people or place
- The style of writing of the review was endemic to literary critics: over-analyzed.
- The interpretation seemed correct at first, but towards the end, the author of this essay seemed to go a bit overboard.. maybe he was over-thinking it?
- It's interesting to see how a story that seems so simple can actually have such a complicated meaning behind it.
Castration: to render by threatening a person's masculinity or femininity; to deprive of strength, power or efficiency
Inculcate: to implant by repeated statement or admonition; teach persistently and earnestly
Epicurean: devoted to the pursuit of sensual pleasure, especially to the enjoyment of good food and comfort
Iniquity: a violation of right or duty; sin
Diaphanous: very sheer and light; almost completely transparent or translucent
Rapacious: inordinately greedy, predacious
Mizzen: noting a sail, yard, boom, etc., or any rigging belonging to a mizzen lower mast or to some upper mast of a mizzenmast Veneration: the feeling of a person who venerates; a feeling of awe, respect, etc.; reverence Varnished:given a smooth and glossy finish to. Sepulchre: a tomb, grave, or burial place
Emissary: a representative sent on a mission or errand
Cipher: to put in secret writing; encode
The football coach went as an emissary to recruit NFL players. At one of the high schools, there was an incident of a player committing an iniquity. He ciphered his message in order to bribe the coach and be accepted into the NFL, but the officials soon figured it out.
Parallelism - preposition
Behind me was a girl. Behind her, a box. And behind that, nothing dependent clauses
Although I was scared to be finished, although I felt unsure about my essay, although I was asking myself, man, this is it?, when the teacher asked for the final draft of my college essay, I turned it in. repetition
It was Friday, and I was happy - happy that the weekend had finally come, happy that I didn't have too much homework to do, happy that I could sleep in the next morning.
Assignments
August 24, 2009
Find one blog that is a “regular” person’s post, but you feel could serve as a college essay. Link to it on your page the wiki and explain why (briefly).
This is the blog of a 25-year old man named Adam White. He writes about experiences and failures in his mid-20s, hence the title of his blog, "Mid-Mid Life Crisis." The blog is very personal and often travels very deep into his thoughts, making it one that could serve as a good college essay.
Blog: http://midmidlifecrisis.wordpress.com/
Specific entry: http://midmidlifecrisis.wordpress.com/2009/04/30/a-bs-ba/
Find a blog that discusses a topic in-depth in some way that you are interested in. Either comment on their blog, quote them on your blog and link to their blog with a message on theirs that you did so, or some other way of connecting you have. Regardless, link these to your page on the wiki.
The title of this blog is "Let's be honest about J-school." It addresses a topic that's been on my mind for the past few months - must I go to journalism school in order to become a successful journalist? Patrick Thorton, the writer of this blog, does a lot with technology-based journalism.
Blog: http://open.salon.com/blog/future_of_journalism/2009/08/13/lets_be_honest_about_j-school
His twitter (I started following him): http://twitter.com/jiconoclast
Find one more blog post of note, link to it on ning, and briefly explain what makes it “good”.
The title of this blog is "Spandex, the Economy and Buses." Dan Christensen is a bus driver who blogs about daily happenings on his bus, interesting findings and discoveries, people he meets on his bus, etc. In this particular entry, he writes about how the things people leave on his bus can tell stories. He lists all of the items left behind and imagines the meaning behind each one and create stories about their owners in his own mind. It's an interesting perspective - many people might think that a bus driver's job is boring and ordinary, but this blog serves as proof that the most exciting things happen to bus drivers.
Blog: http://danbusdriverman.blogspot.com/2009/08/spandex-economy-and-busses.html
September 8, 2009
Following Borges' writing style: about a meal.
Here I narrow in to a short span of time - thirty minutes, perhaps. The rest is unimportant, insignificant (if not incomprehensible) to all of my readers. Let it suffice for me to recall or describe the following tastes, with a mere brevity of words which the mouth-watering recollection of all will enhance or ameliorate.
Around 11 in the morning, a girl standing in the JJ Catering lunch line pondered what her meal would be in the Korea International School cafeteria. Even now, at 12:56 in the afternoon, there is a controversy over whether she was standing in the Western food line or the Korean food line. The latter is most likely. Some of the incredible foods of the JJ Catering company have been eaten or ...
September 10, 2009
Correct the following sentence:
the boston common a public area in downtown bosteon is the main settin for the shrot story the patriot which is about a man who argues to such an extent that it became apocryphal.
The Boston common, a public area in downtown Boston is the main setting for the short story, "The Patriot," which is about a man who argues to such an extent that it became apocryphal.
September 23, 2009
The act of looking plays a very important role in psychology. By simply seeing with eyes, one can find pleasure or disgust. What is available to see has a lot to do with gender roles. Often times, women are used to visually please males. Their roles are not as varied as men's roles - women are usually only responsible to be a "beautiful object of display" (Griffiths).
October 5, 2009
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
a. identify climax, major conflict, resolution or denoument, what type of plot (see page of literary terms)
This book is written in a very unique way - it goes back and forth in terms of perspectives and in terms of time. So it doesn't really have one climax. Each daughter/mother pair has their own story, and all four stories are linked in this book. The major conflict in this story is the tense relationship between mothers and their daughters. Mothers want their daughters to uphold a certain image, while daughters wish to be more independent. The type of plot Amy Tan uses in this story is juxtaposition.
b. comment about setting
The setting changed a lot throughout the story. The author took us back and forth from present-day (at the time that this was written) America to a generation before in China.
c. identify one major symbol and one minor.
One major symbol was the Mahjong table that the Chinese women played on. It represented their unforgettable memories of their lives in China and tied the four women (and later on, June Woo) together.
One minor symbol was a pearl necklace that An-Mei received from Second Wife back in China. An-Mei crushing this necklace symbolized her power and strength over Second Wife.
d. discuss two characters. Label as round or flat, dynamic or static. Are they archetypal or foils?
Lindo Jong and Waverly Jong: both characters are round. We see how both are very vulnerable in ways, but we also see how they are strong. Lindo Jong kind of wishes she was an archetype - a model, an example - for her daughter, Waverly. But the two are really foil characters. Both of them bring out the most important characteristics in each other. Lindo's selfishness brings out Waverly's independence, strength and ability to stand up for herself. Waverly's lack of interest in traditional Chinese culture brings out Lindo's desire to pass down traditions and make a tighter bond between herself and her daughter.
e. Open to the exact middle. What page? Write one paragraph about how this one page relates thematically, symbolically,
or other (just not all plot) to the rest of the book.
Page 142 - 143
This page shows a lot about the relationship between mothers and their daughters. It is written in the point-of-view of one of the daughters - she mentions the "disappointment [her] mother felt in [her]" and how she is "unlike [her] mother" (Tan 142). The main theme of the entire book is similar to what the one character is saying here. It's about how mothers try to mold their daughters into being a specific something, and later on realize that it's impossible. Similarly, it's about how daughters understand and respect their mothers' pasts, but want to live their own lives.
f. Tell me one thing other that really only someone who has read the book will get.
The main theme is the relationship between mothers and their daughters. The author really made me think whether or not my relationship with my parents is like that of the characters in the book, because our situations are the same - my parents immigrated from Korea, and I am part of the first generation born in America. Reading from the point-of-view of the mothers made me wonder how my mom sometimes feels about me being so American.
November 2, 2009
1. Which of the following doesn't work? Why. a. Bill played a musical number by Bach; Joan, Beethoven.
b. Lou Williams was in for adultery; John Jones for gambling.
c. His mother told him to rent a car; his sister, to pack the suitcases.
2. Write your own original example.
I love sleeping; Il-jee, going to school.
3. Find one from something you have read (this may take a couple of weeks).
November 4, 2009
COMPOUND SENTENCE WITH EXPLANATORY STATEMENT (clauses separated by a colon)
General statement (idea) : specific statement (example).
----- (independent clause : (independent clause)
Explanation
Exercise
Write a short 4-5 sentence paragraph concerning your reading about Frankenstein. Include a colon.
Walton's mood changes in every letter he writes to his sister: In some he sounds excited; in others, hopeless. In his first letter, Walton sounds very thrilled to finally be able to go out on such a risky journey. But in his second letter, he sounds more distressed, more afraid that he won't live much longer. And then he writes a third time, telling her that everything looks like it'll be okay.
November 10, 2009
-- The following sentence has a lengthy series joined by repeated possessive pronouns. Do you think the sentence is effective or weak? What feature contributes strength or detracts from the rhetorical effectiveness?
"Walled off from the roaring traffic of the Embankment and Fleet Street and High Holborn, each Inn is a self-centered community with its own gardens, lush with cherry and magnolia, camelia, and crocus; its own library; its own dining hall; its labyrinth of walks and lawns; its blocks of offices and flats let out mostly to barristers." Robert Wernick, Smithsonian, May 1992
The use of repetition in the sentence contributes strength to the rhetorical effectiveness. It gives the sentence a certain flow, so that by the end, the rhythm of it rings in the reader's head. The nouns are not just possessive with "its," but with "its own," making them more specific. By starting the sentence with a description rather than a simple noun, the writer brings readers' focus on the subject.
December 1, 2009
Copy and paste this entire exercise into your own page. Write your answers in a different color or font. We will chose two people's in class to go over.
1. Look carefully at the following sentence. Does it work? If so, why? If not, where can the sentence be broken into two or shorter ones that are not overwhelming.
Robert Mondavi's father, Cesare, came from Sassafarento near Ancona, on the Adriatic coast of the Marches -- not a particularly rich or fertile part of Italy even now, nor, except for Verdicchio, much of a wine-growing region, and a good deal less so, no doubt, in 1883, when Cesare was born, the son of a large, simple family and possibly the first member of it, I have read somewhere, to be able to sign his name. -- by Cyril Ray "Robert Mondavi of the Napa Valley"
There is so much information that it's hard to process in one sentence. It sounds more like a run-on sentence or a poem than a simple statement. The sentence can be split when Cesare is introduced for the second time - his description can come in a second sentence. (maybe split the sentence into 3 parts?)
2. Does this sentence work? If so, why? If not, please correct. The typical teenage user of snuff is white, active, and athletic, and subjected to very heavy peer pressure.
Yes, this sentence does work. Its length is not too overwhelming. However, it could also be written as "The typical teenage user of snuff is white, active, athletic and obviously subjected to very heavy peer pressure."
3. Same instructions -- The children gathered around the clown wishing for a balloon, angling for a smile, bowing before the childhood consumerism.
Yes, this sentence does work.
December 8, 2009
Similarities between The Joy Luck Club and The Kitchen God's Wife
- both very focused on traditional Chinese culture
- both focused on relationship between mother and daughter
- both over a long period of time (50+ years)
- Simple sentences and a lot of dialogue
- Amy Tan writes the dialogue exactly how Chinese people speak (in her opinion)
January 11, 2010
- Many teachers prefer inculcating their students with their class material; students, studying on their own.
January 13, 2010 1. Correct these sentences.
In Frankenstein The first four letters and the preface I read weren't mainly about the story it covered the intention of the writing and background of the narrator the book starts with an exploration of the narrator and covers a lot of topics through his letters. For example loneliness risks taken by discovery of new knowledge, and etc it seems like the letters are foreshadowing whats coming up in the future of this book. -- Try for 3 sentences. There is a possibility of a colon AND a dash.
In Frankenstein, the first four letters and the preface I read weren't mainly about the story; they covered the intention of the writing and background of the narrator. The book starts with an exploration of the narrator and covers a lot of topics through his letters. For example, loneliness, risks taken by discovery of new knowledge and etc. It seems like the letters are foreshadowing what's coming up in the future of this book.
Simulacrum: a slight, unreal, or superficial likeness or semblance; effigy, representation
"simulacrum of God, simulacrum of Aphrodite"
Apocryphal: of doubtful authorship or authenticity
"The student spread apocryphal rumors about the teacher she disliked."
Venal: incapable of being corrupted
Canonical: authorized, recognized, established
Gambit: any maneuver by which one tries to gain an advantage; ploy; stratagem
"It was an interesting gambit he used to win the round of chess."
I don't really understand the beginning half of the story - the part about the old man - and how that plays into the plot. But the second half is more clear. The boss in "The Fly" finds a fly in his ink pot while mourning the death of his son.
Here are several different ways you can look at it:
1. Because his son never had a second chance at life, he doesn't think the fly deserves it, so he uses a gambit to kill it. He uses the death of the fly as a simulacrum of the death of his son.
2. Because his son didn't survive the war, he wants to see the fly survive.
3. The gradual death of the fly represents the gradual death of his memories and grief over his son. When the fly finally dies, so do his painful memories of his son.
Inveterate: settled or confirmed in a habit, practice or feeling; firmly established by long continuance
Pinquid: fat, oily
"You're so pinguid." (if you want to be nice :P)
Teleological: moving forward in a purposeful manner
Which stories have followed this pattern?
Kids movies are very teleological - their endings are always happy and predictable. And they always seem to teach a lesson.
The purposes of the movies are to resolve the big conflicts.
Sophism: a deliberately invalid argument displaying ingenuity in reasoning in the hope of deceiving someone
"The man used sophism and tricked the woman into paying him money. At first she said no, but he argued that if she paid him, she would eventually receive more money in return."
Endemic: native to or characteristic of a specific people or place
- The style of writing of the review was endemic to literary critics: over-analyzed.
- The interpretation seemed correct at first, but towards the end, the author of this essay seemed to go a bit overboard.. maybe he was over-thinking it?
- It's interesting to see how a story that seems so simple can actually have such a complicated meaning behind it.
Castration: to render by threatening a person's masculinity or femininity; to deprive of strength, power or efficiency
Inculcate: to implant by repeated statement or admonition; teach persistently and earnestly
Epicurean: devoted to the pursuit of sensual pleasure, especially to the enjoyment of good food and comfort
Iniquity: a violation of right or duty; sin
Diaphanous: very sheer and light; almost completely transparent or translucent
Rapacious: inordinately greedy, predacious
Mizzen: noting a sail, yard, boom, etc., or any rigging belonging to a mizzen lower mast or to some upper mast of a mizzenmast
Veneration: the feeling of a person who venerates; a feeling of awe, respect, etc.; reverence
Varnished: given a smooth and glossy finish to.
Sepulchre: a tomb, grave, or burial place
Emissary: a representative sent on a mission or errand
Cipher: to put in secret writing; encode
The football coach went as an emissary to recruit NFL players. At one of the high schools, there was an incident of a player committing an iniquity. He ciphered his message in order to bribe the coach and be accepted into the NFL, but the officials soon figured it out.
Parallelism -
preposition
Behind me was a girl. Behind her, a box. And behind that, nothing
dependent clauses
Although I was scared to be finished, although I felt unsure about my essay, although I was asking myself, man, this is it?, when the teacher asked for the final draft of my college essay, I turned it in.
repetition
It was Friday, and I was happy - happy that the weekend had finally come, happy that I didn't have too much homework to do, happy that I could sleep in the next morning.
Assignments
August 24, 2009
Find one blog that is a “regular” person’s post, but you feel could serve as a college essay. Link to it on your page the wiki and explain why (briefly).
This is the blog of a 25-year old man named Adam White. He writes about experiences and failures in his mid-20s, hence the title of his blog, "Mid-Mid Life Crisis." The blog is very personal and often travels very deep into his thoughts, making it one that could serve as a good college essay.
Blog: http://midmidlifecrisis.wordpress.com/
Specific entry: http://midmidlifecrisis.wordpress.com/2009/04/30/a-bs-ba/
Find a blog that discusses a topic in-depth in some way that you are interested in. Either comment on their blog, quote them on your blog and link to their blog with a message on theirs that you did so, or some other way of connecting you have. Regardless, link these to your page on the wiki.
The title of this blog is "Let's be honest about J-school." It addresses a topic that's been on my mind for the past few months - must I go to journalism school in order to become a successful journalist? Patrick Thorton, the writer of this blog, does a lot with technology-based journalism.
Blog: http://open.salon.com/blog/future_of_journalism/2009/08/13/lets_be_honest_about_j-school
His twitter (I started following him): http://twitter.com/jiconoclast
Find one more blog post of note, link to it on ning, and briefly explain what makes it “good”.
The title of this blog is "Spandex, the Economy and Buses." Dan Christensen is a bus driver who blogs about daily happenings on his bus, interesting findings and discoveries, people he meets on his bus, etc. In this particular entry, he writes about how the things people leave on his bus can tell stories. He lists all of the items left behind and imagines the meaning behind each one and create stories about their owners in his own mind. It's an interesting perspective - many people might think that a bus driver's job is boring and ordinary, but this blog serves as proof that the most exciting things happen to bus drivers.
Blog: http://danbusdriverman.blogspot.com/2009/08/spandex-economy-and-busses.html
September 8, 2009
Following Borges' writing style: about a meal.
Here I narrow in to a short span of time - thirty minutes, perhaps. The rest is unimportant, insignificant (if not incomprehensible) to all of my readers. Let it suffice for me to recall or describe the following tastes, with a mere brevity of words which the mouth-watering recollection of all will enhance or ameliorate.
Around 11 in the morning, a girl standing in the JJ Catering lunch line pondered what her meal would be in the Korea International School cafeteria. Even now, at 12:56 in the afternoon, there is a controversy over whether she was standing in the Western food line or the Korean food line. The latter is most likely. Some of the incredible foods of the JJ Catering company have been eaten or ...
September 10, 2009
Correct the following sentence:
the boston common a public area in downtown bosteon is the main settin for the shrot story the patriot which is about a man who argues to such an extent that it became apocryphal.
The Boston common, a public area in downtown Boston is the main setting for the short story, "The Patriot," which is about a man who argues to such an extent that it became apocryphal.
September 23, 2009
The act of looking plays a very important role in psychology. By simply seeing with eyes, one can find pleasure or disgust. What is available to see has a lot to do with gender roles. Often times, women are used to visually please males. Their roles are not as varied as men's roles - women are usually only responsible to be a "beautiful object of display" (Griffiths).
October 5, 2009
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
- e. Open to the exact middle. What page? Write one paragraph about how this one page relates thematically, symbolically,
or other (just not all plot) to the rest of the book.This page shows a lot about the relationship between mothers and their daughters. It is written in the point-of-view of one of the daughters - she mentions the "disappointment [her] mother felt in [her]" and how she is "unlike [her] mother" (Tan 142). The main theme of the entire book is similar to what the one character is saying here. It's about how mothers try to mold their daughters into being a specific something, and later on realize that it's impossible. Similarly, it's about how daughters understand and respect their mothers' pasts, but want to live their own lives.
November 2, 2009
1. Which of the following doesn't work? Why.
a. Bill played a musical number by Bach; Joan, Beethoven.
b. Lou Williams was in for adultery; John Jones for gambling.
c. His mother told him to rent a car; his sister, to pack the suitcases.
2. Write your own original example.
I love sleeping; Il-jee, going to school.
3. Find one from something you have read (this may take a couple of weeks).
November 4, 2009
COMPOUND SENTENCE WITH EXPLANATORY STATEMENT (clauses separated by a colon)
- General statement (idea) : specific statement (example).
----- (independent clause : (independent clause)Explanation
Exercise
Write a short 4-5 sentence paragraph concerning your reading about Frankenstein. Include a colon.
Walton's mood changes in every letter he writes to his sister: In some he sounds excited; in others, hopeless. In his first letter, Walton sounds very thrilled to finally be able to go out on such a risky journey. But in his second letter, he sounds more distressed, more afraid that he won't live much longer. And then he writes a third time, telling her that everything looks like it'll be okay.
November 10, 2009
-- The following sentence has a lengthy series joined by repeated possessive pronouns. Do you think the sentence is effective or weak? What feature contributes strength or detracts from the rhetorical effectiveness?
"Walled off from the roaring traffic of the Embankment and Fleet Street and High Holborn, each Inn is a self-centered community with its own gardens, lush with cherry and magnolia, camelia, and crocus; its own library; its own dining hall; its labyrinth of walks and lawns; its blocks of offices and flats let out mostly to barristers." Robert Wernick, Smithsonian, May 1992
The use of repetition in the sentence contributes strength to the rhetorical effectiveness. It gives the sentence a certain flow, so that by the end, the rhythm of it rings in the reader's head. The nouns are not just possessive with "its," but with "its own," making them more specific. By starting the sentence with a description rather than a simple noun, the writer brings readers' focus on the subject.
December 1, 2009
Copy and paste this entire exercise into your own page. Write your answers in a different color or font. We will chose two people's in class to go over.
1. Look carefully at the following sentence. Does it work? If so, why? If not, where can the sentence be broken into two or shorter ones that are not overwhelming.
Robert Mondavi's father, Cesare, came from Sassafarento near Ancona, on the Adriatic coast of the Marches -- not a particularly rich or fertile part of Italy even now, nor, except for Verdicchio, much of a wine-growing region, and a good deal less so, no doubt, in 1883, when Cesare was born, the son of a large, simple family and possibly the first member of it, I have read somewhere, to be able to sign his name. -- by Cyril Ray "Robert Mondavi of the Napa Valley"
There is so much information that it's hard to process in one sentence. It sounds more like a run-on sentence or a poem than a simple statement. The sentence can be split when Cesare is introduced for the second time - his description can come in a second sentence. (maybe split the sentence into 3 parts?)
2. Does this sentence work? If so, why? If not, please correct. The typical teenage user of snuff is white, active, and athletic, and subjected to very heavy peer pressure.
Yes, this sentence does work. Its length is not too overwhelming. However, it could also be written as "The typical teenage user of snuff is white, active, athletic and obviously subjected to very heavy peer pressure."
3. Same instructions -- The children gathered around the clown wishing for a balloon, angling for a smile, bowing before the childhood consumerism.
Yes, this sentence does work.
December 8, 2009
Similarities between The Joy Luck Club and The Kitchen God's Wife
- both very focused on traditional Chinese culture
- both focused on relationship between mother and daughter
- both over a long period of time (50+ years)
- Simple sentences and a lot of dialogue
- Amy Tan writes the dialogue exactly how Chinese people speak (in her opinion)
January 11, 2010
- Many teachers prefer inculcating their students with their class material; students, studying on their own.
January 13, 2010
1. Correct these sentences.
In Frankenstein The first four letters and the preface I read weren't mainly about the story it covered the intention of the writing and background of the narrator the book starts with an exploration of the narrator and covers a lot of topics through his letters. For example loneliness risks taken by discovery of new knowledge, and etc it seems like the letters are foreshadowing whats coming up in the future of this book. -- Try for 3 sentences. There is a possibility of a colon AND a dash.
In Frankenstein, the first four letters and the preface I read weren't mainly about the story; they covered the intention of the writing and background of the narrator. The book starts with an exploration of the narrator and covers a lot of topics through his letters. For example, loneliness, risks taken by discovery of new knowledge and etc. It seems like the letters are foreshadowing what's coming up in the future of this book.