Wow! It has been quite a while since I have updated this blog page! During the past few weeks I have been highly focused on my tragedy blog and the topic of tragedies in general. So, I figured that it would be only natural for me to update this one by pulling in what I have learned about tragedy in the past couple of weeks. Here is a website that talks about tragedy. A tragic story is a story that has a main character or hero that has some sort of horrid event fall upon them. I believe that mostly every single person knows, at least in some roundabout way, what a tragedy is. However, there are some certain aspects of tragedies that are a little bit lesser known that just that one must include a tragic event and a relatable hero. For example, something that I have learned over the course of my studies is that for a tragedy to be truly effective and make a full impact, whatever event that is going to go wrong has to have had a feasible possibility to succeed. Otherwise, there is no tragedy because there is no surprise and there is no failure. One simply can not fail at something that is totally impossible to succeed at; if that is the case then there is no real task at all. In that sense, it also creates a fuller, more well characterized hero for readers to relate to and love. In seeing someone's disappointment and/or shock, the tragic hero will feel much more likable and real to those who experience him. I was also not really aware that a tragedy usually takes the form of a play or theatrical performance. I have always assumed that any story that fits the other prerequisites could be considered a tragedy. This, by definition, is not really the case. While it is technically still a tragedy, a poem or a novel is not considered to actually be one by many definitions. They absolutely still have merit in the genera, but are not widely considered to be "legitimate" aspects of the art form. Tragedy is also not as common in today's media as it was back in the days of Oedipus. Humans today have different complexes and, while we all still love reading about the misfortune of others, we do not crave the creation of it as much. This is possibly due to new technologies giving people more choice about what they want to spend their time doing or writing about, but it is mostly due the to difference in the culture of the world today versus the culture of the world when Sophocles was writing his tragedies. These past weeks have taught me a lot about the genera. I feel that having two blogs is a lot of work, but hey, this is an AP Literature and Composition class, so I can handle it. Even though it is a lot, I am also grateful that I have the chance to learn so much about literature and different genres and how everything works together.
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This week has been all about writing essays. While we have not have any formal talk on how the essay should actually be written, I have learned a lot about myself as a writer personally. It has been interesting to delve into how my own mind works to patch thoughts and sentences together into a cohesive essay. The first and most important thing that I learned about myself is that, when I write, I like to do it in as few drafts as possible. For example, writing my essay on the structural aspects of short stories in literature I used only one and a half drafts, and completed it all in two days. I say one and a half because I only wrote the meat of it out once, but then went back into it and changed some things around. I am not implying that it will not change any more, but where it is at the moment is about where it is going to be when it comes time to complete the project and submit the essays. Next, I noticed that I sometimes try to put too much into what I am writing. I become so engrossed in making sure that I answer every question that was asked that I add so much jargon that it becomes no longer followable. I have to actively take steps to avoid doing this in order to ensure that I submit only my best works. Finally, the last thing that I learned about myself as an essay writer is that I am impatient. Starting off is really, really hard for me to do. I feel very overwhelmed just staring at that blank document. Once I manage to get myself going, however, I really go. I spend probably half of the whole time it takes me to write the entire essay on the first one or two paragraphs. Conclusions are hard as well, but sometimes I can get them to just flow out naturally, so I do not usually worry about them. Overall, I will be glad when this week is over. No one likes to write essays, me included. I will be happy when this is all in the past, but grateful for the chance I received to learn more about my abilities and drawbacks as an author. This week we had author James Jackson come in and talk to our class about writing, revision, and staying focused on our work. I really enjoyed him and I feel like I learned a lot about how to be an effective author from his talk. One thing that really stuck with me is that a person should never, ever stop writing. James Jackson made it very clear that to get good at writing, a person must be ready to face tons and tons of their own work being ripped apart and never published. He stated that, while this can feel awful, an author should not stop writing simply because other people tell them that they do not like what they are doing. An author should write because they love it; it does not matter what other people say about your work. He also told my class that, even if you are writing a specific kind of story or book for a specific genre, only two out of ten people who read your story will actually like it or think that it is any good. This was not meant to be disheartening but honest, which I really appreciated. If you write, be prepared to get backlash. It is impossible to create something to please every single person who will stumble across it. For anyone who would like some more tips on good writing habits, here is a fantastic link to help you out. So, this was a good week for me. I feel like I was actually able to learn a lot from having James Jackson some in to speak. For me, this was the week where I really feel that I learned the most about writing. I hope that I can apply all of his fabulous advise and improve the way I write! Something that we focused a lot on this week was revising writing, and more specifically our own writing. The revision processes and critiques really stood out to me, as I had never really gotten a chance to edit my own works before in any other class I have taken. I think that a crucial part of revision is, at first, just simply going back through said piece and rereading it and leaving comments for yourself before actually making the changes themselves. This way, you will have a plan when the time comes to finally edit the piece of literature. It is also important to leave yourself some positive feedback as well. It is not healthy to be so negative towards yourself all the time, and even if you strongly dislike what you have written, leaving comments on the good aspects of it can be helpful. That way, you know how you should change the worse parts of the story to make them not only better, but fit into the rest of the writing. When it comes to the actual changes, I learned that it is good to be specific. If your comments just say that a certain section is "weak" or "boring", it can be difficult to know where to go from there. This website has good tips for revising and actually making your desired changes in order to get a final product that you are happy with. This was an interesting week for me, because so far into my senior year I haven't yet been faced with editing my own work. I learned crucial skills about self-reflection that will be quite helpful in the next few chapters of my life. This week was another poem-heavy one. We looked at Elegy in X Parts and how poetic elements such as imagery shape and create meaning, emotion, and most importantly- for me, at least- setting. A big focus this week was on how certain words create setting. This website talks a bit about how/what setting can be in poems. We discussed the setting of our poem of the week, how concrete it really is, and what it says about the poem and even the author. In my opinion, this specific poem had no real setting, as it took place in the mind of the speaker. I guess that that could be considered the "real setting", but I doubt the author wanted readers to literally imagine his work taking place inside of someone else's brain. Instead, I believe the author was trying to create a more personal work, allowing readers to fill in the blanks with settings and characters and situations that suit their fancy. This was, though the art of phrasing, each reader feels instantly more connected to the text. Stories are quite boring without language that creates imagery. I'm not trying to imply that it was boring, while this poem did in fact not have a set scene it had enough gentle guidelines to make it personable and quite fun. I am always a fan of writing that allows the readers to have some say in what they are reading, so this poem was right up my alley. However well this was done, though, I still began to think. Is it a big gamble for authors and poets to leave the concrete setting and interpretation of their work up to the readers? I imagine it is not as big a deal for poets as conventional authors, as poetry is meant to be subjective anyways. Whenever I write, I always feel pressured to insert a specific scene in glaring detail almost immediately. It's something that frustrates me, but I am trying my best to overcome my shortcomings. All in all, Elegy in X Parts just got me thinking about setting, individuality, and the risks that can come with those things. I quite liked this poem, and am hopeful that the next poem of the week will be of equal pleasure for me. I don't mind analyzing poems so much if I enjoy reading them. Here's to hoping! This week was heavily focused on reading and analyzing books and literature to gain a deeper understanding of them. We discussed underlying themes and patterns, as well as why these aspects are important. This to me was important, as I had previously never really gave much thought as to why these things were of value; I just accepted that they were and moved on with my life. Doing my poster and presentation this week, I was faced with this reality. I had absolutely no idea how to delve further into a piece of writing and scrape up something worthwhile or intelligent. After speaking with a couple of people, however, I was able to see that it was in fact something that I was able to get done. I just needed to know where to start. After having these conversations and getting the know-how, I was surprised on how manageable it felt. Sure, I was (and still am) maybe not quite achieving all I had hoped to, but I am making progress at a rate that is satisfactory to me. If you are curious about good tips and tricks to pulling things out of books, Stanford University has some good information on the subject . So, as I conclude my third week as a Mount Pleasant High School senior, I leave with knowledge and strategies to help me become a better reader and student. To be able to read text at a deeper level means that I now am able to fully apply myself to my books and get all that I possibly can out of a text. I know that these skills will be of much value as I progress not only through the remainder of my senior year, but at the college level as well. I am very happy that I was able to grasp this subject and cannot wait to see what next week has in store for me! This week, we worked with a poem titled The Eagle by Tennyson. At first glance, I took this poem quite literally, (Here is a link to the poem for reference), as it seemed to me like it was actually about an eagle. However, upon further study, I came to a few different conclusions about the poem. The first thing that changed my mind about this work was my group. My table partners both had incredible ideas that I may never have worked out for myself if I had not been in this group. They brought up how the poem begins with mentioning "crooked hands", leading them to the conclusion that this poem was in fact about a man and not an eagle. In my mind, I just assumed that the author was referring to the crooked talons of a bird. It was then that I was able to approach the poem from a different viewpoint. If I took a step back and really looked around the edges, I was able to begin to form a separate opinion. In my eyes, the poem transformed from a piece about an eagle diving to get food to the story about a king and the fall of his kingdom or reign. The poem became so much more than it had originally been, just because I was shown a new way to analyze works. If you would like more information on good ways to analyze poems, click here. Now, when I look back yet again at the poem, it is obvious to me that it never was just about an eagle. I really need to work on not taking things at face value all of the time. I am glad that I was eventually able to find a meaningful plot to the poem, but in the future I would like my critical thinking skills to kick in automatically if at all possible. Throughout my life, I have loved books. Reading is how I pass all of my free time when I am at school. However, I have not known until recently that there should be a certain amount that I read in a given time frame. Because I have always viewed reading as a fun activity to pass boring school days by, I never really thought too deeply about how much or little I was actually getting read. It did not matter to me whether I finished one or one hundred books a year, as long as I was reading. After doing the little reading test that we did in class today, I realized that I have been wrong. When I had finished the test, I learned that I should be reading about five and one-third books every twelve weeks. That is something that I am sometimes able to do easily, and other times not. I learned that it is very important to read as much as possible to meet my student-specific goals in order to be ready for college, no matter how impossible it may sound. While it is true that my five and one-third book goal is based solely on my current book, Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor, I feel like it is a pretty standard goal for someone like me who likes to read but is not overly serious about it. The more the class discussed, the more it really sank in that reading goals are something serious. Reading two hours a week can seem difficult, but it is necessary for college readiness. Here is a link to a website that discusses the importance of reading. Even if it means reading five minutes here, ten minutes there, whatever it takes to reach my goal is what I must do. It has been a good week for self-reflection. I now know what I must do in order to have a successful future as a college student. I still love to read, so hopefully meeting set goals will not prove to be incredibly difficult for me, however there is a lot that I know I will have to train myself to do in order to maintain my ability to read so many books in such a short window of time. I am excited to see where this trimester takes me, and hope that it will lead to only good places! |
AuthorThis is an AP Lit and Comp blog by MPHS senior Peri Sanderson Archives
November 2017
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