Masterpiece Academy Question

Rucker 1

Daniel Rucker

Professor David Preston

AP English Literature and Composition

31 May 2014

The Masterpiece Academy of Open Source Learning

The universe is delightfully evolving around us.  Life, language, and the make up of our galaxy are all changing and expanding the diversity of the universe.  Something far less concrete than these - man’s view of the world - can also evolve, just like the connotation of the word espouse.  As students in this class, my classmates' and my views have evolved from a standard mundane appreciation of learning to an espousal of learning. 
         From the beginning, we have had the freedom to customize this course to how we want it to be, much like one would customize an iPhone or a bedroom.  This represented trust from Dr. Preston that we deserved, although it was unexpected, as all humans are individuals, and should be given the freedom to choose their surroundings.  Sadly, we did not learn to completely honor this trust until the end of the year, when most of us realized that learning was for us, and we fully decided to do what we want to as a class.
        Our time in this class has made us a hero, collectively.  Our class embodies all of the positive aspects of modern society, as well as our ideals.  We have athleticism, bravery, kindness, intellect, and many other traits that are epitomized by our society, to what heroes are.  Due to the fact that we are a class of heroes, our journey throughout the year, which started in May-June of last year, and is now coming to a close, we have gone on a heroic journey.  This journey started with the threshold of us creating our blogs, came to a climax with our masterpiece, and is now resolving, making our journey come full circle, as we are back home, due to the fact that we will return to traditional learning next year, and that the circular calendar year is over, and we have worked in this course from last June to this June. 
        Looking back on the year, our heroic journey was mapped quite neatly, with Beowulf at the beginning of the year subtly foreshadowing the journey we had ahead of us; the acquiring of our heroic qualities, such as understanding, by reading texts such as A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations, which gave us the quality of understanding and empathizing with the human condition; and ended with a course in Poetry which caused us to reflect upon what we have done this year.  These reflections lead us to the climax of this year and our journey with the Masterpiece Academy presentations.  We showed our reflection and appreciation of knowledge in a variety of ways, from Lisa's new-found understanding of empathy, Melissa's hard work and passion for the class trip to Yosemite, and Allyson's yearning for knowledge of the biological sciences.  In all of these projects, we saw possibly the most important personal quality in modern society: passion.  In every presentation, such as Edmond's writing, and Zach's desire to help people through physical therapy, we see passion.  Passion for our masterpieces has drawn us together as a class, and made us finish our journey, as we had found the trait that we set out on our journey to find.  
        Personally, passion has not been incited in me by the course to learn more or otherwise, as I already had that, but it definitely has given me a passion towards humans, as I was inspired by the vast amounts of passion around me.  I have always been passionate about learning, but seeing this passion in the people around me makes me passionate to better society for the people around me.  I have begun to do this in a variety of ways.  My favorite is suggesting songs and television shows for people to watch, as I full-heartedly believe in the healing quality that comedy and music provides through laughter and passion.  Before, I have kept these techniques to heal myself to myself, but this class has inspired me to pass it forward. 

Masterpiece: Connections

Everything on planet Earth is connected to one another, and although us humans like to separate everything into categories, like subjects, cultures, et cetera, the world does not do this.  For instance, there are many things in Earth's many cultures that are very similar to aspects of other cultures.  I question why these similarities arose, and try to find where they come form.

The Firebird Myths: firebirds are found in many cultures, and are often though to signify the sun, and    rebirth, due to the sun's "birth" and "death" each day.  The sun is also thought to be the basis of all rebirth ideologies and myths, from the Hindi caste system, to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The Greek Phoenix 

The Slavic Firebird

The Witches:

Lloyd Alexander's
"The Black Cauldron"
which depicts the three witch
myth in the Celtic regions of Europe.

There is a common myth about witches in groups of three throughout the different indo-european cultures, I wrote about them here.

Shakespeare used this common
mythical form in his play "Macbeth"

A painting of a clock modeled after the
Baba Yaga's house.  This painting was
painted by Viktor Hartmann, and served as the
inspiration for the ninth movement of
Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition
Suite, The Hut on Fowl's Legs (Baba-Yagá).

The Krampus: A christianized tradition.

Thousands of years ago in pre-christian Europe, there was a germanic goddess who is known as the germanic equivalent to Greek Hera.  In northern regions, she was known as Frigg, in central Europe, she was known as Holda, and in the southern, alpine area of the germanic peoples' land, she was known as Perchta.  Perchta had a very important task at the Yuletime celebration- to scare away the evil spirits that roamed Earth in the "darker half" of the year.  The germanic people of the alpine regions would celebrate this in Yule celebrations by doing what Perchta did: dressing as a mutilated goat and scaring the spirits away.  When the christians came and converted the germans to christianity, they forced them to give up their old beliefs, but some lived on- Yule as Christmas, Samhain as All Saints Day, and Perchta traditions as Krampus, St. Nick's companion, and punisher of naughty children.  This also connects to the witches, as Baba Yaga myths first appeared in slavic areas in the alpine regions.  Was the slavic fear of the germanic tradition of perchta what caused the Baba Yaga myths?

Other than Mythology:

There is far more to these cross cultural connections than in just mythology.  Almost every aspect of our culture is mirrored in other cultures, and there are far more connections between the people of earth than just culture, such as mathematical concepts, science, art, and simply how we think.  I feel that it is due to human nature.

One fun example of similarity is the Sandwich! If you think, most cultures have a meat that is wrapped in bread, and they did this without communication: tacos, sandwiches, gyros, falafels, dumplings, and many many more...

Macbeth Character Map

Normally I do not use Cliff Notes, but this map was a very good representation of what I needed:

THE CROSSROADS BETWEEN SHOULD AND MUST

I am really not sure about this crossroads concept.  I am a major planner, and I plan things years in advance so that I will not ever have to be caught off guard with a big decision.  My mind is generally mad up in advance.  I already know what my "must" is, and I follow it.  If I did not, I would not be at all be as driven with my work.  I tend not to do things that I do not consider musts, I just push them aside and out of my radar.  They have nothing to do with what I want to do.  This way, I truly only do what I want to do.  I study out of school because I want to.  I research because I want to.  I take AP courses because I want to.  Do you see me partying? No, because I do not want to.  I am lucky to like what society wants me to do, so most people's shoulds are my musts.

10 Commandments of AP Literature & Composition

Hey, guys! I found this resource on the internet that someone was not showing us!  I think it would be very helpful for all of you to read it!
http://drprestonsrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/2012/02/10-commandments-of-ap-literature.html
Thank you for this resource, Dr. Preston!

AP Questions for Macbeth

1) Pick a novel in which friends become enemies.  Explain how the author uses characterization and the plot to make this happen.

2) In great literature, no scene of violence exists for its own sake.  Choose a work of literary merit that confronts the reader or audience with a scene(s) of violence.  In a well-organized essay, explain how the scene or scenes contribute to the meaning of the complete work.  Avoid plot summary. (actual prompt from 1982 that I felt would work well)

3) Pick a novel in which a character's actions make him commit similar actions in the future.  Explain how this makes us sympathize the character, while at the same time making us disagree with them.

What about my masterpiece?

    I have been struggling with the whole masterpiece thing, as Dr. Preston wants us to do something, and I am just trying to learn a lot, not thinking that I have the skill set to do what I want to do yet, as I really want to learn about the world and research at a university and be a professor, while the people around me want to go into music and cooking and other things like that.  I was trying to get by by studying the world, but I do not think that that will work as a masterpiece.
    Recently, a friend who has a rare and largely unknown disease that doctors are trying to learn about using this person as a test subject, as this person is the only one to have it.  This person was wondering what the medications that helped their disease had in common, so I was given the list of medications, and am going to look at the structure and function of these medications to see what is actually helping or hindering this person's disease.

Meet Macbeth

    In the opening of the play, Macbeth is introduced through indirect characterization by a soldier talking to his king.  In how Macbeth was introduced, Shakespeare drew from the medieval germanic/norse epics in order to incite the time period in which the play takes place, and the culture it comes from.  In this introduction, the audience learns about how brave a warrior Macbeth was, and how he slay the rebel leader, ending the Scots rebellion.  Even though the audience is told of his great deeds, they are meant to be unsure about it, as the witches warned that things that might seem good would be bad.  This meant that the witches also characterized Macbeth just as much as the wounded soldier at the beginning, but their lyrical way of talking gave their version of characterization a very nebulous tone, which meant that Shakespeare could tell what was going to happen, but be so roundabout about it that the audience only got a taste of what was to come.  This characterization also tells the audience how Shakespeare felt about his character:  he is initially good, but his deeds and remorse blur this line and make him spiral into insanity.  Macbeth is shown as a valiant soldier and a ruthless killer, and these will stay with him until his death.

YOU'RE ALWAYS A WOMAN TO ME

Macbeth sees his wife as a person who is looking out for his best interests, and to be more exact their best interests as a couple.  He sees her as a person who is trying to encourage him to do things that will better himself, and that will help him grow as a person.  In actuality, though, Lady Macbeth is just a power hungry, back stabbing hag who wants to rule Scotland, and she does not really care about people, only her wants.

The Witches

The witches in Macbeth might seem very familiar to many of you.  They might remind you of many things in your life, such as the faits from the Disney movie, Hercules.

    The concept that our fate is controlled by beings is very common in Indo-european cultures.  In the hindi culture, the gods Rta in the vedas control the fates of people.  In Europe, this figure is often taken in the form of three evil witches.  This includes the greek Moirai, the northern germanic norns, the germanic Matres and Matrones, the slavic Boba Yoga, and the greek Moirai.  In these cultures, witches generally work in groups of 13, but these groups of three are the most common interculturaly, and all have the same purpose in culture.  Shakespeare was drawing from this continuity in culture to give meaning the the three witches that he would not have to explain to his audiences (this same thing was done by Lloyd Alexander in The Black Cauldron).  This means that the fates of Hercules are the same as Macbeth's witches, as they are the Moirai.
    Another continuity in cultures I found was that Christianity is ruled by the Holy Trinity - The father, the son, and the holy spirit.  Does this draw from these same historical continuity? I am not exactly sure, as I have not studied the middle eastern cultures, from which the monotheistic religions like Christianity come, but if anybody does know, does this rule of three apply here too? What about in America and Africa?  I wonder how far back this rule of three goes, please leave your knowledge in the comments!
    I also wonder if this has anything to do with the strength of the triangle.  The triangle has long been known to be the strongest of the figures, and is an engineering shape used throughout the history of man: ancient nomadic structures resembled triangles, all pyramids use triangle, et cetera.  I feel this is what our american fore-fathers also drew upon to create a stable government, as the three branches form a stable triangle of checks and balances.  Did ancient cultures put our fates in the hands of three people for this reason?

PS: When the when in Act I, Scene III of Macbeth, when the second witch says "I'll give thee a wind,"Shakespeare is directly referring to the witch from the Moirai known as Clotho, or The Spinner, as she spins and winds peoples lives, which was the Greeks' explanation of why nobody could have an all around perfect life.

SEEKING MENTOR

To get a mentor, I will need to ask many questions, such as if they will look at my work, and if they could give me suggestions.  Luckily, I think that it will not be to difficult to find a mentor, as everyone in my field works at a university, and thus has a university email.

The Difference

In AP Physics, we are learning about the difference between Electric potential, Electric potential energy, and Electric potential difference.  Here are two links to places that explain this:
http://www2.cose.isu.edu/~hackmart/electrical_potential_genphys.pdf
http://ubpheno.physics.buffalo.edu/~dow/lectures/phy102/ch19_print.pdf

MST3K Mr B Natural

)

This is a great video for people in marching band to watch!

UC Acceptance Dates

I have been following a UC information blog, and it has been very accurate.  To day it released a list of dates when each UC will send out its decisions! Good luck, only ten days until the most important one!

10 Questions

I have already been talking to experts in the fields that I am currently studying, and I have also been talking to experts about college, so I am just going to state questions that I have already asked.
1) How difficult is it to transition from UCLA to Cambridge.
2) What is it like working as a university professor?
3) What are your current studies?
4) What kind of music do you like?
5) What could I read to help me learn about this topic?
6) Have you seen, or do you know anything about the cricket club at UCLA?
7) Please tell me about your time at UCSD.
8) What inspired you to research this subject?
9) Could you look at my [random project or area of study], and give me feedback on it?
10) What is your favorite thing about what I am asking you about?

Cosmos: A Personal Journey

Again, I felt that I wanted to expand upon my earlier post about humanity that stemmed from a discussion about Brave New World.  This time, I would like to expand on the importance of Carl Sagan's original Cosmos to progress my argument about human nature.  

The Gods Must Be Crazy

I felt that I wanted to expand upon my earlier post about humanity that stemmed from a discussion about Brave New World.  The Gods Must Be Crazy is a South African cult film released in 1980, that shows the interactions between the Bushmen of Africa, and the South African city dwellers.

In Class: Brave New World

In class we decided to show that we had read Brave New World by posting about it:
The biggest thing that I got from this book was how society and human nature do not change.  This morning, I talked to my father for about two hours about the world, and how we view it, and I wish that I had this conversation to put up on this blog, as it was very enlightening for a variety of reasons.

Resource of the Day: Cambridge Department of Pharmacology

This site greatly helped me understand what I have in store at Cambridge in four years, and what I will need to do to be accepted into the department: http://www.phar.cam.ac.uk

Benchmark

Although I still do not completely understand this project still, I am going to give you an update on what I am doing, and what is to come with this project.  So far, I have generally been studying the my plans after college.  While most people are starting ventures that are in their general field of study for later in life, I cannot do this, because I intend to go into Pharmacology, which you can really only do with many years of higher level schooling.  As this will be my way to change the world in the future, I must study everything I can now, so that I will be ready for the schooling ahead of me.  I have reached out to many of the people I listed earlier in the post "Super 5," and the ones who wrote back have been very helpful, especially a man named Daan Frenkel.

Lit Analysis: Macbeth

Note: Sorry this is slightly late, I thought that I had sent it, but it showed up later as only a draft.

1. The book opens upon witches talking about Macbeth.  They meet Macbeth, and they tell him that he will be king of Scotland, and the Thane of Cawdor, and they tell his friend  Banquo that he will father a long line of kings. we learn that Macbeth has done well in battle, and for this, King Duncan made Macbeth the Thane of Cawdor.  After a while of being Thane, Lady Macbeth gets Macbeth to kill King Duncan, and she blames it on the king’s servants.

Super 5

1) Richard Ayoade - can help with my interest in arts, as he as an exceptional British Comedian, who acts in some of my favorite shows, such as The IT Crowd, and who wrote and directed my favorite movie Submarine.  He was a member of The Footlights, and I would like to contact him in the hopes of getting to know more about Cambridge University.

2) Craig Melchert - a UCLA professor of linguistics and Indo-European studies, whom I have had some correspondence with.  He is able to help me with my studies of Indo-European cultures.

3)Steve Jones - a biology professor at University College London.  I saw an interdisciplinary (evolution in biology and linguistics) lecture by him that fascinated me.  He can definitely help me with my scientific studies.

4)John Heritage - another UCLA professor, but this time, a professor of sociology.  As my experiment deals with sociology, he could be of help.  One of his studies in sociology is the study of how drugs are prescribed, and the psychological effects of drugs, which could help me in my future in pharmacology. He also went to Leeds University, which could help me, as I would like to know more about going to graduate school in England.

5)Daan Frenkel - the chemistry department head at Cambridge University.  He could help me as he is a professor of physical chemistry, which is a field that I intend to study in the near future.  He also has worked at both UCLA and University of Cambridge, which are the two schools that I intend to go to.

Launch

I still cannot tell people what I am doing to start out my general study of everything that I can study, but I am currently writing the beginning of it.

I, Jury... iJury

The two big things that I got from reading other people's essays is that I really need to make my introductions and conclusions more smooth, as it really makes or breaks an essay.  I also feel that I need to summarize less in my writing.

Brave New World AP Essay 1

There are two sides to many people in this world: the outside that conforms to the world around them, and the inside that secretly wants to rebel.  When people do not agree with the society or culture around them, human nature often makes it difficult for them to make their concerns known to their peers, allowing this desire to go against the grain to grow inside them.  This inner want to change the system has lead to much literature, and many characters devoted to describing the difficulties of breaking the societal mold, especially in the modern era.  Bernard, the protagonist at the beginning of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is one of these characters who cannot break free of the culture around him that he knows is wrong.  The “tension” created by Bernard’s outward conformity and inward questioning is what makes the beginning of this novel so meaningful.

Brave New World AP Essay Question

The Question can be found here.

Although I would probably write this question on either Winston of 1984 or Jake of The Sun Also Rises, I would first go about answering the question by making a pre-write in the form of an organized list of the ways Bernard conforms against his better judgement, such as more or less taking part in the decadent love affairs of

BOB 1

I intend to bring my findings to class tomorrow, so they will not be represented here, but I was just wondering why I am getting the same amount of page views from the usual suspects when everyone from my class is supposed to be viewing my blog and then rating it... this just seems odd to me.

I also wanted to say that people should look at more blogs than just the first one on the list.  The first blog has way more views than others that are of equal quality that are lower on the list, and I feel that this is unfortunate, as people are just being lazy.

I Am Here, Here I Am... Here Am I

    I feel that I have made moderately good progress this grading period.  Although I have had more troubles with time commitments than usual, I feel I have worked well in the time I have been allotted.  My focus this grading period has generally been to improve my writing, as I am

Everything is Interdisciplinary

or, Welcome to the Interdisciplinary.
For my project, I intend to conduct a scientific test on the denizens of my school.  This test will cover a variety of disciplines, including classical scientific inquiry, the transportation aspect of civil engineering, sociology, psychology, community dynamics, law in respect to education, and the general learning process of students on my campus.  If my hypothesis proves correct, it may improve on all of the above.

Have To / Would Like To

Note: Sorry Doctor Preston, but I like my title better

I feel that people do what they want to all ready.  People generally do not like to do school work, and do not use their schooling as their medium to do what they would like to.  If people did not do what they wanted to aside from what they had to do, this world would not really have much music or any other thing of beauty.  If we did simply what we were told, there would be no scientific advances or anything, because we are not told to do that in school.  The Beatles did what they did aside from their school work, and I study culture and classical music, yet I do not have a music history class nor one for ancient culture.  People do what they want already.

Literature Analysis # 4

1. The story opens with Jake, one of the post war expatriates living in Paris.  He along with his friends- which include Robert Cohn, a man who peaked in college and now is a failure, and Lady Brett Ashley, who is a strong and beautiful, yet rather shallow woman- live generally fast paced and dangerous lives.  Although Jake and Brett love each other, Brett will not be with Jake, as an injury from the war left him unable to copulate, and also because she is engaged to a man named Mike.  Cohn loves Brett, and they go on a trip to Spain together, basically because Brett likes to engage in intercourse.  Bill, Jakes friend visits, and Jake’s group of friends, including Bill decide to go to see the Bullfights in Spain, although everybody just wants to go to party, with Jake being the only person who actually likes these fights.  After more exposition is gained from Jake’s talks with Bill and things are set more clear, the friends go to Spain and meet up with Brett and crew.  Everybody parties, and to the dismay of both Cohn and Jake, Brett starts an affair with the young bullfighter Romero.  Jake does not like this, as he sees Romero as innocent and that he destroyed that by introducing him to Brett, and Cohn does not like it because he likes Brett.  Cohn’s irrational love for Brett causes many problems in the group, and this comes to a head when Cohn beats Romero horribly in a fight.  After this, everybody goes home rather depressed.  Jake tries to go away by himself, but Brett stops him and says that they could love each other.  Jake rejects her, as he has lost all faith in humanity.  Jakes idea about humanity not mattering any more fulfills Hemingway’s purpose, as the title The Sun Also Rises suggests that the actions of people do not really matter, and that the world would exist without us.
2. The theme of the novel is a loss of faith in the human race, as derived from the Great War.  The fast lives, and lack of trust for love shown by Jake and his friends make this theme evident.
3. The tone of The Sun Also Rises is extremely cynical, as shown in the actions of the characters, especially when Jake feels that it is “pretty” to think people could actually love each other, the constant partying displayed by the characters, as this is evident that they view the world as so far begone that there is nothing meaningful to do so they should just have a good time, and Hemingway’s use of the fact that Brett Ashley as just a pretty face who is there to hurt people through the sin of lust.
4. Symbolism is used, especially with Lady Brett, as she symbolizes the evils of sex.  Allusion is used in the title, as the title is a quote from the Bible.  Repetition is used many times in the story, with short statements being repeated through a passage.  Imagery is also often used, as locations are often explained in depth.  Verbal irony is used in the novel many times, one example is when Jake says “Besides, what happened to me is supposed to be funny.  I never think about it.”  In chapter 4.  The last statement can also be viewed as litote.  Narrational point of view is used throughout the entire book as a way of characterizing Jake directly, and his descriptions of the people around him is Hemingway using indirect characterization.

Characterization:

1. Direct characterization is used frequently, albeit not from a reliable source, as Jake is the narrator, so we get his opinions of everybody.  This is seen in the book when Jake describes Robert Cohn at the beginning of the novel, and again with his more accurate description of Cohn.  Indirect characterization is seen through Jakes thoughts, as these are his actions, and they characterize him, and in how he describes the actions of others, like Romero, who’s graceful actions while bullfighting mirror his purity.
2. Yes, Hemingway’s diction changes when talking about different characters, as everything is masked with Jake’s opinion with the people around him.  If he likes them, like Cohn (for the most part at least), more positives than negatives are used, but when he talks about Brett after her affair with Romero, he is much more critical and uses more negatives.  Truthfully, these changes are only minor, as Jake has a rather negative view about humans, due to his thoughts of disillusionment about the war.
3. Jake is a round, dynamic character.  He is round because we see him at every level of his being as the book is narrated by him.  We see his hopes, dreams, and hardships, as well as his thoughts about other people.  He is a dynamic character based on the fact that he spirals deeper and deeper into disillusionment, and by the end of the novel, does not even believe in love.
4. I do not feel like I have met a character, as in this day in age, I do not completely understand the disillusionment felt by the world after the Great War, especially the extremely strong disillusionment felt by the expatriates like Hemingway.  Although I feel that I met the man in The Old Man and the Sea, I do not feel like I met real people here for the same reason I did not feel I did after reading The Great Gatsby: I do not see anybody today living like this, and it feels so illogical to do so that I can not completely comprehend these people as truly people.

WHAT'S THE STORY

Dickens wrote A Tale of Two Cities because he wanted to warn England of revolutions, as he felt that Victorian England was on the path to this because of the ever increasing class divide due to the industrial revolution.  He also wrote the book as an allegory of christian redemption, as Carton sacrifices himself for the basic intention of doing something good in his life for a better after life.

Tale of Two Cites Lecture Notes

• Manchester is involved
• Dickens conceived this novel while acting with his children
• Proves to be a very personal work for Dickens
• In 1857, Dickens's helped write The Frozen Deep, and stared in it 
• It was about two men who liked the same women, and had self sacrifice because it was based on cannibalism in a arctic expedition
• In this, he met his Lucy, and left his wife for him
• Dickens likes Carton, and almost originally named him Richard (Dick, again copying the play) 
• In 1858, he started public readings for profit, which established him as a popular reader
• 1858 was a time of changing ties for him
• When Dickens was 10, he first went to London, and he did not like it, yet was fascinated by it, as he saw all the poor and suffering there.  
• He always writes about London, as all of the bad in the world was there, and it inspired him
• Dickens first visited Paris in 1844
• Dickens truly loved Paris, as it was completely alien to him
• Paris fascinated Paris in the exact opposite way that London did
• Because of the French problems, Paris was much more organized than London, as it was destroyed many times.  This made it a much more palatable for Dickens
• Another reason that Dickens liked Paris, was that it was constantly being upgraded, again, because of the revolutions
• Dickens still liked the dark sides of Paris.
• Many wine houses in Paris, which caused him to write some of Tale of Two Cities in a wine house
• Before Dickens wrote his book, two books, one about London’s locations, and one on Paris’s, influenced Dickens in writing, and provided many of the locations of the novel
• These books alluded to much of the history used in Tale of Two Cities
• In the opening, Dickens alludes to his bi-polar views of the cities, and the rich/poor class divide which he hated so
• Victorian England was haunted by the First French revolution, and its reign of terror
• This revolution terrified England, due to the fact that Victorian England, with its industrial revolution, was going much the same way that France was before the French Revolution
• Therefore, Tale of Two Cities was a warning to England
• The book was released in monthly parts in England and America
• Written with cliff hangars to make the audience return
• He wrote each part each month to see how his audience reacted
• Dickens wanted Tale of Two Cities to be his greatest work, and wanted it dramatized for the French
• Many dramatizations focused on Sydney Carton, and the same man played Carton in many of the adaptations, including the silent film, as an older man
• Even though he writes about history, Dickens is still able to build suspense with all of the little things he writes about in his work
• Dickens became good friends with Carlyle, who became a bit like a younger family member to Dickens, a man who wrote about the French Revolution
• Therefore, Dickens got historical help on his work from Carlyle
• Carlyle was one of a select few to read the book early
• The storming of the Bastille section was drawn directly from history with the help of Carlyle, yet was still suspenseful in Dickens novel
• To demonstrate this, Dr. Williams spends 7 minutes reading this passage
• The historical storyline is just as important as the multiple personal story lines
• Lucy is about the same age as Dickens's Lucy
• Finishes with Carton’s Death scene

LIT TERMS REMIX

Circumlocution:


Classicism: Turn the sound of your computer on now! This blog is based of classicism- the music is (now regarded as [although I have 3 baroque period compositions, one romantic period composition, and a only two actual classical pieces]) classical, and the background is based on the classical science astronomy.  So, this blog in itself is just a remix of two things: classicism, and Carl Sagan's Cosmos, which apart from being a scientific educational program is also a classicism remix.  

Cliche: 
The nick of time

Climax:


Colloquialism:



Comedy: I understand that this is not one of the words that we are required to do, but I hold comedy in high regards, may I suggest some media from the country which, in my opinion, has truly mastered the art of comedy:

Books:
All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
Jeeves and Wooster by P. G. Woodhouse
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Movies:
Submarine
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Life of Brian
Time Bandits
And Now for Something Completely Different

Television:
The League of Gentlemen
The Mighty Boosh 
Blackadder
Saxondale
Red Dwarf
All Creatures Great and Small
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy
Never Mind the Buzzcocks
Little Britan
Snuff Box
Mr. Bean
Coupling
Do Not Adjust Your Set
At Last the 1948 Show
Fawlty Towers
Ripping Yarns
Look Around You 
The IT Crowd
An Idiot Abroad
My Family
The Inbetweeners
Monty Python's Flying Circus
Jeeves and Wooster
Black Books
And some of Doctor Who

AP PREP POST 1: SIDDHARTHA

NOTE: To get to the original URL where these questions are found, click on them.

Consider Siddhartha’s relationship with Govinda. How are they similar, and how are they different? What are the narrative functions of Govinda’s reappearance throughout the novel? How does their relationship impact the novel’s ending?
I do not remember Govinda well enough to throughly answer this question, but I do know that he was Siddhartha's best friend and would differ from Siddhartha in that he was a follower and never reached nirvana, while Siddhartha reached nirvana by going off by himself.  Obviously, this question shows that you need to understand passages on many levels, not just comprehension ones.

What purpose does self-denial serve in Siddhartha? What about self-indulgence? 
Self denial and self indulgance are both negative and positive separately in this novel, because denying yourself luxuries leads you to not need them, but you should not deny them, you should simply not want them, and self indulgence is important, because when you are in nirvana, you will not need to indulge, but you do need to experience life with and without self indulgence in order to get there.  This question shows that you need to connect topics to your knowledge, and to pay attention to themes in the novel.

If you were the river, would you be enlightenment or would you know enlightenment? In other words, what’s up with the river? What is it’s relation to enlightenment?
The river is what allows Siddhartha to connect to the universe on a much deeper level, because it allows him to connect his life with what he sees in the universe.  Obviously, look for and understand symbolism.


What does enlightenment look like in Siddhartha? Is it a feeling? An attitude?
To Siddhartha, enlightenment is being completely content with the world, no matter what its trials are, as he understands the cosmos on a deeper level.  It is neither a feeling or an attitude, but a state of being.  This shows the importance of thinking about character's emotions and the meanings of occurrences in passages on a deeper level.

Does verbal communication play a positive role in the spiritual progression of characters in Siddhartha?
I do not remember the book to this specifity, but I know that Siddhartha needs to fully understand the world to reach enlightenment, and he learns much about the world around him from talking to many people.  I feel that experience is much more important though.  This tells us that we must pay attention to what moves passages along, and what small things in writings are truly important.

Hacking My Education

When I get out of university and graduate school, I hope to have an doctorate of one sort or another and to do medical research at a university, while being a professor, in order to fund my work.  I feel that this course is already tailored towards helping me get their, because I intend to be an academic, and should strive to learn everything I can.