Sunday, March 22, 2009
Best of Week: Womyn
I don’t consider myself a active feminist, though I do support equality. For instance, I wouldn’t have been bothered by the titles Man and Woman in the Venn diagram on the board. When Alyssa suggested that we change woman to womyn, I was intrigued. It constantly occurs to me that the word woman is just an addition to the word man, and this is the first innovative spelling solution I have seen. By replacing the A or E with Y, you eliminate the connection to man or a male root. Next, I loved our battle towards finding the plural of womyn. I thought it was ingenious of Albert to say that it is already plural such as words like fish or deer. Lastly, I think it is very important to continue the use of this spelling in order to influence others to change their frame of mind, similar to Jane’s defying of the Victorian social view of women, oops I mean womyn. By using this spelling in our pieces of writing, I think the Academy can start a very large trend, without over advertising the cause. This fits my views because, as I said earlier, I am not a very active feminist. Therefore, by putting the new word into use (taking action) we have a longer lasting effect than if we just told people to change their minds (talking about it). It would be very interesting to see how far we could take this, maybe even worldwide, especially since so much technology is available. I can only foresee two extremes. Either our campaigning will have a huge effect or very few people will be influenced, which would be disappointing. Well, those are just my thoughts sparked from the excitement during class. This is pretty much all a reflection of form is content!
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Dialectic: Social Status vs. Happiness
Towards the beginning of Jane Eyre, Jane is faced with the question of living a life of love or a wealthy life of hatred (either with the Reeds or with her poor relatives). I find it odd, yet refreshingly honest that she would prefer a higher status to a poor yet happy life. I wish that I could realize how difficult a life without material luxury would be. I agree with Jane but probably would never admit it especially in her situation. Everyone around her that was trying to help thought that she would value love and acceptance over wealth, but she proved them wrong. I guess once you become acclimated to a higher class lifestyle you can’t and don’t want to give it up, even more so in Victorian times. Also, because Jane is looking back on her life, it must’ve been even more difficult to admit to the reader this decision.
There are clear benefits to both lifestyles one being physical and the other being more mental/emotional. However, for Jane admitting to needing the wealth kind of disappoints the reader because I feel that most people would expect and want her to be a perfect heroine by defying the rules of society. Actually, I think that by falling victim to the Victorian times, Jane has more room to grow and Charlotte Brönte gives credibility and honesty to Jane. Lastly, without Jane’s desire for a better life, in society, she probably wouldn’t have met Mr. Rochester who might be able to give her both lives, one of wealth and one of happiness.
There are clear benefits to both lifestyles one being physical and the other being more mental/emotional. However, for Jane admitting to needing the wealth kind of disappoints the reader because I feel that most people would expect and want her to be a perfect heroine by defying the rules of society. Actually, I think that by falling victim to the Victorian times, Jane has more room to grow and Charlotte Brönte gives credibility and honesty to Jane. Lastly, without Jane’s desire for a better life, in society, she probably wouldn’t have met Mr. Rochester who might be able to give her both lives, one of wealth and one of happiness.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Blogging Around 3
I first commented on Dylan's post about his ideal discussion/class environment, which would include teachers asking students to share whatever is on their mind, whether or not it pertains to the pieces of discussion. I know that homework and school would always be on my mind. Anyway, here is my response to Dylan's What If post:
Dylan, I completely agree with Margot that this would be a great idea, especially for a group with a class environment similar to the Academy. However, I don't think this type of discussion would be suitable in the current school system. Moving forward, I think that Mr. Allen already tries to apply this frame of mind to his lessons. When he realizes that someone hasn't participated in a while, he calls on then. Trying to keep the pressure to a minimum, he asks him or her to share anything about the text or whatever is being discussed. I think of myself as a planner; therefore, I think or write everything out before I say it. However, when Mr. Allen goes on a random selection streak, I get very nervous, probably because I am one of the usual victims. All that previous thinking goes out of my brain and I go into panic. Overall, I think you introduced a very interesting style of teaching that would benefit students in the long run, but at the start, it would only interest for the students that really like to speak up in class. This was a really great writing piece and I think it connects well to English class.
After I wrote this review, I realized that you were probably talking of just a more open discussion with less direction or focus on a specific topic or text. I think Margot and I were getting at how Mr. Allen would lead the discussion. Sorry!
Lauren
Next, I commented on Kyle's post about our analyzation of Cathedral. He wrote about the varying length of sentences and how his thoughts were different from those of the class. Kyle brought up some very important questions such as, "But it raises the question how much of this is intentional by the author? Is he writing the prose, or in someways is the writing working through him. " Here was my reaction:
Kyle, I thought this blog post was really insightful. Your original idea makes just as much sense as the ideas from class. Although the beginning of your Best of Week was awesome in class, I appreciated the questions at the end of your blog the most. Sometimes after class discussions I wonder if the author of each piece of text we read actually thought of all the ideas we came up with, especially since some of them are very disconnected from the original literature. I know that when I write, I have an idea and I run with it. I don't always wonder what the reader is going to take away from the craft. Because of this, I sometimes have disbelief that English class is completely truthful. Don't get me wrong, I love all of the great discussions that come from English, but sometimes I think we unnecessarily beat pieces to death. Your blog was the perfect balance for me of desired writing (the beginning of the post) and reality (questions at the end). You have some wonderful insights there and this post was well written.
Lauren
Everyone's blogs this semester have been great!
Dylan, I completely agree with Margot that this would be a great idea, especially for a group with a class environment similar to the Academy. However, I don't think this type of discussion would be suitable in the current school system. Moving forward, I think that Mr. Allen already tries to apply this frame of mind to his lessons. When he realizes that someone hasn't participated in a while, he calls on then. Trying to keep the pressure to a minimum, he asks him or her to share anything about the text or whatever is being discussed. I think of myself as a planner; therefore, I think or write everything out before I say it. However, when Mr. Allen goes on a random selection streak, I get very nervous, probably because I am one of the usual victims. All that previous thinking goes out of my brain and I go into panic. Overall, I think you introduced a very interesting style of teaching that would benefit students in the long run, but at the start, it would only interest for the students that really like to speak up in class. This was a really great writing piece and I think it connects well to English class.
After I wrote this review, I realized that you were probably talking of just a more open discussion with less direction or focus on a specific topic or text. I think Margot and I were getting at how Mr. Allen would lead the discussion. Sorry!
Lauren
Next, I commented on Kyle's post about our analyzation of Cathedral. He wrote about the varying length of sentences and how his thoughts were different from those of the class. Kyle brought up some very important questions such as, "But it raises the question how much of this is intentional by the author? Is he writing the prose, or in someways is the writing working through him. " Here was my reaction:
Kyle, I thought this blog post was really insightful. Your original idea makes just as much sense as the ideas from class. Although the beginning of your Best of Week was awesome in class, I appreciated the questions at the end of your blog the most. Sometimes after class discussions I wonder if the author of each piece of text we read actually thought of all the ideas we came up with, especially since some of them are very disconnected from the original literature. I know that when I write, I have an idea and I run with it. I don't always wonder what the reader is going to take away from the craft. Because of this, I sometimes have disbelief that English class is completely truthful. Don't get me wrong, I love all of the great discussions that come from English, but sometimes I think we unnecessarily beat pieces to death. Your blog was the perfect balance for me of desired writing (the beginning of the post) and reality (questions at the end). You have some wonderful insights there and this post was well written.
Lauren
Everyone's blogs this semester have been great!
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