Learning Outcomes? Check!

At the beginning of this term, I outlined my personal learning plan for achieving the learning outcomes of our class.
These learning outcomes were:

1. Know basic literary terms and methods 
2. Know basic literary genres and representative texts
3. Write literary arguments 
4. Engage literature creatively and socially
5. Use emerging communication tools and pedagogical methods

When I made my first plan, I became aware of the gaps in my literary knowledge. I was reminded that even though I had taken AP Language and AP Literature in high school, those were not substitutes for continued active reading and learning. I knew I had to do better, not only for this class, but because I care about English and enjoy being able to talk about it intelligently. 

My Final Draft and How It Came to Be

To really get to the backstory of my paper, we've got to look back about...two years. That's right. Two years ago I began to embark on my journey of utilizing the internet for purposes other than Facebooking. I created my Tumblr and started actively using it. It took a little while, but I started making "internet friends," following people who were doing Cool Creative Things that I cared about, and occasionally doing a few creative endeavors of my own. I gained followers who I could share things with and it was really fantastic to discover this whole creative world on the internet that I had never known existed.

This is the point in my life at which the internet became something more than merely a homework helper or a time waster. After joining Tumblr, the internet became a place that was intertwined with my life.
Around this time I also became a much more active YouTube viewer, particularly watching vloggers. Though their YouTube videos weren't necessarily creative content, most of the vloggers I watched created other things in their "real life" - like YouTuber and bestselling author John Green, for example. YouTube became a place where I could interact with people who I admired, and who were doing Cool Creative Things that I could consume.
Add in some Twitter action, and the internet was a place that was really important to me.

My (sort of) Final Draft

Here's my sort of final draft! I'm still working on it, but I think I've made some pretty big improvements since my first draft. I would really really love feedback. Jocelyn pointed out in my last draft that my thesis was unclear, so I tried to fix that, and I would really appreciate if you guys could let me know if you think my thesis is clear and easy to find now. Anywho...

"So what do you plan on doing with that?"

I plan on pursuing an artistic career after I graduate. Yes, it's "risky." Yes, there are no guarantees of success. I understand this. I hear it all the time. I get to have the "what's your major?" "English" "And what do you plan on doing with that?" conversation all. the. time. My answer changes depending on the person. Usually they follow that question with "Teaching or writing?" And I take the easy way out by merely saying "both" and offering up nothing else. I'm sorry but when did people decide that there are only two possible outcomes with an English major? But really that's a tangent for another time. 

The point is, I want to be a writer, and even though loads of people can be discouraging about this, I've found it's important to hold onto the bits of encouragement I find. One person in particular who is ridiculously inspiring is Neil Gaiman. I really love this little video of him answering an aspiring director's question.

Father's Day

Totally random post! Yay!

Anyway, as you are all aware (or should all be aware) Father's Day is this Sunday.

Father's Day always brings one important issue to mind: what kind of present do I get for my dad? This is especially difficult if your dad is like mine, and already buys himself the things he wants.

And this year I finally came up with the most brilliant (and also hilarious) answer: BOOKS!

Why haven't I thought of this sooner?
(And why is this hilarious, you ask?)
Well, my dad recently admitted he hasn't read a book since high school. In his words, "unless you count the thousands of pages of paperwork I read for work." Sorry Dad, but I don't.

So then comes the harder part - which book do I give him? After some thinking, and combing back through my "read" list on Goodreads, I decided on The Things They Carried. I think it's a topic that he would enjoy enough that he might actually read it. Plus, since I've already read it, we can discuss afterward.

I could probably just get my dad a tie and call it a day, but I think giving him a book is a much more personal gift coming from me. Giving someone a book makes it a gift that you can both participate in, and it's a gift that will last through the years (after all, no one ever throws away books).

What are you guys getting your dads for Father's Day?

I swear the finished product is going to be WAY better than this...

My working draft! Keep in mind that it's a working draft, and I've still got a lot of work planned to put into it! But here it is for now. I would be super happy for any feedback.
Also, I don't have a conclusion yet. Conclusions kill me every time I write an essay. So I'm holding off on that at the moment, to spare your eyes from the awfulness that it would be.

Amateurs, Eh?

Since my thesis involves the rise of the amateur artist thanks to new media platforms, I've spent a lot of time thinking about the amateur writers littering social media sites like Tumblr. One in particular that holds my attention is Tyler Knott Gregson. He's an "amateur" poet known for his typewriter poems and daily haikus on the site. But is being an amateur really a bad thing? For him, all signs point to "no." Writing isn't Gregson's day job, (he makes his living as a wedding photographer) but his words still reach a wide audience, making an impact in their lives in the same way that poets in print impact others.

New Media with Literature - feedback?

While thinking about claims for my thesis, I've spent a lot of time thinking about new media and how it affects  the relationship we have with the literature we absorb. New media creates new ways for people to interact with literature, and also new ways to create it themselves. I've also thought about the rise of the amateur, which is widely helped by outlets like YouTube, and whether it should really be considered negatively. Though amateurs now have ways to present their work to a broader public, is it not a good thing that they are participating in literary pursuits, no matter how seemingly awful their attempts may be? If literature helps us to see others more complexly and feel greater empathy for those around us, then society benefits from anyone who gives or takes to or from the literary pool. Also in this matter, I keep thinking back to the phrase "Every artist was first an amateur."

So what would my claim be, and what would I use to argue it? First, my claim would be that the outlets created by new media allow literature to grow and expand while reaching a broader audience, and that this is inherently beneficial for both the creators and audience of such content. The final presentation of my claim still needs a little work, but I was thinking I could argue it with the backing of spoken word poetry, the ways The Lizzie Bennet Diaries used new media to connect with its audience, and the rise of amateur poets and writers on social media sites such as Tumblr.

What do you think? How could I improve my claim or argue it better? I would love to hear any suggestions!

Lizzie Bennet...

Reflecting on my recent learning about drama, I've spent quite a bit of time thinking about one of my favorite productions of the last year. The Lizzie Bennet Diaries is, as you might have guessed, based on Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice. So what makes it drama? Well for one, it's not any ordinary production. It's...brace yourselves... a YouTube webseries. The show is a modern day adaptation of the novel presented in vlog format from Lizzie's perspective.

New Media with the Meisenbachs

It's an average night when I get a text message involving a cat picture from my brother-in-law. The long-running groupchat between me, my sister, and him is a source of laughter for the three of us as we exchange jokes and check in with each other. This form of media, moving past basic texting to the somewhat more open format of the groupchat has given me the opportunity to communicate with my sister and her husband in a way that feels like what we would be doing in real life if we weren't seven hundred miles away from each other.

New media can feel overwhelming and pervasive at times, but I think the active user will find that the benefits and downfalls all stem from how one chooses to use what is available to them. The active blogger will of course see the benefits of writing to an audience, the active facebooker will see the benefits of communicating with long distance friends and family, and so on.

In a family unit, new media will hurt or help in whichever ways it is allowed to. If a family wishes to communicate with the benefits of technology and new media, they can choose to do so. If they don't want that, they can choose to avoid it. I know many families whose communication is enhanced by their children's use of blogging and other social media methods. My sister recently started a blog about life as a newlywed, and it has allowed extended family members of both her and her husband to easily keep up with their life.

Naturally, new media can be detrimental to families when individual members use it as a way of isolating themselves from the rest of the family.
Ever heard the phrase "when life gives you lemons..."?
Well, when life gives you new media, you get to choose how to use it.

The Crack-Up

As part of my personal learning plan for nonfiction, I've begun reading The Crack-Up by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I'm a huge Fitzgerald fan and I think his life is absolutely fascinating. The Crack-Up is a compilation of some of his best essays, along with his notebooks, and personal letters to and from his friends and family. This makes it the perfect way to not only experience nonfiction but also to delve into Fitzgerald's personal life.
Fitzgerald's essays are remarkable in their perspective and depth. In "Echoes of the Jazz Age," published in 1931, he analyzes the culture of the 1920s and how everything from media to financial success affected behavior. In "My Lost City," published in 1932, Fitzgerald tells the tale of falling in and out of love with New York City over the years. One of my favorite parts -

"As the ship glided up the river, the city burst thunderously upon us in the early dusk - the white glacier of lower New York swooping down like a strand of a bridge to rise into uptown New York, a miracle of foamy light suspended by the stars. A band started to play on deck, but the majesty of the city made the march trivial and tinkling. From that moment I knew that New York, however often I might leave it, was home."

I love this passage because of its connection to ordinary fiction. The imagery in this piece could make anyone see what he saw that day. This is also why I love all of Fitzgerald's nonfiction - he still treats the subject matter as a story that needs to be told to the reader, which helps us connect with his words the same way we would with his novels.

Engaging Literature Socially

Part of my efforts for engaging literature socially have happened online. I've had a Tumblr blog for about two years now and have been able to communicate with a lot of different people through the site. Lately I've been able to have some pretty cool discussions about poetry with people who follow me. For those who are unfamiliar with how Tumblr works, you can personally message other bloggers in a simplistic email-like format.

Over the last few weeks one of my followers who knew I love spoken word poetry messaged me to ask for recommendations of who he should listen to. I told him my favorites, much as I have in previous blog posts, and we agreed to discuss it again after he had watched some. The next day we had a really cool conversation about poetry and our likes and dislikes in regard to some of the poets. It was really awesome to be able to connect with someone based simply on our interest in one sub-genre of poetry, and it reminded me of how literature helps people relate to one another and see each other more complexly.

Today he messaged me this video of an eighteen year old girl reading Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe in a toddler voice. It's definitely an interesting addition to the consideration of how the delivery of a poem can affect the way you view it. 

What do you think?

Good Old Oscar Wilde

I read The Importance of Being Earnest for AP Literature last year and loved it. Oscar Wilde is a fabulous satirist and never fails to make me laugh when I read his comedies. So when I saw that we were reading a scene from Earnest I was excited to revisit a work I had loved the first time around. It definitely didn't disappoint.

One of the big motifs of Earnest is the hypocrisy and deception found in society,which allows for hilarious instances of hypocrisy among the characters. Wilde really had a talent for displaying the ridiculousness of society during his time. There's so much fantastic word play to be found in this story and so many great lines to laugh at.
Like Algernon's interaction with his butler, for example -

Algernon. Good heavens! Is marriage so demoralising as that?
Lane. I believe it IS a very pleasant state, sir. I have had very little experience of it myself up to the present. I have only been married once. That was in consequence of a misunderstanding between myself and a young person.

I love how they dumb marriage down as being simply "a misunderstanding." Hello understatement of the year!

And let's talk about the cucumber sandwiches -

Algernon. [Picking up empty plate in horror.] Good heavens! Lane! Why are there no cucumber sandwiches? I ordered them specially.
Lane. [Gravely.] There were no cucumbers in the market this morning, sir. I went down twice.
Algernon. No cucumbers!
Lane. No, sir. Not even for ready money.

Lane going along with Algernon's deception makes me smile every time - he's clearly well-versed in the habits of his employer and not at all surprised by his hypocrisy in this situation. Even the stage direction [Gravely] makes me laugh. I can just picture the stone-faced butler delivering the "serious" news to the man he knows actually polished off the sandwiches just moments ago. 

And then of course there's Algernon's Aunt Augusta, who has probably gotten the Bunbury excuse so many times she's no longer fooled by it, so she gives the most wonderfully awful speech about "health."

Lady Bracknell. Well, I must say, Algernon, that I think it is high time that Mr. Bunbury made up his mind whether he was going to live or to die. This shilly-shallying with the question is absurd. Nor do I in any way approve of the modern sympathy with invalids. I consider it morbid. Illness of any kind is hardly a thing to be encouraged in others. Health is the primary duty of life. [...] I should be much obliged if you would ask Mr. Bunbury, from me, to be kind enough not to have a relapse on Saturday, for I rely on you to arrange my music for me.

We all know you can't just ask someone to be healthy on any given date, so is Lady Bracknell being serious here or is she telling Algernon that he can't excuse himself out of Saturday's activities? I would say both, considering that she attacks "the modern sympathy with invalids" (serious) but also suggests that Bunbury should just up and die already. 

If you guys haven't read the whole play, I highly recommend it. It's short enough to read in a day or two and the ending will have you applauding Oscar Wilde for his cleverness. 

RENT

In preparation for drama week, I've been thinking about my personal experiences with drama. Probably my favorite memory in regards to drama was last summer, when I was in New York and got to see Rent performed off-Broadway. It was spectacular. I had never seen Rent before (the movie or otherwise) so I got to view it entirely new right in front of me.
I loved the story, the music, and the actors. Even though I've now watched the movie numerous times, the cast I saw in New York are who I think of as the characters. Seeing it performed made the story so real to me, which is why I love watching drama. By the end of the play, I had laughed and sobbed right along with the characters and the rest of the audience.
Drama is one of the reasons I love New York, and one of the reasons I want to go back! I think I could be completely content just seeing a new play every night.

A Midsummer Night

I saw A Midsummer Night's Dream in the park and was very pleased with the performance. I often have a difficult time when it comes to reading Shakespeare - it's hard for me to battle through the tough language and become invested in the story when I'm doing it on my own. But having others performing in front of me makes it way easier! I know the actors care about the story, and their hard work makes me want to care about it too. Not to mention things like body language, vocal intonation, and facial expressions bring Shakespeare's sometimes difficult words to life.
I also love being part of an audience and sharing the viewing experience with the people around me. Laughing with the rest of the audience through A Midsummer Night's Dream definitely added to the fun of the comedy.
All in all, I would almost always rather watch a piece of drama than read it, and I'm glad I had the opportunity to do so with this particular work.

Progress!

My very first post on this blog was my original learning plan for this term, which I added to when planning my personal reading during our poetry unit.

I've definitely been able to get a good handle on one of my goals in my personal learning plan, which was to get reacquainted with all those literary terms and genres I've forgotten. I'd say I'm doing pretty well, and I've been able to analyze works both in class and on my own utilizing that knowledge. This can be seen in my personal literary narrative detailing aspects of the poem "Tulipomania."
Another of my goals was to absorb more literature on my own, and I've done pretty well with this. I finished a great novel and read a few volumes of poetry in correlation with our units, and I've been able to view each with a critical eye based on our learning. I also planned the personal reading I'll do for our nonfiction section.

I've also been able to critically examine poetry and the way it has evolved through the use of new media, and how it can evolve even within what might seem like an already set sub-genre. I've also been able to share the way traditional poetry has been marketed using new media.

One of the best things I've done this term has been taking new leaps with my interaction regarding literature on social media. I've had a Goodreads account for a while, but I was never brave enough to post a review until a couple of weeks ago. I felt that I was under-qualified to give reviews and self-conscious about who might read them. But after posting my first review, I was almost immediately rewarded! One of my friends texted me and said that she thought my review was "lovely" which was really encouraging. I plan to continue posting reviews and interacting more fully.

While interacting on the blog, I've really appreciated some of the comments on my posts. On my first spoken word post, I especially appreciated Briggs', Sined's, and Richard's comments, because they helped me feel that I was showing them something or someone new that they could be interested in. This was especially meaningful since spoken word is something I am really passionate about. I also really appreciated the comment from Kirsten on my second post about spoken word, in which she encouraged me to look at one of her blog posts, and we were able to have a brief discussion in the comments about the emotional aspects of performance poetry. It was really great to be able to find similar likes in another member of our class.

Poetry in Pairs

So I love spoken word poetry. No surprises there. But one of the things I love about it is how it stretches the boundaries of what constitutes a poem and of how poems can be experienced.

Take collaboration, for example. If I find out that a novel or a poem was written by two people, it seems a little strange to me. How much did each person participate in the writing of said piece? Because I can't pick apart the work and figure out which words belong to each person, I don't enjoy it as much.

But collaboration in spoken word? I love it. The use of two voices can make an entire poem what it is. The poets can use their voices individually, in tandem, and as echoes all in one piece.

Sarah Kay and Phil Kaye are two of my favorite spoken word poets, and they're both absolutely brilliant on their own, but together they bring to life poems that just wouldn't be the same otherwise.

Here's "When Love Arrives" 

And "An Origin Story"

Tulipomania

My first introduction to "Tulipomania" by Katrina Vandenberg was two years ago when author John Green referenced it in a YouTube video (see below). In the video, he quotes a section of the poem, and it was enough to draw me in and convince me to purchase Vandenberg's work. "Tulipomania" was one of my first experiences with recently published poetry and encouraged me in my poetic pursuits by revealing that the study of poetry can be more than struggling through 15th century sonnets.

The poem "Tulipomania" centers around a frenzy over tulip bulbs that occurred in the 1630s, in which Dutch speculators were known to pay more than a merchant's yearly salary for a mere bulb. A particular bulb, called the Viceroy, was especially appealing, but no one knew that they were infected by the tulip mosaic virus, which made them more beautiful but ultimately resulted in their extinction.

A Viceroy tulip as depicted in a 1637 Dutch catalog. 

Memorizing Poetry with New Media

About a month ago I stumbled across an introduction for a new iphone app called Poems by Heart. It's produced by Penguin, and I think the concept is pretty fabulous. On the app, memorizing classic poetry is presented as close to a game. Users pick the poem they want to memorize, can read it and have it read to them, and then proceed through a series of fill-in-the-blank rounds that are scored and get progressively more difficult. Once a user masters all the fill-in-the-blanks, they can recite the poem to the app.

I think the concept is wonderful, not to mention there is something great about memorizing poetry instead of playing Angry Birds or some other mind-numbing game. The only downside is that you only get a few free poems to memorize, and after that you have to purchase them in "bundles".

Poetry that Speaks

I love poetry in general, but one particular kind of poetry that has captured my attention is spoken word. Unlike simply reading words on a page, listening to spoken word is an auditory and often visual experience of hearing the poet speak their own words and act along with them.

One of the best things about spoken word is that with the internet, we have a whole index of it ready for the listening! I've definitely spent some late nights on Youtube just moving from one poem to the next. In my opinion, the best spoken word poets have the ability to evoke an emotional response from their listeners. I love when a poem can bring me to tears or give me goosebumps.

The first spoken word poem I ever listened to was "A Finger, Two Dots Then Me" by Derrick Brown. Talk about goosebumps! If you've got eight minutes to spare, it's been made into this lovely "short film" and I think it's definitely worth the watch.

Another of my favorite spoken word poets is Sarah Kay, and "Hand Me Downs" is a personal favorite of mine.