My Fav....

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I’m particularly proud of blog 12, where I discussed the rebirth of death. The philosophy of death has been something that has interested me for some time, so discussing it was exciting. To me death isn’t final, not in a religious connotation but in a rather philosophical mindset. We should fear death; instead we should look at it as the end of one cycle and the beginning of another. I enjoy being able to write freely, without heavy rules and restrictions, and these blogs, for the most part, has allowed me to so. I may be discussing Shakespeare, but I get to think independently about the material and produce my own opinions about the piece. I think more teachers should step away from tedious demands and other banalities, but instead should let students minds wander to more creative thoughts. 

I learned a great deal about drama and the practice of writing about the subject. I like to understand characters on a deep level when reading and some of the exercises stressed this case. Characters, to me, are more important than the plot. If you don’t care about characters, you aren’t going to care about the plot no matter how interesting it may appear. Plot has its place, obviously, but characters ate the lifeblood of good literature. Actually, characters are the lifeblood of any good entertainment. I think this is apparent with the rise of reality TV. The plots of these shows are thick and uninteresting, for the most part, but it is the characters that make people tune in every week. Writing about drama, is in part, about writing about characters and their motivations. And I enjoyed doing so.              

Giddy

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The definition for giddy, according to Merriam-Webster, is dizzy, or precisely: mentally confused. Most of the characters in Much Ado do seem to some extent to be suffering from mental confusion. Confusion about their feelings for one another, and generally mental confusion due to misunderstands, most of an intentional nature. The most confused characters are Benedick and Beatrice. They are confused in part for the true nature of their emotions for each other. Their outward displays of disliking truly mask their genuine emotions of love. The other definition of giddy states a frivolous and lighthearted nature, which, once again, most of the characters fall prey to. Don Pedro seems to be the most lighthearted, being the prime instigator of the deception of Benedick and Beatrice. 

Sigh no more displays the qualities of a confused, carefree individual. “One foot on sea and one foot on shore,” shows the naturally contradictory nature of most people.  “One thing constant never,” illustrates the mutable nature of people. How we are constantly shifting and adapting, changing.  The song also shows how people should let go of their woes and turn it into nothing “nonny, nonny.”  How we should be blithe, in a manner of speaking. Man never truly knows what he wants and is a constant state of flux. We are persistently trying to displace our feelings of sadness, and to become carefree, in a sense, to the natural change of time. 

Man as a giddy thing displays the true nature of humans and so plays into the comedic nature of the play. Jesting about the apparent issues of human nature lies at the core of most comedic endeavors. They make observations about everyday life, and makes us see the ridiculous of it all. We are all confused, about one thing or another, and we all at some point find one foot on sea and one on shore. But we, through life, come to see all of our woes and turn them into “nonny, nonny.” We laugh at ourselves and all of our obvious contradictions, and move forward in the word.  

THE REBIRTH OF DEATH

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 Greetings All,
      In class today we were asked to pick a question from the list stated here. Can you guess which one i picked ? Also i looked in my recient blogs and some were along the lines of each and every blog it say SO.. (lol) Being that i noticed that i will try and refrain from saying that. (random).

   The tarot card of ‘Death’ is often said to represent not an actual literal or physical death but a spiritual metaphorical death. The same could be said for the “death” of hero. In philosophy a lot of the time death is representative of the end of a cycle of phase. Many people consider death to be a negative thing, but in some contexts death is actually very much a positive. Death of an old relationship or death of an era shines light on new beginnings and possibilities. In Much Ado About Nothing, the death of Hero is greatly symbolic even beyond the obvious description. By her “dying” Claudio’s feelings about the alleged adultery are forced into the backseat, whereas his grief and love for her are brought into the forefront. He mourns the death of his love while absolving her supposed sins. Often when people die, everyone magically forgets the bad and somehow only remembers the good. By Hero dying she is in a sense becoming reborn, like the phoenix rising up from the ashes she will become something better that what she was. 

         It is not only manipulative but it is in a sense cruel to have someone believe someone is dead just to amend their thoughts. The ending is obviously happy with Claudio meeting Hero’s “cousin” who is merely Hero is disguise, but it is a mean prank to put someone though such emotional turmoil to do so. Nevertheless, the love and heartbreak that occurred before died with the old Hero and it was replaced with the happy adulation of a blushing couple. Death isn’t always to be feared, as sometimes death can guide us to a rebirth and a world full of new possibilities. 

WHATS LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?

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Greetings ! More blog writting it is. In class now we are reading a book by shakespeare called Much ado about nothing. Our Professor had asked of us to choose one of these questions and answer it. Here goes nothing . Enjoy :)


     Love isn’t meant to be contained. Love should run wild and scorch the earth with passion. But in Shakespeare’s time, the Elizabethan Era, this type of love was almost constantly quelled. Back in this time marriage was not necessarily a sign of love. People married for status and for their best interest often with actual love being of secondary importance. If asked what I think of such match-making I’m almost overwhelmed with disgust. In modern times if a person was to marry for money or social status they would most likely be chastised. In my eyes people should only marry for one reason and one reason only, and that is for love. Everything else doesn’t really matter. In quoting John Lennon of the Beatles it’s suffice to say that “all you need is love.”

   When speaking of the relationship between Claudio and Hero, I think that Claudio is attracted to Hero based on her looks, as Claudio even said “In mine eye she is the sweetest lady that ever I looked on.” He is blinded by her beauty, falling in love with her without even speaking. Now I understand that in Shakespearean plays the theory of “love at first sight” is highly common and that in the Elizabethan Era Claudio and Hero’s “love” would have even been the norm but it still doesn’t make much sense. Also for him to completely rebuke her without question at their wedding is completely absurd. If he truly loved her he would have spoken to her, defended her honor but instead he rejected her fully. Love is something that is formed over time. You could be in lust with someone by just looking at them but you surely cannot be in love. With that said, the relationship that Claudio and Hero has is not necessarily love but infatuation.  On a side note, I think that the correlation between love and marriage is just an excuse for the men of that period to lay claim to a woman, to keep her as a mere object or property. Claudio wanted Hero to be married to him not out of love but because he didn’t want any other man to have her, he wanted her to himself. Hence why he was so upset when he thought she was involved in adultery. It’s almost like him saying “my lady, my prized virgin mistress, do not dote upon another but I, for I will possess thou and let no man taint thy virtuous flesh.” This may be a tad dramatic but the message is conveyed, although I am sad that I just slaughtered Shakespearean speech. But I digress. He wanted to possess her because of his infatuation with her and in essence the entirety of the play was not based on the love this pair shared but their fixation with each other. 

THE LEARNING PROCESS

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 Hello! 
    So our teacher asked us to follow the instructions listed HERE.  The reading is over and the fun begins now as we Write.(sike)

   I’m particularly proud of blog number five where I discussed slave breeding. I’m proud of this post because it was the only time I felt I actually wrote in my own voice. I realize now the glaringly obvious grammar mistakes, but I do not think that takes away, for the most point, the voice of the piece. I could abolish blame by saying how tired I was, but doing so is silly. Editorializing, as was the comment made, is correct. I expressed myself without fear of sounding less academic or serious. Sometimes being too serious isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Why must we all write and sound the same in order to satisfy some inane standard? Originality and staying true to your own voice as a writer should be priority. But alas, every thesis and research paper sounds exactly the same as if everyone were writing from a template. This is the reason I dislike writing for school. The problem could lie with me. I suppose I read too many snarky reviews on Cracked.com for my own good or maybe Vonnegut wore off on me. Nevertheless, it is a forced requirement.

      But I digress. Writing about any book is tricky at times because a person could seriously write until their fingers turn blue describing plot and theme and character evaluations. One book could create four other books describing everything from mood and the underlying meaning of a particular paragraph.  However, throughout reading Kindred and the assorted lectures, quizzes and blogs that followed, my understanding of the craft of narrative increased exponentially. I realized that thinking critically about a book makes the experience more real and creates a deeper understanding to the world the author created. Reading for pleasure and reading for school are two different things, I think almost everyone would agree. While reading Hunger Games is fun, I don’t stop and think, “gee, I wonder what the author was trying to convey with this passage.” Instead, you read, you laugh and you move on. But when you stop for a moment and actually think about what you’ve read you sometimes see things that you missed. I think that’s what I learned most from the experience, to stop and think a little harder about things. 

LOOKING BACK

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So today we were asked by our professor to do another blog about the book Kindred and choose one of the questions from  HERE and answer it. I actually really enjoyed reading this book. Even with some of the discussions that we encountered in class that i really did not want to participate in (personal reasons) over all it was a great book. It actually teaches you things that all individuals need to know about.

George F. Kennan once remarked that heroism is “endurance for one moment more.” While others have given up, the true heroic spirit refuses to relent. Instead, they fight and withstand. In Kindred, most of the characters are forced to endure for one reason or another, so in a sense, they are each heroic in their own way. But it was the women of Kindred who were forced to endure the most. Sarah, the cook and den mother to the slaves of the Weylin household was forced to tolerate her share of torment.  Her children were sold as slaves and she as only allowed to keep her daughter Carrie because of her shortcomings. She fears losing her daughter, so she suffers in silence. Alice had to endure losing her husband, being a slave and succumbing to a man she did not love. Dana, had to endure the constant fear of being transported to another time, and being a modern woman forced to concede to dated rules. She had to lose herself in order to save herself, because if she allowed Rufus to die, she would invoke a time-travel paradox of epic proportions. Kind of like going back in time and killing your grandmother. If your grandmother died, how were you there in the first place to kill her? Going off subject it is said that such a paradox cannot exist, and the person who wants to kill their grandmother (I don’t know why anyone would want to) would be unable to do so. Back to the subject of heroism, I think that the most heroic character in the book is Sarah. Alice was unable to handle the thought of her kinds being sold and killed herself. And Dana was forced into situations. Sarah, on the other hand, lost her children and endured abuse from her husband as well as having the burden of being a slave. She was heroic, like most women of that period, and stayed true to herself. 

KINDRED

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       Greetings! So at this point I'm Actually almost finished with the book that we were assigned to read called Kindred . In todays blog I was asked to pick one of these questions and answer it fully.




     Kindred can be both a noun and an adjective, describing a state of being, or a related familial group. In the novel, the word kindred holds both definitions to Dana. Using the noun definition of the work, it relates to her kin, both Alice and Rufus, and ultimately the head of her family line, Hagar. It could also show the duality between Rufus and Kevin, in the sense that they were kindred spirits drawn to Dana. The most obvious of this definition is Rufus. She is literally tied to him through space and time, connected with him on a deeper level. She also has this relationship in sorts to her husband Kevin. They are writers, creatives, the lost souls drawn together by literacy intimacy. In a sense every main character is kindred to Dana in one sense or another. They each have certain lessons to teach her about life and also herself. 

The title of the book could be seen as ironic. In the antebellum south racial divisions, alongside gender roles, were heavily enforced, yet Dana was linked to these people, who outwardly seem so far away from her general being.  She is a black woman who shares a bond with a plantation owner's son. If that doesn’t describe irony, I honestly don’t know what does. In the literal sense, the book title could show Dana’s actual family ties to Rufus and Alice, but in a more metaphysical sense, they are linked beyond the level of blood relation. 

The Topsy Turvy doll, to me, shows that, in essence, we are all connected beings. I know the literal interpretation of what that doll represents, but I think it holds a stronger meaning to the bond all humans share regardless of insipid divisions we place on ourselves. Pertaining to the book, the doll could show, literally, that Dana, being black, was blood related to Rufus, who was white, and it shows the connection this has. 

Rufus

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   Since reading Kindred i have inquired a lot of information about the Slavery period.In class our teacher told us to pick a question from Here and answer it completely. I choose question number four. 

   The love Rufus had for Alice, although described as “destructive” (Butler 147, 180) was pure in its twisted way. Although it is quite sad to see how the time he lived in shaped his views on love. Rufus also had a love for Dana, describing her and Alice as being two halves of each other. The love Rufus had for both of them was as complex as the situations and time they faced. Rufus’ love had a profound effect on them but sadly, this effect was negative. He was selfish and domineering in his love, obviously a trait from the time but also from his upbringing. Alice lost her husband and was forced into being Rufus’ slave; she later has his children and would rebuke herself at becoming content with the situation, leading to her demise. Dana, on the other hand, had a more complex relationship with Rufus that later precipitated into his undoing. They had a severe love/hate, brotherly/sisterly bond that both tried hard not to dissolve. Ultimately, after Alice took her life after Rufus lied about selling their children, in a state of extreme grief, he attempts to rape her. He sought to rape her not out of cruelty but out of a need to control and keep her with him. This would ultimately lead to Dana killing him. 

Alice coped with her relationship with Rufus, and all the scorn she received from other slaves, by, in a sense, detaching herself from the situation. She didn’t love him, or even like him and that kept her in a safe place mentally. After the birth of Hagar, it seems that Alice had grown complacent in their relationship to some extent. She was unhappy with this and tried to escape once Dana went back to the future. I don’t necessarily agree with Alice’s motives and actions towards Rufus, but I also don’t disagree with them. I suppose that in her position after what he had done I would have felt the same. Her inability to conform to him and “be like” Dana or a “white nigger” (Butler 235) was her attempt at keeping any semblance of self. If she gave in, and became compliant, what would she be saying about all the other slaves and about herself as well? It comes down to personal representations of self for both Alice and Dana. Becoming submissive, giving in, isn’t an option. In doing so, they both would have lost a sense of themselves in the process.  

Accepting Slavery

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 Hi, Everyone. In class we have been reading this book call Kindred. I was actually surprise to actually have interest in this book because I  really don't like to read books about slavery. We were ask to read a few chapters and pick a question and answer it. The question that I choose was number 2 Discuss some of the situations or methods that make people accept oppression in the antebellum South. Do some of these situations and methods to oppress people still exist today?

"She had done the safe thing–had accepted a life of slavery because she was afraid” (Butler 145).

People accept oppression because of two main reasons, fear and a lack of education. In the antebellum south slaves lived in fear of their masters. The fear that their masters would sell them, kill them or subject them to unimaginable cruelties was a reality they had to live among. They wished to escape such situations but lacked the education to do so. In turn, they lived in a perpetual state of fear. If they tried to learn more and to educate themselves, they were harshly punished, most likely because their masters would see them as trying to become like a white man. Which, in this period, is unacceptable.  It’s a two-sided dagger that makes a person feel powerless, which is the desired goal. Make a person feel weak, like they never could succeed, and they will most likely believe this conviction. 

In modern times, the same rules still apply, but the façade is veiled. In controversial ideologies, a person could say that the government tries to keep people down. The price of higher education is staggering for most people. Meanwhile, you live the rest of your life trying to pay off loans that you have accumulated. Thus, you work for the government. Some people feel powerless to this effect and don’t seek higher education because of this. The overall sense of fear is also prevalent in modern-day societies as well. People fear not getting an education and thus not getting a good job, a good house, a good car, all the things that society values, and are pushed towards accumulating debt. It’s a cycle that is nearly never ending, but at least the harshest of these circumstances, such as in the antebellum south, came to an end. 

Slave Breeding

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  Today in class we were asked to read a passage Slave Breeding. Then we must provide as much information about the passage and also information from our fellow classmates blog. The passage that I read is Here.

  Before times of fertility treatments and adoption, when it was still legal to have someone pick your cotton for free, now I’m told you must charge to have this done, but I remain unconvinced. Slave owners had a pretty difficult position on their hands. They had slaves, coincidentally, male slaves outnumbered the female slaves, and as we all have a concrete understanding of biology, in order to get more slaves you needed woman. This sounds simple enough, but infant mortality was sky high, this could be because slave-owners were too busy trying to get people to be called ‘Tobey’ and beating people with sticks, or other inanimate objects, but I digress. Woman, specifically pregnant woman, were a hot commodity back then, and were routinely sold to keep those every precious slaves coming. Slave owners also restored to some mild Nazi-propaganda, encouraging young woman to breed as much as they could, promising them freedom if they have enough offspring. But as history told us, these were lies. In conjunction with false promises and human trafficking, slave owners would also resort to rape in order to keep the quota high. These ‘masters’ would seduce, I’m almost 100% sure that slave/master seduction does not look like an R&B music video, the woman, and would give them children. If I learned anything while reading this I’m now traumatized by the thought of procreation, and am now happy that Lincoln freed the slaves, as if I wasn’t before.

LILY

Hello everyone! So today i was asked to pick one of my favorite blogs so far and of course i had to pick the one that speaks about my niece lily. its my favorite because she is my favorite. Makes sense? Well if it does not i will give you a peek in my special connections with her.  i decided to write my first blog on her because the poem that we had read was speaking in reference to purity and innocence. and how can this little sweet angel not be any of that. lily and me have a special connection. its something that many people have with there own children. but in this case lily is not my child. i am proud of my blog entry because i speak about her and any thing that has to do with her makes me proud.


Now what have i learned about writing poetry as far as what we have been taught?? Honestly  nothing. The only thing i feel that i am learning different is the work cited paper. but besides that nothing at all. This is all basically the same to me as what we learned in ENG101. i just personally think that alot of this was learned in 101 as far as writing and understanding what a thesis is and just basically completing a paper. However when i did speak to some of my class mates they told me that a lot of this stuff they had yet to learn until they came into this class. I guess i was fortunate to have a great English teacher last semester who instructed us in the correct direction and prepared us for more advanced classes. Sucks to be the ones who don't speak or get help when they either don't understand or are not being taught anything. ADVICE  TO THOSE WHO HAVE YET TO UNDERSTAND OR COMPREHEND SPEAK UP....YOU PAY FOR SCHOOL,its NOt FREE. I wish it was in my case. NOW i feel that paper one and two is ok as far as the way it was planned for us to do it but we should not be writing 3 page papers in 102. I take music and other classes such as Power and Politics were we do 8 -10 page papers.  EVERY ONE who is reading this now is probably like this girl is really crazy . I'm just preparing you guys for when you don't have the easy / nice teacher such as your ENG 101 or 102 ..




 I can't really comment on the group activity that was done with house members because i was extremely late to class  cause guess who had to pay$750 for school so my black board and esims could work correctly. Yes you guessed right it was me!!! then when i arrived the house i was working with i never stood in and further more this one particular person was very rude and disrespectful. Im going to figure out her name and get back to you guys on the Name. SMH ! ONLY IN AMERICA I SWEAR.


After reading these other Blogs , i feel that everyone can not follow simple directions and take this class as a joke! people feel that they can just do what they want or maybe its just that they were not  taught correctly. i don't know ! but what i do know is that People either need help and this individual  working process that the teacher has set is not working and they need to be taught as a class cause apparently they are not reaching out for help. Majority of the time people are scared to even ask a question.  
           With that being said hope you enjoyed now off to trying to finish paper 2 and being depressed that i did not win THE MEGA MILLIONS  :(   ENJOY !

GOOD BITCH OR BAD BITCH

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  Hey everyone, so once again we were told to pick a poem and analyze it. I really don't mean to sound boring but i was told to do some thing so i had to do it. To bad I'm not blogging about Fashion or nails lol.  i think that would catch my attention as well as yours. BUT i did pick a poem that most women and not only females but Men also can relate to, the only difference its title would be douchebag. No pun intended, I'm just speaking the truth.


  The Poem I picked is called BITCH written by Carolyn Kizer in 1964. In poetic form this would be considered an open verse.But to me this poem is told by a women ,but this women she comes in to an acward encounter with an ex lover. At that very moment she then startes to refer her self as a bitch. i guess she is calling her self that almost like that little voice in your head well assuming that she is referring her self as Bitch because she is trying to put somethings to disappear from her past, or almost like she is mad at herself because she made a lot of irrational things. I think that something in this poem speaks truth. almost like it really did happen to the author. The tone is very angry in the poem not only by what this man has done to her but at her self as well. She then states that the man is no longer a trespasser. Meaning that this man has did so much stuff to distort her. So she is trying to hold the bitch inside of her. Now this poem can also be related to a man as well just if the characters were different. Everyone can  comprehend to that emotion or should i say feeling when they see an ex lover. its actually unexplainable but the author did some what of a good job explaining her feeling and past and present in that short poem.




 Keywords: 1-Bitch, 2- Trespasser,3-the well groomed pets of his new friends, 4-loyal,5-slobbers

The eye of love

http://dearabbylovestargirl.blogspot.com/2011/06/hearts-for-eyes.html

  I was told to make a selection about a poem that caught my attention. i guess the picture i posted should really give you an idea as to what its about LOVE. The poems title is called "A Drinking Song". I know that the author actually was drinking when he wrote this poem.
             
                 Wine comes in at the mouth
                 And Love comes in at the eye;
                 Thats all we shall know for truth
                 Before we grow old and die.
                 I lift the glass to my mouth,
                 I look at you, and i sigh.

I personally think that this author is miserable. it seems as if he is very upset at whom he is looking at and seems very regretful of the person who he had gave his love to. maybe he has found out the truth before he actually died about this person and maybe thats why the author feels as so in the passage. i picked this image to actually represent the line in the passage that states "And love comes in at the eye". the image shows a heart in the eye and that symbols love which as humans most of us think we see LOVE when its probably lust. i choose a red color because the author showed a sense of anger for who he is looking at.



 Personally i would send this to my ex. Just because at one point i had that same feeling. like i said at one point. now i don't have to worry about that. but unfortunately  there lowlifes so they would never understand the actual meaning of this passage. lol ( just stating the truth) .

My lily of truth and trust

http://www.justflower.org/white-rose-11.html

http://www.ehow.com/facts_6751174_meaning-white-lilly_.html

Today in class we were asked to read a passage on roses. In this passage were many different things that pertained to roses. Then we had to select a passage and explain why that was our choice.


 "Love and Purity (or virginity):both flowers, of course, are emblems of the Virgin Mary."  This particular passage caught my attention because the meanings to these flowers which are a Rose and Lily  both had the typical meaning in it. the person who speaks about these flowers really try to conjoin them. making you feel as if you are Pure almost like an innocent individual. It reminds me of my niece Lily, she is four. The author states " My Rose of love for ever gone./ My lily of truth and trust." These particular words just remind me of my niece lily. Her innocences and the way she always speaks to me and tells me the truth about things. she is one remarkable child and her intelligence and purity as a child reminds me of the comparison to the Virgin Mary. the smell that the  author describes  as two flowers are join is said to be "rich in its aroma" its almost as you if you are in an open field with just those two flowers and you can actually smell the aroma of them, signifying there purity.




"Rose." Dictionary of Literary Symbols.Ed. Michael Ferber. Cambridge, United Kingdom. Cambridge.1999. 172-177. Gale virtual Refrence Library .Web.7 Mar.2012.