Category: Lang&Lit
ENGLISH – Let’s look at some text types
I just wanted to use this space as an informal way of considering the different text types that we might get on the paper one exam. I’ll try to talk about the conventions of the different text types, as well as common purposes, whether they aim to appeal or to challenge values, who their target audience usually is, that kind of analysis. Do I have my paper one mock tomorrow*? Maybe, but that’s not the point.
*it has now become today
Political Cartoons
The context will be an issue with some sort of importance and relevancy. Usually, they’ll cover recent issues or issues with increasing importance (urgency/rarity/relevancy). Depictions of the characters will often be caricatures (perhaps of famous people), mocking them and challenging whatever it is they’re doing. If the character is doing or saying something particularly foolish, rarely will the audience be supporters of that individual, and will often oppose that person strongly. These political cartoons act as a confirmation of their views, not necessarily to educate but to reiterate a point more emphatically. There’ll also be elements of symbolism or personification (you might be able to throw in some anthropomorphism, analogies, or hypophora, maybe even a synecdoche).
Graphic Narration
We struggled a lot with this one at first but it’s actually really interesting after thinking about it in a bit more depth. You could point out that there may be text boxes that are differentiated from the normal speech bubbles, and often times these boxes serve the purpose of narration. The composition of the graphic gives the impression of a documentary of sorts, panning around the scene, often having a subject of interest. You could also point out the colour scheme, whether it’s warm and inviting, perhaps to entice readers to buy or invest in what they’re promoting, or whether it’s cold and harsh, maybe to point out an uncomfortable truth and challenge the complicit behaviour of the audience.
Magazine Covers
Although it is unlikely to get something like this on the exam (lol watch me get this on today’s mock) there’s still many things you can infer from the visual elements and composition—you just gotta be extra vigilant. If there’s a subject, what is it? What is it doing? Is it a person? What kind of person? Are there any implicit or explicit gender roles being presented? What about any products featured, what can we say about social class? What values are being promoted or challenged here? I guess these are questions you should consider for any paper one analysis. But more specifically to this heavily visual example, lookout for eyeline, frames, juxtaposition, colour scheme—whether it’s warm and inviting, or cold and contrasting. What could the purpose be?
There’s still a ton of other things you could get, like personal essays, advertisements, short comics, infographics, memoirs, excerpts of autobiographies. Heck, we even prepared for a eulogy. I guess the main point is look out for all the small details and try to draw it back to a main point. Using your understanding of the techniques and stylistic conventions, draw it back to a main point. I should probably continue this and you know what I’ll shush and do that.
Differences between articles: opinion, news, feature, editorial
An op-ed piece is like the special guest of the newspaper. It’s a piece that could be written by anyone, a feature article. This makes sense because it’s in its own little section, and it features a random person who submitted their opinion piece to the newspaper. Editorial is like the opinion piece of a general body, one that represents the newspaper for example. “We, at the New York Times, believe that…”. Google defines it as a piece where the editor expresses their opinion about a topical issue. Basically what I said. Opinion pieces are similar to op-eds, the opinion column is just…an opinion of the author. Not necessarily aligned with the newspaper, perhaps it could be more informal, however, it probably wouldn’t deviate too far from the newspaper’s values and beliefs.
Expanding on editorials, they seem to build on arguments and try to persuade readers to think the same way they—the newspaper/general body—do (ooHo that grammar tho). Editorials influence public thought, promote critical thinking, and maybe even inspire people to take action for an issue. This website described them as “an opinionated news story”.
Opinion pieces promote single viewpoints, using the first person ‘I’. There might be anecdotes to top off the personal tone. Again, authors will be trying to promote their viewpoint, perhaps using more ethos, pathos, logos rhetoric appeals to connect with readers and establish their importance.
To be continued…
ENGLISH – Richard Flanagan’s “A living sea of waking dreams”
The impression this article from The Guardian gave me—thinking from a cynical point of view—was that they were trying to advertise hope and the beauty of the world, implicitly making people want to buy the book. Considering the context the novel was written in, with the preceding Australian bushfires, the ongoing pandemic, this would theoretically mean that the target audience would extend to a global scale where anyone would gladly buy hope. While Williams, the author of the article, doesn’t contribute any new ideas, the reiteration and choice to emphasise the insightful parts of the interview does effectively promote careful consideration of the sublimity of the natural world and the things we, the middle class and wealthy, once took for granted. By beautifying the “mundane” aspects of life, both Flanagan and Williams appeal to the sentimental side of people, where they long for the things they once had or for things they didn’t realise they had the privilege of having. Perhaps, considering the UK origins of The Guardian, by promoting hope, it would inspire citizens of the UK to step up their behaviour in order to regain the everyday luxuries of life.
ENGLISH – Who is Arundhati Roy?
Consider the first twenty pages of her Booker Prize winning debut novel, The God of Small Things . . . (this PDF has the first chapter of the novel —33 pages— and then selected the selected essays that represent her non-fiction work). Discuss the opening with a classmate, then go to your portfolio and record your thoughts in the form of a fiction —that is, imitate her style as you describe you and your classmates discussing her book. Include a knowing 3rd person narrative voice, dialogue, description of each character, and, somehow . . . the SOUND and roll and weirdness of Roy. If you can.
OR, if that’s too tough, create a post consolidating your first impressions of Roy and what you’ve observed about the profiles of her that we have in front of us. Knowing that her personality is associated with strong opinions, how are the writers’ feelings detectable in the profiles we have read?
From the first couple of pages of her novel, The God of Small Things, personally, I think it’s quite obvious that this is a well-thought-out, meticulously crafted narrative. What stuck out to me was the calling attention to the small things, especially considering the title of the book, which feels pretty significant. It seems like her style or ‘convention’ (purely based on the first 7 pages) involves constructing a childlike wonder (at least at this point while Rahel and Estha are young) by noticing small details, like the baby bat on the sari, or how Sophie Mol smelled like cologne and coffin wood. The overall gist of the scene is described just enough for readers to be able to infer what’s happening and understand the important parts, but this is understood from a third-person point of view, picking up on every detail and remaining detached from the situation.
ENGLISH – Glengarry Glen Ross ongoing notes
Details about the play and the movie/inconsistencies: AIDA and ABC
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tAdRmO8DpVWCMN0tao5zPmCl5-568JUieR226QfJTHE/edit
Act One. Scene One.
Leads are people who are interested in buying property and have money. Leads are only given to the top salesmen. Williamson is in control in this scene.
Watching the movie.
The scene with Alec Baldwin first of all was never originally written into the play, but this scene in the movie added a new dimension to the plot. We talked about how in the play, the characters were unlikeable, but with the context of Alec Baldwin’s super-predator and powerful presence, we have a sudden bout of sympathy for the salesmen. Just to get some initial thoughts down, I would definitely say this play is about something more than just salesmen begging for leads that they can close. Money? Manhood? America? It could be something about manhood or the American dream, or more like the fallacy of the American dream. These salesmen are expected to make money out of nothing, or out of “toilet paper”, mirroring the values of the American dream where you can do anything as long as you put the effort in. In reality, this isn’t the case and sometimes it’s just not possible. Manhood – well there’s more of that in the movie than in the play in my opinion. Alec Baldwin’s character sort of visibly has them by the balls, and Williamson (Kevin Spacey) just happens to have a backbone and doesn’t let Shelly get to him, which is what we can see in the play. The line of reasoning Baldwin’s character uses on the salesmen, like “I can close this in 2 hours tonight, can you? Yes or no” sort of leaves them with not much room to back out. Either they promise something they’re convinced is impossible and left with no choice but to try and do it, appearing to retaliate and appeal to the whole ideal of ‘who’s the alpha here’, OR they say no and they’re not only forced to hit the bricks, but they admit to being “weak” and not as powerful as the $76,000 BMW and watch guy. The manhood part is a little amusing to be honest, where right after when Baldwin’s character, instead of immediately trying to close the leads, they talk about it for a little while and they’re like “are we really gonna let this guy talk to us like this?”. Interesting priorities.
Is the play staggeringly inarticulate? Are we talking or are we just talking?
ENGLISH – Poems :)
Little Red-Cap and Mrs Darwin.
How has Carol Ann Duffy rewritten/transformed a known text or story? How can her versions have the same characters, but be “about” something different?
Speaking specifically about Little Red-Cap, Duffy has taken the original story of Little Red Ridinghood and transformed it into a darker, more adult poem/story. After analysing it as a class, we’ve come to the conclusion that she seems to be talking about a past experience she had, perhaps with an older man or someone ‘wolfy’… whatever that might imply. The characters are the same, except the wood carpenter is MIA and the grandmother remains quite dead. In the poem by Duffy, Little Red Ridinghood is 16 and a little hungry for something other than a picnic. She spots the wolf and is charmed by his poetry, despite his wolfiness and his wine-stained beard. She willingly follows him into the forest and they stay together for 10 years in his house, until one day when she’s become sick of him, she cuts him open from scrotum to head. Here, I’ve mentioned just a few differences but these are the ones that stood out to me. Someone in the class mentioned female empowerment?
This part is actually quite interesting, how the fairy tale aspect of this version where women have previously also fallen in love with this wolf, only to be eaten by him later on in their relationship (interpreted from her grandmother’s “virgin white bones”). But this Little Red stood up for herself before that could happen and took matters into her own hands.
Another interesting metaphor we considered was how in the children’s version, Little Red was told not to stray from the path for there were dangers, but she did so anyways. As a class, we discussed how the path could’ve been a metaphor for ‘adulthood’ and sexuality, how she’s drawn to the deep dark forest.
In this case, Duffy has taken a known story and zoomed in, adding depth to the story that wasn’t previously there. If anything, it’s almost like Duffy was adding context to the children’s story.
I found my favourite poem during this lesson!!
Mrs Darwin
7 April 1852.
Went to the Zoo.
I said to Him –
Something about that Chimpanzee over there reminds me of you.
Medusa
Today we looked at the poem Medusa, also by Carol Ann Duffy. It was interesting how it was similar to Little Red-Cap, where it was a known story with a spin on it. Compared to Little Red-Cap, she starts out as ‘evil’ and its not a pure and wholesome beginning, although it’s difficult to make Medusa pure and wholesome. Little Red grew wise in her poem and ended things before she could be manipulated, whereas in this poem was raped or betrayed first, so her sorrow turned her into a monster. (Progression of sorrow into anger at her sorrow into revenge).
ENGLISH – Personal Essays
What are the conventions of a “personal essay”?
- Usually told in the first person and in past tense, where the writers recall an event, person or an important part of their life
- They can have bias and opinion throughout the whole essay
- Autobiography vs biography: an autobiography is written by the subject themself (1st person), and a biography is written by someone else (3rd person)
- Memoir vs autobiography: memoir is more about a specific part about someones life, a shorter time frame or a certain element, it could even be more personal than an autobiography
- Memoir vs personal essay: a memoir would be like a reflection on a past event, whereas a personal essay has cherry-picked anecdotes that kind of support the same point
ENGLISH – Auntie Jules and el Escribador
1) the Mario Vargas Llosa telling the story is obviously older than the “Marito” who is living it . . . how would you describe the tone? what is the attitude of the narrator to the young man he was?
According to Google, Llosa was 41 when he wrote Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, which would help to define the sort of relationship between the 18-year-old and him. From a reader’s point of view, the tone for the Mario chapters seem quite descriptive and there isn’t really any underlying emotion behind it. However, when we were talking about it in class today, it would make sense that he might be a little sentimental over particular moments or emphasise certain parts of his story that was important to him – whether he’s intentional about it or not.
2) if every other chapter, basically, represents one of Pedro Camacho’s serials —if they didn’t happen, in other words, what is the point of spending so much time on these characters/events/conflicts?
Initially it might be to keep the readers updated on the serials and give them an opportunity to get to know the scriptwriter in ways that Mario’s encounters with him don’t show us. While the Mario-chapters are plenty descriptive and tell us about Camacho’s character and the issue he’s currently working through, the serial-chapters do add an extra intertextual layer of context behind the events that are happening. Personally, I find it quite amusing to be confused with what’s happening in his serials, just as everyone else is – including the characters of Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, because it provides such a refreshing and absurd point-of-view into Camacho’s issues that you would have to infer yourself as the reader. Like some sort of first-hand experience.
3) If a story is basically, “one time, in one place, something happened” then it’s not really literature —it’s journalism or history or maybe even just gossip. Literature is usually thought to express something timeless —something true in a bigger sense. What might this novel be saying about life?
[Rough thinking, not actual structured answers to an essay question] Something about the versatility of Mario’s situation? But then again incest isn’t that popular (to my knowledge at least). Maybe the pains of love? Wanting someone but things being in between of you acquiring that love? Maybe the incest is a time stamp.
ENGLISH – Mid Way ‘Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter’ Check-in
Explain an idea that Vargas Llosa seems to be exploring and show how the two quotes you’ve chosen relate to this. You can use OTHER examples or ideas, too, if you like (250 – 300 words).
- reality and the imagination are in conflict / in a state of tension
- art sanctifies life
- life is better than art
In Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, Mario Vargas Llosa maintains variation in his book by alternating between narration from the first person, coming from his character’s point of view, to serials created by Pedro Camacho. There seems to be an underlying, recurring idea of reality and imagination constantly being in a state of tension. For example, when Mario has the pleasure of attending a recording session of one of Camacho’s serials in person, he finds the process quite different from what he imagined. The Bolivian scriptwriter delivered a ‘moving’ monologue where “naturally it was the words ‘art’ and ‘artistic’ that was repeated the most frequently… like some sort of magic formula that revealed and explained everything”. This quote continues, mentioning Mario’s surprise at the effect Camacho’s words had on the actors. This shows the two sides that imagination and art hide behind, where we question its authenticity but also the beauty of reality ad whether the sacrifice of authenticity is worth it. This might also relate to the sound effects man who was creating a cacophony of sound, yet managed to produce something that would be overlooked in real life all the time, yet managed to gain an appreciation and a sense of realism despite all the labour that went into the production.
[not edited]
ENGLISH – The Kobe System #MAMBAMENTALITY
Explain the stylistic features that indicate the author’s intentions (audience, purpose, context, etc).
These videos that were released by Nike which featured Kobe Bryant and other famous people such as Aziz Ansari and Kanye had a very interesting way of approaching the consumers when selling these shoes. Initially, the first time I watched these videos I thought they were just trying to sell the set of ‘shoes’ that Kobe was referring to, but when we were talking about it as a class, it transformed into an underlying allure for Nike in general. The ads feature famous people who play to their own strengths in characteristics, for example with Aziz Ansari, he was actually quite rude, which caused a bit of resentment towards him, despite the fact that they were all being bullied by Kobe. With each level, a new famous figure was featured and they generally became more likeable. As a class, we analysed why, all of sudden, did we (the audience) feel more sympathy towards these people that we’ve never met instead of resentment. Some of the ideas that bounced around were that the fact that Kobe was bullying them and they were generally more submissive, shown by the occasional dipping of the head when they were told that they weren’t “a system” or “hadn’t achieved success”. This aroused sympathy in the audience and from then, we related and were subconsciously involved with them as underdogs.
If we focus on the style of the advert and what kind of scene it’s taking place in, people may recognize that it looks vaguely like a Ted talk. When it comes to Ted talks, people generally would associate them with success, inspirational origin stories, basically a respectful environment for people to learn something new or enrichen their thinking. What’s interesting is that Nike chose to associate this type of feeling, while simultaneously involving elements of comedy portrayed by the famous figures and a pop culture sense of humour.