Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Our Class
As I will miss AP lit quite a bit....one month closer to graduation! It seems like we have covered a lot in the past couple weeks through our discussions and have also prepared for the AP test.
Rozencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is done! It was a fun and interesting read but I am excited that we have discussed it and have moved on with another work. It seemed like we didn't have as much time to discuss as other works, most likely because it is much harder to understand. We started discussing it and discussed what happened in the play but I do not feel fully satisfied that we came to a conclusion. I wasn't here some of the time and when I came back after day or two we had already finished with the play, when I asked for a theme we only had a couple short prototypes not a full theme. That was a bit worrying to me, I wasn't here for all the discussion so maybe the theme was more clear in class.
We also began preparing for the AP test in class by writing yet another essay. Of course this is necessary to be able to do it correctly on the test but they can become tiring. This time many of the essays were wrong because we didn't really know what "characterization" meant so our evidence didn't point to the right conclusion. After Ms. Holmes explained it, it made sense but I'm still worried that more prompts out there I am not going to know what they mean and that's why I will get them wrong.
The critical lenses that were discussed in class I thought were quite tricky. They all make sense if you do them one at a time but it is so hard to try to keep in the same lens while discussing because than things are brought up in other lenses. Also when we discussed every lens we didn't seem to come up with much of a conclusion for each one so the discussion to me seemed to get no where.
I am excited to keep reading Ceremony, so far it seems like a good book. I wish that there were breaks in the book, like dialog and ends of paragraphs because I tend to loose my place in the sea of words and then get frustrated. I am excited to read more and discuss because Ms. Holmes said "it will blow your mind" so I am excited to see what is in store for us.
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Oh, I appear to have done some pretty tall advance advertising for Ceremony, huh? So did it blow your mind? Let me ask you this, Kate: Have you thought, yet, about how Tayo comes unstuck in the web of time at the moment, in Japan, when he looks at the Japanese soldier and sees Josiah? Because the thing is, Josiah really IS dying at Laguna at that moment. Tayo shouldn't know that, but somehow he does, somehow he "sees" it. At that moment, Tayo is privileged/cursed with vision/knowledge that he doesn't want: he can "see" the web of time. But he can't control it. He keeps sliding around it every time he hits two things that connect in time--and we go with him. No wonder he's so sick and dizzy and nauseous. As he heals, he gains control and his world becomes less fragmentary, more "whole" again.That's just one way in which this book should blow your mind. =)
ReplyDeleteDear Kate,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, how are you so excited to graduate? I'm having a crisis about it.
As for Ros and Guil, no, the class discussion you missed did not make it much more clear. The play is just so ambiguous that we couldn't craft an all-encompassing theme statement. I was also unsatisfied... That was an instance in which I think smaller group would have worked better. It's hard to be productive with so many opinions pulling in opposite directions...
The essays really aren't so bad. I mean, we do them in class so it's not like they take up time. And we have only done a few all year! I think the practice is totally worth it.
The critical lenses were hard for me too. I think better independently, so the class discussions are really straining for me. Try thinking about the pieces you have read in different lenses, but do it on your own, outside of class. That's a better measure of your understanding, I think.
Hey Kate,
ReplyDeleteYeah, Ros and Guil was a fun read, but I’m also happy to have moved on. Our class was never really able to agree on a theme statement, and whenever we tried to write something on the board, there were always a couple people who disagreed. I still think we got a lot out of our discussions and I thought the play was really cool because it had so much depth in it, but I think it was this depth though that made it hard for our class to conclude the discussions.
And I also agree that discussing the previous works through the various critical lenses was a bit frustrating because it was hard to just talk about one lens. It seemed like everyone wanted to talk a little bit about each lens, which made things difficult.
Also, about Ceremony, I thought it was a really good book, but at first it was a hard to get into. It was hard to read because it was out of chronological order and because, like you write, there aren’t the traditional breaks (such as chapters, or dialogue) in the novel. Once I got used to that, it became a much easier read.
Hi Kate,
ReplyDeleteComing from the perspective of someone in a much smaller section, I think Mary's right. I think we had a much easier time discussing, although we still were pretty confused for a lot of it.
I personally enjoyed the critical lens discussions. I looked at it from the perspective that there wasn't necessarily an end goal in mind -- we were just discussing and seeing what new doors the lenses could open, and continuing to explore from there. I thought it was fun, albeit a bit hard to follow at times.
I agree with you on the difficulty of reading Ceremony. I lost my place quite a few times towards the beginning, but as I continued reading I found it easier to keep my place. Did you have the same experience?
Nice post!