Final Blog

I think studying literature is very important. Literature has been around since the first language was created, and even before telling stories with drawings. Literature is important, I think, because it teaches us so much about the person and the culture he/she was writing in. Literature is also the source of most of our history, and we would know a lot less about our past if it was not for literature. Literature can also be intended to entertain, and some of the world’s best stories have only been passed down due to literature. Also, I think literature is very important, especially to the writers of it, because they can express their ideas without speaking which sometimes gets in the way of someone trying to explain themselves and their ideas. The three main reasons to study literature are to experience, experiment and expand.
The main reason I enjoy reading literature is for the experience. Just by reading someone’s work you can learn about their gender, race, historical eras, social classes and state of mind. I think this helps us broaden our understanding of other people and, more importantly, life itself. When you read great writer’s literature it almost puts you into their world and you can feel what they are feeling and understand them. I loved the experience of reading “The Hobbit” this semester. Reading it almost put you in Middle Earth and Tolkien is so good at explaining this world that it is very easy to imagine it and experience it. Also reading the different selections for the literary salons, I think, was a great experience. It put us in the shoes of so many different personalities and different time frames and cultures. Also reading and writing poetry had the same affect.
I think experimenting is also a huge part of literature. I have never really had a lit class where we have experimenting with so many different forms of writing. We constructed short stories and poetry in unconventional ways I found very interesting. Doing this, I think, helped us understand what it’s like to go through writing all kinds of literature. Also the experience of performing our poems and plays was a very new experience. I’m not used to doing anything like that and I think it was a good experience for me. It put me in the shoes of actors and poets performing their work and gave me a new respect for the genius of a lot of these people and how easy it is to express themselves.

The last reason to study literature is to expand. I liked, especially with the book clubs, reading a piece of literature and everybody sharing their ideas on this piece of work. This was affective in expanding your understanding about the story and sometimes other things in your life. It’s great when the view or ideas of someone else change your mind or further your knowledge on a subject. I also loved expanding my knowledge on different writers and important pieces of work that we discussed in our literary salons.
There are many reasons why we read literature and it is important what we get out of it. I think literature can teach us a lot about other people and especially sometimes ourselves. I also think literature also bridges the gap between generations and helps them understand one another. This class changed my idea of literature and made me think of how important it is. Without literature many amazing stories would have been lost, and more importantly many genius ideas and views on subjects would have been lost and the world would not be nearly what it is today.

Outside Class July 23

One of my friends introduced me to one of the best songs I’ve ever heard with some of the cleverest lyrics I’ve ever read. I love hip-hop and this song is considered one of the best hip-hop songs of all time. I song is from the rapper Common who was known as Common Sense back then, and the song is “I Used to Love Her.” Here’s the first verse from the song.
I met this girl, when I was ten years old
And what I loved most she had so much soul
She was old school, when I was just a shorty
Never knew throughout my life she would be there for me
On the regular, not a church girl she was secular
Not about the money, no studs was mic checkin her
But I respected her, she hit me in the heart
A few new york niggaz, had did her in the park
But she was there for me, and I was there for her
Pull out a chair for her, turn on the air for her
And just cool out, cool out and listen to her
Sittin on a bone, wishin that I could do her
Eventually if it was meant to be, then it would be
Because we related, physically and mentally
And she was fun then, Id be geeked when shed come around
Slim was fresh yo, when she was underground
Original, pure untampered and down sister
Boy I tell ya, I miss her
The song is a showing how Common does not like the change that is going on in hip-hop. It turned from being a movement and an expression of African American views, and slowly turned into what is today. Today it is more about money, cars, “ice”, and trying to be the hardest rapper in the game. But the hip-hop I love is more pure and actually has something to say. In this song Common is comparing hip-hop to a girl. He speaks of how hip-hop went from afro-centricity and jazz based, to commercial based with people “stressin how hardcore and real she is.” This is a very important song in the history of hip-hop and I encourage anybody to listen to this. Even if you do not like hip-hop just listen to it as poetry. I also recommend Common to people who like this type of music. He is very smart and insightful and is considered one of the best lyricists in hip-hop history.

Inside Class July 23

For class we had to read literature from many literary periods for our Salon Project. When I picked up the Algonquin Roundtable I realized the time period was 1919-1929, and I thought it was going to be very confusing vocabulary and hard to read. This was not the case, and I found this very entertaining to read. First, I enjoyed the first poem called “Resume” by Dorothy Parker. I liked the dark side of this poem, and the ironic ending saying “Might as well live.” I think she’s talking about suicide is not worth it so you might as well live your life. Then, I really enjoyed “Full Fathom Five.” I was reading this story in my house alone and late at night and I love the fact that it gave me the creeps. I also love the footnote at the end of the story. It shows how much a story can change when it is passed down to people. The fact that the seaweed was supposedly seaweed that only grew in Australia and not on dead bodies was amusing. Also, that the supposed ghost was on his honeymoon and not kicked out by his father according to the story. I also enjoyed learning more about the authors in the literary salon in class. I found it amusing a group of people met every day in the same place for years to trade ideas and views on the work each other was doing. I also enjoyed the dark humor that some of these writers and personalities displayed liked George S. Kaufman and Alexander Woollcott.

Outside Class July 7

I am a frequent reader of “Sports Illustrated,” and there is a section on the back page every week called “Point After,” that is my favorite part to read. It is usually uplifting or amazing stories in the world of sports. This month’s was a story called “Last Round With Tuffy,” by Chris Ballard. The article starts off with Ballard explaining a larger-than life character named Rubin “Tuffy” Jordan. He speaks of stories that Tuffy climbed stairs on his palms, hopped five miles on one leg, bowled an 824 series, and could have been a major league short-stop if he hadn’t spent five years as an anti-artillery gunman in WWII. After setting this man up as unstoppable, the story turns more grim. On May 1 Tuffy found out he had cancer of the bladder, liver, and colon and was spreading day by day.
With Tuffy’s situation deteriorating his son’s friend suggested that the two take him out for one last round of golf. So the two decided to take him to a close by nine-hole course. The son and his friend had to pretty much hold up Tuffy on every swing to make sure he did not fall over or hurt himself. After two rounds of play the three sat on the ninth tee box. It was a par 3 140-yard hole with the green behind two sand traps. The son and his friend both hit decent shots on the green. Then Tuffy hit his ball, while falling off balance. The ball landed over the traps and rolled out of their sight, and he said “Now there’s the way you hit the ball.” The three expected to find a close shot when they reached the green, but instead they could only find two balls on the green. The third was in the hole and it was Tuffy’s. Tuffy died in his sleep four days later. His last golf shot was a hole-in-one at age 86 with cancer destroying his body. This is exactly why I read this section, for uplifting stories like this that make it seem like anything is possible. This section is extremely well written for journalism, and I suggest reading it to anybody that gets the chance.

Inside Class July 7

For class we were supposed to read “Introduction to Poetry” in our book. I read it and it really surprised me how much goes into poetry. I have never read much poetry in any class I’ve taken before so I did not know much of the language of poetry. So reading this, I learned a lot of new information that was very interesting to me. I took a lot of notes on the Figurative Language section, because I only was familiar with metaphors, similes, understatements, and oxymorons. I also thought it was amazing how many rhymes and verses there are, and it makes me feel sorry for Literature majors.
Before reading this article I did not think there was this much to poetry and anybody could do it well. But after reading this article and hearing everybody’s poems in class, I realized there is more to it than I thought. I gained a new respect for writers who do poetry. Reading the poems I realized they need a vast vocabulary, even to make the rhyme scheme work. I also poetry was generally less than a page long, but I quickly forgot that when looking for a poem that we liked in class. I also learned that poetry can actually bring up many feelings like my story “September Twelfth,” did in bringing up feelings from September 11, 2001. I think reading this article and reading poetry in class was a different and new experience, and I’m looking forward to writing our own poems in class and performing them.

Down and Dirty Poem Post

I chose “September Twelfth, 2001,” by X.J. Kennedy for my poem to read in class. It was a very powerful poem that took me back to the horrible memories of September 11, 2001. The poem uses blank verse that is arranged into three, four line verse paragraphs. It also uses a metaphor to compare Americans to bubbles bursting in a boiling pot, which I think very cleverly depicts what many Americans were feeling after this tragedy. The poem also uses very strong imagery when it portrays the people jumping from the buildings. It uses gustatory imagery when it talks about the couple waking up saying they are “tasting the air.”
I think this poem was spot on when describing what the American public felt after September 11. I think the couple felt very thankful for still being alive, but also had heavy hearts for the people that perished in the attacks. I think they also felt for the people that gave their lives trying to help the people in the building, and felt pitiful because they could not help. This was a very short but powerful poem that made this activity less painful than I thought.

Outside class July 2

I saw a very funny and interesting movie this week called “Year One.” It stars Jack Black, who is one of my favorite comedic actor, and Michael Cera, a very funny up and coming actor in his own right. The movie is about the two actors that are in a village in the time of Christ. Jack Black very humorously gets kicked out of the village and Michael Cera chooses to follow him. The two are on a journey to find what other parts of the world have to offer. They are on a mission to get over the mountains, where the village people, except for Jack Black, think the world ends. The story is set around the time of Christ and has references to stories that happen in a bible, which is the reason I’m writing this blog.
The movie very cleverly and humorously makes references to the Forbidden Fruit, Cain and Abel, and they also run across Abraham. Many people may think of these references as disrespectful, but I think if you have a sense of humor than you will find it enjoyable. First, Jack Black eats fruit off of a Forbidden tree that is near their village, which makes him think he has all of the knowledge in the world. After he eats it a snake shows up and very humorously wraps around Michael Cera. This act eventually gets Jack Black kicked out of the village which starts the journey. The first people the two run into on their journey are two brothers fighting in a field. One brother is jealous of the other brother and ends up killing the other in a very funny series of events I will not ruin for the readers. One of the last people they run into on their way to Sodom and Gomorra is a man about to sacrifice his own sun in the mountains. This man is Abraham who is to inherit the “Holy Land” as promised to him by God. In a series of events Black and Cera get scared of Abraham, eventually running away when Abraham starts talking about circumcising them. I recommend this movie if you have a good sense of humor toward religion. It is very clever in its references and keeps you entertained throughout.