Classics

Small World Reads had a meme I simply could not pass up. After all, it involves books, I like books, and I also have been low on content as of late.

• What is the best classic you were “forced” to read in school (and why)?
• What was the worst classic you were forced to endure (and why)?
• Which classic should every student be required to read (and why)?
• Which classic should be put to rest immediately (and why)?

What is the best classic you were "forced" to read in school (and why)?
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Technically, I think I read this long before I was assigned it in a senior-level literature class in college. But when I read it for class, I was able to get so much more out of it--for the first time, I understood a book in terms of how it fit with its time period, understood how its narrative framing worked, and understood the critical debate surrounding it. In short, I had an amazing professor who made what might have otherwise been a "meh" sort of book into a fascinating one that became the basis of my senior thesis. And then I went on to get a Master's degree with an emphasis in Romantic-era literature...

What was the worst classic you were "forced" to endure (and why)?
I'm going with Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, not because it was necessarily that bad, but because I had to read it so many freakin' times. The heavy-handed symbolism can only be re-interpreted so many ways before the possibilities are exhausted.

Which classic should every student be required to read (and why)?
No title comes to mind right now, but it should be something accessible--not too old to be daunting, not young enough so as not to be tested by time. Not something overtly didactic, but not something too "fluffy." For all I know, this book may not exist. Or perhaps there are many books by this definition, and as many teachers to teach them to as many classes. In short, I don't believe there is one book every person should read. The literary canon is a good starting point, but by no means comprehensive or even applicable to every reader in every location or subculture.

Which classic should be put to rest immediately (and why)?
I think I answered this in the latter part of my response to the previous question.

Six word memoir

So I got tagged to play along and write a six-word memoir by Danny over at Whatever Comes to Mind. A six-word memoir. Brevity's not my strong suit (graduate work, it seems, defeats any brevity one formerly may have had), but I will give it a whirl. I will assume, for the purposes of bloggerly integrity, that we are all functioning on the assumption of a memoir as factual, in spite of recent revelations to the contrary, hmm? Very well.

The Rules:
1. Write your own six word memoir.
2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you want.
3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post and to the original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere.
4. Tag at least five more blogs with links.
5. Leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play.


Here are a few renditions:

Read too much, lived too little.
Funny, but I wrote that in past tense, more like an epitaph. Interesting. Re-phrase: Reads too much, lives too little. The point still stands.

Or on more humorous notes:
Crazy cat lady waiting to happen.

Yes, she does call that music.

So, tag time.

Hopeful Cynicism
William the Coroner
Speech from the Speechless
Life, Work, and Play in a Vintage House
Scrivenings

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Now playing: The Flobots - Fight with Tools
via FoxyTunes

Goddamnit

Created by OnePlusYou - Free Online Dating

How the fuck did I score higher on this quiz than both Cranky Prof and Ambulance Driver? That's some whacked out shit. I mean, really, god damn.

. . . No, seriously, how?

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Now playing: Lacuna Coil - Heaven's a Lie
via FoxyTunes

Passion Quilt--A meme for teachers

William the Coroner tagged me for this meme, so I'll play along.


I chose this image because it contains three of the most important things in writing. Wait, you're saying, pencil and paper? A bit old-fashioned, don't you think? Yes and no.

I suppose my own writing preferences emerge here, but I'm a firm believer in pen or pencil touching paper at some point in the writing process. Whether that draft is hand-written or a print-out, there's nothing like taking a writing instrument to paper, engaging the tactile sense in the process.

There's something possessive about mutilating that otherwise clean piece of paper. It says, this is my writing, and I'll do what I want to it. A well marked-up draft is virtually incomprehensible to anyone else, anyway--arrows indicating when paragraphs should be moved, transitions penciled into tight margins, words crossed out and replaced. What's beautiful about this process is when you see the student reading back over the changes and mentally comparing them to the original, smiling to him/herself. That moment where you, the tutor/teacher/educator, have been forgotten about in light of the task--literally--at hand, is amazing.

That's revision, and it's at the heart of good writing. You could, I suppose, track changes in Word or compare one draft to a previous one, but it's just not the same thing. You've got to be able to hold your writing and physically alter it, I think, to truly own it.

. . .

So. I re-wrote this post three times, trying to find the right tone and content. I thought that was tough. Then I read the rules.

THE RULES:
Post a picture or make/take/create your own that captures what YOU are most passionate for students to learn about.

Give your picture a short title.

Title your blog post “Meme: Passion Quilt.”

Link back to this blog entry.

Include links to 5 (or more) educators.

I inhabit a very small sector of the blogosphere and de-lurk in an even smaller sector. The only educator thus far untagged who comes to mind here is Jo(e). Perhaps her amazing-ness will compensate for the absent four?

----------------Now playing: Bad Religion - Faith Alone

via FoxyTunes

Quality? Pfft. Out the window.

I don't jump on every meme bandwagon, but my Livejournal friends started passing this around and I could not resist. It's all spontaneous and borne of a mind frazzled by finals grading . Thanks to being an English major, I can BS like no one's business, and given the chance to lampoon one of my favorite genres of music, I just had to do it....

1. Go to Wikipedia
2. Press random article - THIS IS THE NAME OF YOUR BAND
3. Press it again - go on, you KNOW you want to - right, THIS IS THE NAME OF YOUR ALBUM
4. You get to press it 10 - 15 more times to create your tracklist!
5. Share!
6. Add commentary, or not.

Band: Bayfield River (man, you know this is totally an emo band, right? Boys in eyeliner and tight jeans? Oh yeah.)
Album: James Taylor (title is an ironic nod; they're like totally screamo, but packed with the same emotional intensity of the '70s songwriters)

Track 1: "Time War" - About a failed relationship, but the video's got all sorts of cool Dr. Who clips in it. Again, ironic nod to pop culture delivered with passion and a healthy sense of the absurd.

"'I love you, baby, but I need more time,
more time,' more time to hurt me more,
you use time as a medium to wage your heartless war."

Track 2: "Spanish Constitution of 1978" - This has little relevance to the song, except that it toys with the idea of a transition from tyranny to democracy, in an abstract, yet heartfelt way. That, and the lead singer was stoned when he thought it up. Incidentally, this is the song the critics quote most frequently in their critique of the band.

"My eyeliner bleeds just like my heart,
trickling down, almost molting.
But just you watch out, baby,
'Cause this proletarian's revolting."

Track 3: "Ryan Ferguson (footballer)" - A pain-filled anthem to the hypocrisy of the high school pecking order. A soccer player is an apt stand-in for all high school jocks. Bayfield River has nothing against Ferguson; it's just that "Ryan" is so easy to rhyme, as opposed to say, David.

"I can't believe the things you do, Ryan,
Hottest girl in the school--
Does she know you're lying?"

Track 4: "Nashville Confederate order of battle" - No relevance to the song whatsoever, which is about a haunted house.

"And I can feel the ghosts, I swear
They're lingering close.
Look, can you seen one there?
He's lamenting those he misses most."

Track 5: "Korinthou Street" - The found this one through Google earth and used it as inspiration for a song about the difficulties of a long-distance relationship.

"You're only five hours away,
But it feels like Korinthou Street,
yeah, it feels like Korinthou Street."

Track 6: "The Magic Pills (ballet)" - Last song released before the guitarist went into rehab for substance abuse. The song builds in intensity and then softens to a whisper in these last few lines:

"Here and now,
it feels good.
Come fly my magic carpet,
Nothing can hurt us now. Nothing can hurt us. Nothing..."

He OD'd six months later.

Track 7: "Christopher Chalmers" - An instrumental piece with some kickass guitar riffs.

Track 8: "The Cosmic Game" - If athletes, Dr. Who, and historical events are fair game for inspiration, so too is music from other genres. The drummer's brother is a fan of Thievery Corporation; to date, the drummer himself has never listened to the album.

"If this is all a cosmic game,
I wanna know who makes the rules,
'Cause they're all mean and cruel and lame,
Clearly designed by and for the fools.
But I've got your number,
You cosmic shyster,
And that number's up soon."

Track 9: "Egypt at the 1960 Summer Olympics" - "Egypt" is a recurring fantasy figure in Bayfield River discography, the exemplification of an exotic feminine ideal, removed from the tyranny of the band members' immediate existence. Instrumental song. The subtle harmonics offer a temporary refrain from the in-your-face shredding of the rest of the album.

Track 10: "The Hard Way (album)" - This was intended to be the title track, but then they got wind of the fact that it was first a hip hop album. That, they decided, would be neither ironic nor countercultural.

"The only way I know's the hard way.
The safest way's the hard way.
That way I'll never take love for granted."