English Lang/Lit LPs

 Reflecting on the IO practice we had. The IO practice went well I think, the main problem for me was timing and covering all my points sufficiently(which are pretty much the same problem). I feel like I prepared well and had good, well-thought-out points. I'll have to make sure to time myself better in future practices and the real IO. I liked my works and giving the IO was pretty fun, I liked talking about my works so getting the motivation to work on my IO wasn't a problem. Overall the IO practice was good, the main takeaway was to work on timing more precisely.

  LP 15 Blood, Sweat, and Sear by Oliviero Toscani I wanted to jot down some of the ideas about Toscani's work because I found the documentary we watched in class to be very interesting. Toscani is an interesting figure because he takes advertising, which is usually very filtered, muted, and profit-driven in its message, and uses it as a tool to draw attention to controversial, yet important, issues. The main issue in this is that behind all of the really great activism, there is the underlying understanding that Benetton and Toscani are getting filthy rich off of it, Benetton would, and consequently did, fire Toscani the first moment his activism started hurting the company's bottom line. I would, however, say this is a critique of Benetton and not Toscani, even journalists and authors profit off of publishing controversial stories, Toscani, perhaps uniquely as a very different kind of advertiser, is not much different. Benetton, on the other hand, could have had at least a li...

LP 14 How is the cultural context of a work/text relevant to an interpretation of it? The cultural context of a text is very important for its interpretation. Authors are shaped by the society they live in and by their own culture. Additionally, an author's text says a lot about the author, in the process of creation, an author leaves an imprint of themselves on their work, and by extension their cultural context and society as well. To understand the preconceptions, biases, and insights of a text it's important to understand the cultural context in which it was written. Are established interpretations superior to those created by individual readers? The way we interpret a text establishes what the text means to us personally, I'd argue that there can be interpretations that are more valid, Top Girls is not about the Apollo 11 Space Mission, for instance, but in the realm of reasonable connection, I see no reason why an established interpretation would be superior to an in...

  LP 13 The overlapping dialog took a little getting used to, but I got accustomed to it rather quickly. Due to a slight misunderstanding regarding the lesson plan I ended up reading Act 1 before the first lesson. I found that keeping track of one speaker's lines in my head and mouthing out the other speaker's lines while reading helped me keep track of the dialog, by the end of Act 1 I was able to keep track of it in my head. My guess would be that the audience wasn't keen on the overlapping text initially. I read in my book, which has a preface, that many older folk walk out on the production within the first few minutes and the play was initially panned by critics. Eventually, that changed and I understand that Top Girls is well received these days. This is honestly not that unique of a trend for a piece of literature trying to do something new. I think the main question this authorial choice raises is what this manner of speaking says about the speakers and the discussi...

Watch the TED talk, and then browse his photographs. Select one photograph that particularly appeals to you and write an LP entry in which you consider what Huey is exploring with that photo and how the authorial choices in the photo contribute to this. This photo from the Pine Ridge Reservation project, photographed by Aaron Huey is in my opinion among the most interesting photographs in the gallery. The photo encapsulates many of the main themes of the project. The photo is very forward with the poverty of the community it is displaying, like most of the photographs in the collection the poverty of the Pine Ridge Reservation is always in the backdrop, even if the photograph highlights other parts of the community. This photo shows the way in which the identity of the indigenous people in the Pine Ridge Reservation has survived and the pride that the community takes in their heritage. Additionally, I think this image also addresses the bias that exists in our history. Cowboys are ofte...

Independent Lesson 11: Guiding questions How is the imagination of the reader important in creating meaning?  Jeanette Winterson's work plays with the reader's imagination intentionally leaving things for the reader to latch on to without having a definitive purpose for them. You could say that it makes some point about the reader, but I'd argue that it mainly just makes the story's message more subjective and personal, allowing for people to take away what they will from a work. Can texts be influenced by the identity of the reader? And can the identity of the reader be influenced by texts? Absolutely, Deuteronomy in Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit is all about how stories are incredibly subjective, I agree, who the reader is influences what they take away from a work. To the second point, I agree again, if we engage with the ideas in work it can influence us very easily. Whatever we learn from any media changes us and our ideas, exposure to any idea does the same. How ...

  INDEPENDENT LESSON 10: EXODUS QUESTIONS What are the similarities between the events of this chapter and the book of the Bible with the same name? Jeanette is an orphan, like Moses, but more importantly, there is a reference to the children of Israel leaving Egypt in Exodus. Jeanette contrasts her own feeling of being out of her comfort zone with the Israelis leaving Egypt. Jeanette frames her own life experiences through what she knows and her world up and till then, i.e. religion and the bible. Elsie Norris is an important character in the novel, what impression do you get of her on her first introduction? (p23) A bit odd, but friendly and generally a nice person. Differs from the church on a few things and tends to have her own opinions even if she is a very religious person. What does the episode with Jeanette's temporary deafness reveal about her mother and the church in general? Which members of the church are exceptions? Jeanette's mother and the church are too zealous...