Texts

AP 2012-2013 folks--please remember to turn in your Diyanni texts tomorrow, Wedenesday, April 24th, 2013.

Also, disregard the "project" blog listed as one of my blogs--was showing a staff member how to pull up this site to make a blog for her class.

Come to think of it, couldn't "Create a Blog" be a potential way to share information re: our school improvement project? You can link to websites from blogger...just a thought. Would be an easy way to share with the SI folks here at THCHS.

Definition

I ran across a cool word the other day. Vicarious. Look it up.

Also was thinking about some great plays, epic poems, and novels that we read this year or that you may have read before: Beowulf, The Great Gatsby, The Oddyssey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and Twelfth Night. Yeah. Good stuff. I may re-read them.

Film Review

Discuss the use of parallelism in Trevor Nunn’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Be sure to relate your discussion to the extant themes in the play as well. This is NOT an AP style essay but should still be structurally organized with paragraphs and featuring elements of writing discussed in class. Think of it more as a film review that might be found in The New York Times…i.e. make it something an intelligent reader might actually want to read. 

Twelfth Night

http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/twelfthnight/

Prompt Assistance

The prompt for tomorrow asks you to write about two short poems written by women. It is a WIDE open prompt in that it gives you virtually NO specific instructions other than to "write a well-organized essay" about the two poems considering such elements as speaker, diction, imagery, form, and tone. Form relates to syle and strucure of the poems. If I were wrtiting this essay, I would find one single similarity or difference evident in the poems (thematic or stylistic perhaps) and then examine this similarity or difference through the lens of the literary devices listed above. Give some thought as to which transitional terms lend themselves best to an essay discussing differences or an essay discussing similarites. Remember, you must spend some time, after you read the poems, outlining your ideas. Please also remember our conversations about the intro and direct citation.

Monologue

Commercially Speaking

A Mark D. Veon Monologue

In this piece, Mark D. Veon explores the inanity of television commercials—which are, of course, merely manifestations of our own inadequacies, idiosyncrasies, foibles, fears, bizarre predilections, sexual addictions, and primal desires to consume massive amounts of beer, fried meats of one type or another, and chocolate.

Ladies and Gentleman, I give you “Commercially Speaking.”

So there I am the other day, minding my own business, and watching a little television on a Friday night. Flipping around from station to station. Yep. Friday night at my place. Pretty exciting. Flip. Flip. Flip. Ahh…check this out….boom! Just hit the “Previous Channel” button on the old remote…the magic wand…the clicker….I have the power! Behold the ultimate phallic symbol! Oh…sorry…got a little carried away there, but you have to admit we’d be no where without the remote control. Yeah, I know…your dad is probably like mine (assumes the character of his father). “Boy, when I was your age we only had three channels and one of those only barely came in. Had to get up and walk across the room to change channels. Now gimme that dang remote!”

(Back into character) But I digress. So, it’s Friday night and there I am—alone—in front of the TV, wondering if I am watching it or is it watching me when this commercial comes on. I try not to pay attention to commercials too much but this one sorta stood out. You may have seen it. It’s the one that shows happy couples, mostly young and—conveniently--quite good looking, in a warm and mutually supportive embrace, gazing into each other’s eyes, flashing these smiles with teeth so perfectly white that you know they must have wonderful breath and great dental coverage—and then I hear this angelically calming voice telling me that this dating service—that’s what the commercial was for, you see—is going to find God’s match for me. I mean, who knew? I never knew God himself was in the dating business. I mean…I guess it makes sense in a way. He did hook up Adam and Eve and I guess that worked out. (A beat) Oh…okay…I know what your thinking. The whole apple thing. Okay---Eve wasn’t exactly perfect, but who is? So anyway, I start to think about it. God is working for this company helping to find that special someone for me. I guess it’s better than going to bars or those creepy blind dates your co-workers are always trying to set you up with. “Why didn’t you tell me she was 52 and (pause) a Republican?” Anyway…I guess that commercial sort of got me thinking…maybe because I was at home on a Friday night….alone…me and my Doritos. And then I had a series of questions just pop into my mind: What if I am black—wait, I am black. I didn’t see any black folks in that commercial. Maybe there were and I just missed them. Maybe they were like the proverbial “black friend” in horror movies—always the first to go. What if I am gay? I guess that rules me out from mingling with fellow Christians in a world of sun-filled beaches and barefoot beach walks. Uncool. I mean, I don’t mean to say that God is uncool. I really don’t. It’s just that whole concept rubbed me the wrong way. Don’t get me wrong—I’m not going to come knocking on your door on Saturday morning and try to sign you up for my particular version of Christianity, but I do go to church from time to time and I am pretty sure that I never heard about God’s role as a salesman, a CEO, CFO, or even a dating counselor or whatever. And if he was, what other things might God endorse? Christian deodorant? Like, God’s scent for you? Christian hamburgers? God’s chosen secret sauce makes your McMeat oh…so…heavenly. God’s bottled water? Our water ist holier than thine. Oh God! (A beat) Literally.

So then I realize that, while pondering the deity of my choice, I have been flipping channels and have landed on that one channel that just plays some obnoxious guitar riff over and over (may do air guitar here while mumbling the notes) while a “satellite TV provider” logo floats about. Apparently I had been watching it for some time so I decide to keep on watching it while I think about the meaning of life—or at least the meaning of life while alone at home on a Friday night. But this whole commercial has got me thinking…I do that every now and then. And I find myself remembering some other commercials that were—well, pathetic.

I remember a beer commercial that I saw a few years back. Maybe you saw it too. It’s got these somewhat nerdy white dudes—you ever notice that the nerdiest of white dudes always end up with the super fine ladies with long flowing hair and even longer legs…the scantily clad ones with devious intentions flashing behind their eyes of the bedroom variety, if you know what I mean—anyway, these two dudes are drinking that one beer, the one that sparks debate about how tasty it is versus how gosh darn non-heavy it is, and they drift off into a shared fantasy. Okay, that’s a bit odd right there…but the focus of this shared fantasy revolves around two lovely young women—I guess they must have been poor because they were forced to wear torn, obviously second hand football jerseys and what must have been the younger sisters’ shorts because they were obviously not the correct size and, poor things, they were having to bathe in a public fountain. So anyway…these girls…one a brunette and one a blonde…begin to fight. I guess their socio-economic status had embittered them against the very concept of hope and they have sunk to brawling in public. But here’s where the fantasy gets really odd—the two poverty stricken lasses are arguing about that beer. One yells, while tearing the already torn jersey of her opponent even further, “It’s tasty!” and the other, pulling the brunette locks of her foe, retorts “It non-heavy!” (May repeat the taunts ere several times building to a crescendo) It was indeed an epic battle of ideas and certainly reflective of the sad state of poverty that so many young people live in these days. Then the two males—from the all important 18-35 year old target group--snap out of their reverie and realize that it was all just a dark fantasy—one which reveals their deep ceded concerns about their own sexuality as well their inability focus on reality. My diagnosis? Mild schizophrenia or past life events impinging on the present. Or both.

Okay…so I kid. I know what that commercial was really about: linking the concept of sex to ones beer choice. God! (A beat) Literally. Sad, huh? But I guess that’s our world: sex sells. That or violence.  Something like that anyway, I am not sure which. We live in a Jerry Springer sort of world. What can I say? I’ve seen commercials for Jerry’s shows, you know the ones,  about who the baby daddy is—ahh, the contradictory beauty of the human mind…we can create the science to explore the vast universe of the genetic code and find the least genetic marker, thereby limiting the impact of congenital diseases…but what do we do with that science? Jerry, Jerry, Jerry! Then the commercial becomes even more surreal: images of porcine women in tank tops and sporting ill-fitting jeans flash on the screen, rake thin men  with poor dental health and bad complexions flash odd finger gestures at one another, audience members view the guests with looks of strangely orgasmic glee on their faces. (A beat) Pleasant.

By now, my mind is wandering far afield…as the guitar riffs barely caress my un-sensing ears. Images of commercials bubble up from some place or other and I see them, as Shakespeare noted, in my mind’s eye. (Adopting a slight hue of “announcer voice in his timbre) Are you a male over forty? Call now to learn about how a reverse mortgage can help. Feeling less than energetic? Find the true meaning of Christmas at Menard’s.  Less than romantic? Snausages, snausages! By the pricking of my thumbs. Than you may have low-T. Is your pet insured? If you call in the next twenty minutes…the best part of waking up…because you know we can’t do this all day…is Folger’s in your cup. Have you been injured in a car accident? I want my baby-back, baby-back, baby-back. Call 1-800-Law-Suit. Double your pleasure…double your fun. You are going to look terrific. My doctor basically told me to go home and die. I guarantee it. Edible gifts. Call now. Don’t wait. Limited time offer. But wait…there’s more. Just pay shipping and handling. We’ll make the final payment for you. Try it free for thirty days. Something wicked this way comes. The fat just melts off. Do you need to gain weight? Wonder bra! Why am I the one who always has painful gas? Cooks a frozen turkey in just twenty minutes! Are you loosing your hair? (ESPN jingle) Da-da-da….da-da-da! Nothing says loving….act fast…like something from the oven. Need cash fast? (Singing) Plop, plop, fizz, fizz…oh… what a relief it is. I’m a pepper. You’re a pepper. I’d like to buy the world a coke. Gimme a break, gimme a break. Meow, meow, meow, meow. Meow, meow, meow, meow. Meow meow meow meow, meow meow meow meow. I wish I were an Oscar Meyer weiner. (Breathless) Need I say more? Dah, dah, dah.

Well, I suppose I should tell you how it all ended that night. I finished my Doritos, gently crunching them up in the dark, quite room. You see, I had turned my TV off—I’m not really sure when that happened. It just did. After a while, I called my dad and told him “I love you, dad.” He seemed glad about that. And then I went outside, tossing my empty Dorito wrapper in the trash on the way out, and I looked at the sky—or maybe it looked at me. And everything was alright. Literally. It really was.

Monday Assignment:

Find a poem in the DiYanni text and apply the Barron's 10 step poetry explication process to that poem. Be sure to have definitive responses for each of the ten steps. 100 points.

Final Exam Dates

As you know, all AP English Literature and Composition students will take an entire in-class AP exam (from a test previously released by the College Board). This test will be spread out through the semester to maximize student learning and to better prepare those students who will pay for and complete the test on Thursday May Ninth. Students' essays will be graded using a College Board compatible rubric.

Test dates are:

Essay 1 on 3/12 (coincides with midterm)

Essay 2 on 3/26 (just before spring break)

Multiple Choice on 4/18 (a couple of weeks before the test)

Free Response Essay on 4/19 (finishes out the Final)

Free Response Prompts

http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/members/exam/exam_information/157131.html