Oh my, this should be interesting, spilling out my thoughts onto this blog; I hope no one else reads this except you Ms. Sobrero (or Mrs. Panosian). Anyway, I've FINALLY started (I'd like to apologize for it being so late). I began reading What is the What, but then reread the Summer Reading Assignment paper for AP Lit and saw that it was How to Read Literature Like A Professor that I should have started reading first (*face to palm*); thank you Jason for letting me borrow your copy [:
Now, let's jump right into this, shall we? Right, okay, so I've only read the first chapter and the first thing I notice about it is the author's voice; it's brilliant. I love how it's not written in monotone, therefore making it that much more interesting to read. A friend of mine, Swaaliha, told me it wasn't in monotone (I didn't believe her) but I see now that it really isn't. With that being said, I'm going back to reading, and, well, the academic part of this blog.
The author begins by writing about journeys and how the "stated goal" isn't really the point of the task, and my thoughts were: "Wow! I actually caught onto something while reading those fairy-tales in elementary school." The stated goal is hardly ever the real point of the character's quest; it's what he/she learns in the end; definitely something to keep in mind when reading short stories or novels. Actually, this summer assignment is somewhat like a quest; we all need to finish these books, but really it's preparation for the AP Lit class (and exam) that this is helping us with.
Interesting comparison or a complete fail? I think that it was a failure...but hey, I tried.
As for the second chapter, I find it interesting that food = unity. I used to completely ignore all the "meal scenes" in novels, you know, skimming over them thinking "Okay, great, they're eating." But I never realized they were put there purposely to symbolize either union between friends and family, or an entire school (i.e Harry Potter :D). They're there to show that all the characters have something in common. Wait, most meal scenes show unity; sometimes there's a disturbance that ruins the meal, (the author mentions this as well,) which shows a lack of unity. Interesting indeed.
Vampires, chapter three: One of the things I will remember for the class is that Victorian writers transformed "taboo subjects and issues" of their time period "into other forms." I'm not sure if we're going to be reading many works written by Victorian writers, but it might be useful to keep the thought in mind for other novels or poems that we'll be reading as well. Also I found this interesting: the fact that a vampire, or any other creepy "monster" of some sorts, is present when there is a weakening of one character by another; that they suck the life out of them, figuratively speaking of course. It's definitely a great thing to keep in mind. Oh and, thank you Mrs. Panosian for stressing the importance of a character's name and how it could give insight to the character before actually beginning to read the story (I thought of this after reading the passage where the author talked about Winterbourne and Daisy). By the way, I enjoyed this chapter. Maybe it's because of my strange obsession with vampire stories. Definitely not Twilight; Anne Rice is more like it [:
On to chapter four! First thought: "Wow...all that from a poem?" And then I remembered what class I'm reading this book and doing this blog for; I'm nervous all over again. But anyway, this chapter was helpful, and will be especially when we begin reading sonnets, or any poem for that matter. He goes over the structure of sonnets and why form is important. Not every sonnet is the same. If they were, "that would be boring."
As I started reading chapter five, it reminded me of the literary term "allusions;" they're important, that's for sure. But it also ties in with the author's point in writing this chapter: that there's only ever one story. New novels, poems, stories, etc., are all derived from one single story. They've just been borrowing from other works, then adding onto it.
I honestly want to begin finding the mushrooms on my own, but it's so hard!
First post done, 19 more to go.
For some odd reason I feel like Julie Powell.
Well anyway, to end this entry on a less, err, strange note, I've enjoyed the book thus far and will continue reading tonight. New blog entries tomorrow! Oh and, I'm sorry if this post was long. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing. I'll try making the next one shorter though!
Au Revoir!
(Now I really feel like Julie)
No comments:
Post a Comment