In the world of fiction, anything is possible. This limitless imagination accounts for much of the allure we find in legends/myths/fairy tales/etc.; it has come to be an accepted fact that by opening a work of fiction, we are allowing our imaginations to run rampant. However, once the book is closed, our minds are as well. But how many have stopped to ask: who told us anything was not possible in reality?
In the story of Alice in Wonderland, just about everything we've deemed impossible seems, well, possible. The inhabitants of Wonderland expect the unexpected and have come to live in a perpetual daydream. In a group setting, I am very much a "contributive daydreamer". In my mind there is the world as we see it and there is the world as we can see it. The second is much more interesting. Sometimes this world graces us with some sliver of itself too extraordinary to believe; we call these small wonders "theories", "myths", "coincidences", "impossible". We neglect what we can see in favor of what we want to see, or rather, what we are comfortable seeing. In writing, the possible and impossible are sewn together and our comfort zone invaded. The basic elements of a story often adhere somewhat to accepted beliefs but a captivating author will sprinkle in elements too fantastic for reality- the fictional pieces- and therefore thrilling. However, a fine line must be established: there must be enough creative artistry to pique our curiosity but not enough to trigger our obstinate rejection, our mental veto. The dragon-slaying myths of old offer a picturesque example of such balanced mastery. Few people believe these myths but even so, how many would like to? The way we see things is often dull, traditional, and overwhelmingly lackluster. Simply enough, we get bored. How incredible would it be to think such mystical creatures once did inhabit this place? But no, our skepticism deems it "impossible" and so the closest the world as we know it ever got to a dragon was a dinosaur.
While working with a group, I offer new ideas that beg an audience. As a student and group member, I do not actively seek nor particularly like attention, but many of my ideas to. Some of these can be risks, unneeded even. Just for fun. However, this adventurous novelty allows me to be the Initiator/Contributor of unconventional approaches to what may seem to be a very conventional prompt. I believe that every small artifact has the potential to be anything but small if viewed from the right perspective. As such, aside from proposing my own ideas, I consciously remain very open to those of others. When you have the potential of four minds to utilize, what would be the benefit of employing only one? With this, I often gravitate towards a Supporter/Encourager role while working within the dynamic of a group. I am also a pacifist when it comes to dissent. As Alice does during her stint in Wonderland, I try to mediate differences and take on the role of a Harmonizer when and if necessary. To be frank, the trivial arguments and complications are just not worth it. Only through cooperation could we achieve a set goal and only through cooperation could we explore the land of fiction, a hop-skip and rabbit hole away from the plains of conventional thinking. I suppose we will see where that journey gets us.
After all, we're all mad here aren't we?
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Monday, August 26, 2013
Practice Test Afterthoughts (Blog Post #2)
Today in class we were given a timed assessment, modeled after none other than the feared AP English Literature and Composition test all Lit students are expected to take in May. However, much to our relief, this was only a practice multiple choice section and- giving thanks to all things holy- ungraded. Nonetheless, it was an hour long and comprised of 47 multiple choice questions regarding a number of essays and poems, courtesy of the 5 Steps to a 5 study book.
Going into the practice test, I actually felt okay. Not great, not weak-at-the-knees, just okay. While it is true that nearly every AP Lit veteran had christened Lit as one of the most challenging courses offered at Mason, I was convinced that surely at least half of that was just talk. After all, you just had to read a poem and answer some questions, just like the past seventeen hundred English tests we've taken by now. How bad could it be? Thus I embarked on my 60minute quest of deciphering prose. The first question asked about the form of the poem-or-lyric-or-sonnet-or-ballad-or-dramatic monologue we had just read. "Nauseous", I believe, would have been an appropriate adjective for how I felt at that moment. Promptly following the first question were a series of interrogations surrounding the implications of certain words, phrases, and motifs that I had mostly brushed over while reading. This skimming turned out nearly fatal: by far most of the questions I missed were involved with the first reading. Midway through, I had decided that this test had been much more challenging that I had expected, involving much more in-depth analysis and hair-tearing than anticipated. However, this hour-long assessment had given me a good idea of my strengths and weaknesses while tackling "actual literature". Analyzing these qualities proved to be a relatively simple task: Weaknesses- absentmindedness, poor analytic capability, even poorer figurative capacity, rich illiteracy; Strengths- nil. In all seriousness, I realize that both pros and cons are involved in my reading prowess. Let's start with the bad news first, shall we?
From my earlier comment with regards to skimming, it can be said that a none-too-forgiving weakness I possess while reading is carelessness. Utter lack of acute attention. For example, when asked about specific words, I often found myself rereading the passage just to make sure that the words of question were actually included, surely some of these had to be a printing error on the test writer's part? When asked later what "darkness" had referred to in the another passage, I realized that I had hardly noticed the word "darkness" once. Upon closer examination it became apparent that darkness showed up not once, twice, nor thrice, but a whopping four times. By then, I had come up with a fifth idea of what darkness could reference: my fate. Another con may be that while reading anything I find "uninteresting", I tend to zone out particularly effectively. Consequently, I have fallen into the habit of reading only pieces that captivate my immediate interest. As a reader, I have become inflexible as far as different writing styles and their comprehension are concerned (Ex. Shakespeare. Over yonder light window--what?). I realize this is just about an English teacher's worst nightmare but- though I take full responsibility- I would like to address the lack of experience students nowadays have with reading challenging or "un-modern" literature rather than simply entertaining stories. There are techniques that need to be learned and mastered before we are ready to take on pieces that require extensive analysis or involve heavy symbolism and many such techniques that are only perfected through practice.
As such, I have devised three personal goals to hopefully set me on the right path in literature analysis:
And now that my reading skills have been subject to sufficient [constructive] criticism, I would like to acknowledge some "esteem-boosters". Though I tend to miss the details in a passage, I am more apt at capturing the "big idea" being conveyed. As a result, I usually miss few questions regarding the overall purpose of a text or the mood being conveyed. This skill is helpful as I continue to learn and experiment with developing mood in my own writing. Another strength that came as rather surprising was my ability to pick out figurative devices. Of course these questions have cropped up on past assessments and are arguably the area of literature that we as students have spent the most time studying. Nonetheless, I did not stumble as much as I'd though I expected to on this particular area of the test. The AP exam is legendary for being jam-packed full of figurative devices- whether it be identifying or analyzing them- hidden in poems written in what might as well be a foreign language. It has also been said that you are better off "going with your gut" than actually wasting precious minutes reading and rereading a passage to find these ambiguous clues (for the record, the number of times my "gut" has been correct in any testing scenario may be counted on three fingers). However, it was a pleasant surprise when I answered most of the questions regarding literary devices correctly after taking the time needed to think through them.
Now that my performance has been thoroughly analyzed, I would like to leave a final thought: that test was by far the worst assessment I have ever taken in any English class setting. And with that, it seems safe to say, that while grading my test and closing the book afterwards, I still felt distinctly nauseous- but hopefully that will wear off by May.
Going into the practice test, I actually felt okay. Not great, not weak-at-the-knees, just okay. While it is true that nearly every AP Lit veteran had christened Lit as one of the most challenging courses offered at Mason, I was convinced that surely at least half of that was just talk. After all, you just had to read a poem and answer some questions, just like the past seventeen hundred English tests we've taken by now. How bad could it be? Thus I embarked on my 60minute quest of deciphering prose. The first question asked about the form of the poem-or-lyric-or-sonnet-or-ballad-or-dramatic monologue we had just read. "Nauseous", I believe, would have been an appropriate adjective for how I felt at that moment. Promptly following the first question were a series of interrogations surrounding the implications of certain words, phrases, and motifs that I had mostly brushed over while reading. This skimming turned out nearly fatal: by far most of the questions I missed were involved with the first reading. Midway through, I had decided that this test had been much more challenging that I had expected, involving much more in-depth analysis and hair-tearing than anticipated. However, this hour-long assessment had given me a good idea of my strengths and weaknesses while tackling "actual literature". Analyzing these qualities proved to be a relatively simple task: Weaknesses- absentmindedness, poor analytic capability, even poorer figurative capacity, rich illiteracy; Strengths- nil. In all seriousness, I realize that both pros and cons are involved in my reading prowess. Let's start with the bad news first, shall we?
From my earlier comment with regards to skimming, it can be said that a none-too-forgiving weakness I possess while reading is carelessness. Utter lack of acute attention. For example, when asked about specific words, I often found myself rereading the passage just to make sure that the words of question were actually included, surely some of these had to be a printing error on the test writer's part? When asked later what "darkness" had referred to in the another passage, I realized that I had hardly noticed the word "darkness" once. Upon closer examination it became apparent that darkness showed up not once, twice, nor thrice, but a whopping four times. By then, I had come up with a fifth idea of what darkness could reference: my fate. Another con may be that while reading anything I find "uninteresting", I tend to zone out particularly effectively. Consequently, I have fallen into the habit of reading only pieces that captivate my immediate interest. As a reader, I have become inflexible as far as different writing styles and their comprehension are concerned (Ex. Shakespeare. Over yonder light window--what?). I realize this is just about an English teacher's worst nightmare but- though I take full responsibility- I would like to address the lack of experience students nowadays have with reading challenging or "un-modern" literature rather than simply entertaining stories. There are techniques that need to be learned and mastered before we are ready to take on pieces that require extensive analysis or involve heavy symbolism and many such techniques that are only perfected through practice.
As such, I have devised three personal goals to hopefully set me on the right path in literature analysis:
- To develop good habits as an attentive reader while cutting my skimming habits. This I would like to accomplish by reading every class-related piece that requires analysis at least twice to ensure that nothing, big or small, has been missed due to the silly carelessness that makes me want to kick myself.
- To make more markings while reading. This sounds simple since we have been "annotating" every piece of writing we've received since setting foot into the high school. However, I realized that when I "annotate", oftentimes I am not truly annotating. My notes are shallow, and many fail to build the deep connections with the writing needed to fully understand anything not directly stated. For the rest of the trimester, I have made a goal to make at least one quality marking per sentence while annotating a piece of literature to help further my understanding of the piece at hand. These markings may include writing, underlining, bolding, starring, highlighting, cartoon illustrations if that's what it takes.
- To have read and fully analyzed fourteen (one for each question missed) pieces of literature that I do not particularly like or have experience with by the end of the year. This would not include school assignments but rather focus on poems/essays/articles I find myself. Who knows, maybe I'll even come to enjoy the challenge. Try new things, right?
And now that my reading skills have been subject to sufficient [constructive] criticism, I would like to acknowledge some "esteem-boosters". Though I tend to miss the details in a passage, I am more apt at capturing the "big idea" being conveyed. As a result, I usually miss few questions regarding the overall purpose of a text or the mood being conveyed. This skill is helpful as I continue to learn and experiment with developing mood in my own writing. Another strength that came as rather surprising was my ability to pick out figurative devices. Of course these questions have cropped up on past assessments and are arguably the area of literature that we as students have spent the most time studying. Nonetheless, I did not stumble as much as I'd though I expected to on this particular area of the test. The AP exam is legendary for being jam-packed full of figurative devices- whether it be identifying or analyzing them- hidden in poems written in what might as well be a foreign language. It has also been said that you are better off "going with your gut" than actually wasting precious minutes reading and rereading a passage to find these ambiguous clues (for the record, the number of times my "gut" has been correct in any testing scenario may be counted on three fingers). However, it was a pleasant surprise when I answered most of the questions regarding literary devices correctly after taking the time needed to think through them.
Now that my performance has been thoroughly analyzed, I would like to leave a final thought: that test was by far the worst assessment I have ever taken in any English class setting. And with that, it seems safe to say, that while grading my test and closing the book afterwards, I still felt distinctly nauseous- but hopefully that will wear off by May.
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Construction and Interior Design (Blog Post #1)
A blog is meant to be your stake on the internet. As such, fengalisaapenglish2014.blogspot.com has become my little plot of internet-land and, figuratively speaking, I have built and customized every aspect of my viral residence.
The font of a blog is comparable to bricks: it is often the most obvious, small and very extensive, and generally not too flashy. Thus, the font employed in this blog is basic and commands neither attention nor praise. Its primary priority is functionality. Quiet fonts make for easy reading and a clear passive mind; they avoid interference with content and other graphics that may be present. Especially if an image or background is the primary focus of the page, a simple font encourages it to stand out (Cousins, "Establish a Mood with Typography). These neutral building blocks keep ideas and the mood clean, pure, and free from the predispositions we mentally attach to certain fonts and colors. For example, Times New Roman must mean politics, Calibri is fastened to the economy, and anything bolded in red larger than a size 16 is surely breaking news. Although the body text is characterized by its lack of character, the title is written with a slightly more decorative penmanship- a stone entrance-way, if you will. This is multi-purposeful: it manages to contrast with the body text, add a bit of adornment, as well as lead visitors straight inside the house by connecting it with the outside.
The interior color scheme of this particular house is bright and modern, but not so much that it contradicts with the wallpaper's unimposing grace. The wallpaper of choice, an artistically-blurred and washed-out photo of a telephone booth encompasses all aspects of the room and sets the mood. The effects used on the particular photo result in a dreamily rustic cottage-y atmosphere that reminds us of something homey but not quite commonplace, of something suspended between the ordinary and the extraordinary. Welcoming warm colors paired with delicate blue lettering and the scarlet of a telephone booth forms the ideal mix between coziness, coolness, and vitality as the three shades lend their individual effects to create an overall mood for the blog/house (Cherry, "Color Psychology"). Though the booth itself is red, it is not an eye-searing shade; though the background isn't exactly clean, it avoids looking clustered or grimy. Hints of the robins-egg title lettering linger- almost subconsciously- in the wallpaper, which basks in the same gently-worn lighting as the smaller profile picture. All of the text backgrounds are transparent so that the wallpaper is seen as continuous rather than having been paused and then resumed. The color of the body text matches so precisely with the background that it looks to be neatly engraved in the wallpaper itself rather than plastered over it, further promoting openmindedness and serenity. Though there is color, the effect remains modest and comfortably natural. Consequentially, the dynamic of the house is demure and peaceful, but not uninteresting. This, I hope, will reflect the ideas planted on this plot of land-- they are to be reveries immune to judgement, fleeting whispers to be pondered.
Reference Sources:
Cousins, Carrie. "Establish a Mood with Typography." Tympanus. N.p., 19 Feb. 2012. Web. 25 Aug. 2013. <http://tympanus.net/codrops/2012/02/19/establish-a-mood-with-typography/>.
Cherry, Kendra. "Color Psychology." Psychology - Complete Guide to Psychology for Students, Educators & Enthusiasts. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Aug. 2013. <http://psychology.about.com/od/sensationandperception/a/colorpsych.htm>.
The font of a blog is comparable to bricks: it is often the most obvious, small and very extensive, and generally not too flashy. Thus, the font employed in this blog is basic and commands neither attention nor praise. Its primary priority is functionality. Quiet fonts make for easy reading and a clear passive mind; they avoid interference with content and other graphics that may be present. Especially if an image or background is the primary focus of the page, a simple font encourages it to stand out (Cousins, "Establish a Mood with Typography). These neutral building blocks keep ideas and the mood clean, pure, and free from the predispositions we mentally attach to certain fonts and colors. For example, Times New Roman must mean politics, Calibri is fastened to the economy, and anything bolded in red larger than a size 16 is surely breaking news. Although the body text is characterized by its lack of character, the title is written with a slightly more decorative penmanship- a stone entrance-way, if you will. This is multi-purposeful: it manages to contrast with the body text, add a bit of adornment, as well as lead visitors straight inside the house by connecting it with the outside.
The interior color scheme of this particular house is bright and modern, but not so much that it contradicts with the wallpaper's unimposing grace. The wallpaper of choice, an artistically-blurred and washed-out photo of a telephone booth encompasses all aspects of the room and sets the mood. The effects used on the particular photo result in a dreamily rustic cottage-y atmosphere that reminds us of something homey but not quite commonplace, of something suspended between the ordinary and the extraordinary. Welcoming warm colors paired with delicate blue lettering and the scarlet of a telephone booth forms the ideal mix between coziness, coolness, and vitality as the three shades lend their individual effects to create an overall mood for the blog/house (Cherry, "Color Psychology"). Though the booth itself is red, it is not an eye-searing shade; though the background isn't exactly clean, it avoids looking clustered or grimy. Hints of the robins-egg title lettering linger- almost subconsciously- in the wallpaper, which basks in the same gently-worn lighting as the smaller profile picture. All of the text backgrounds are transparent so that the wallpaper is seen as continuous rather than having been paused and then resumed. The color of the body text matches so precisely with the background that it looks to be neatly engraved in the wallpaper itself rather than plastered over it, further promoting openmindedness and serenity. Though there is color, the effect remains modest and comfortably natural. Consequentially, the dynamic of the house is demure and peaceful, but not uninteresting. This, I hope, will reflect the ideas planted on this plot of land-- they are to be reveries immune to judgement, fleeting whispers to be pondered.
Reference Sources:
Cousins, Carrie. "Establish a Mood with Typography." Tympanus. N.p., 19 Feb. 2012. Web. 25 Aug. 2013. <http://tympanus.net/codrops/2012/02/19/establish-a-mood-with-typography/>.
Cherry, Kendra. "Color Psychology." Psychology - Complete Guide to Psychology for Students, Educators & Enthusiasts. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Aug. 2013. <http://psychology.about.com/od/sensationandperception/a/colorpsych.htm>.
A Game of Telephone
It can be said that I harbor an obsession with London's old-fashioned telephone booths. In the 21st century, London has developed like any other major city; oil lamps have evolved into strobing lights and posters into glittering life-size billboards. Yet along the streets, the little red boxes still stand. They are simple, timeless, a subtle reminder that the world's classical past still endures in today's minimalist present. They are old-fashioned, yes, but not expired. The telephone booth represents an age in which thoughts and ideas grew and were transmitted, though not as efficiently as they are today-- today, wifi and smartphones dominate communication and much of our meaning is easily lost through a text. However, there are still ways to maintain our thoughts in the buzz of our technologically-savvy age. Blogs serve as that meeting point in between eras, where printed newspaper clippings are out-of-date but the idea of voicing ourselves is not. A blog is where ideas are introduced to the internet, where ideas will continue to grow and be transmitted just as they were in the phone booth. Sometimes the original idea may be lost through static in translation, but that's okay too. And so, where else better to begin our game of Telephone?
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