Blaahhg

If you know me, you may know that I am a realist. I say things just like they are and don’t make things seem like less than they really are. If you are reading this, you have probably been selected to be in Ms. Duke’s class next year. Sometimes luck isn’t on your side, but its ok. I promise that the class won’t kill you. Well, I am pretty sure that it won’t kill you. You should expect lots of work, most of which you probably won’t finish, and a somewhat interesting time in class. Learn your critical lenses. They are the most important thing you will learn in the class. The most important thing to do for points is blogging. Its 50 points a week. That is almost half of the points of the class. Do it. Its fun and you’ll complain about it every week. On the subject of complaining. Don’t do it. Whining never got anyone anywhere in life. So you can stop it right now. Th exam is very hard. First semester I got an F on it. Looking back, there isn’t that much I could have done to improve it. Stuff happens. So don’t freak out, because there is nothing you can do. Whatever will happen will happen.

So in this last reading the characters really seem to be following the theme of fate. They know they are going to die, and in this version of the story, it is apparent that they know that they are in a play. These to elements of the play go hand in hand. Another interesting thing about this play is that at this point, the humor from earlier has almost completely died out. Their mood is more solemn, which I guess is an acceptable thin because they know that they are going to die. They ideas of the play have been very dynamic, and the intertextuality got stronger as the play went on, probably because they beginning was used for character development, where the end was mainly used for plot. I really enjoyed reading this and it added comic relief to Hamlet.

This portion of the reading focuses on the idea of death and being able to comprehend it. One strange thing I have noticed is how these two men can have a conversation about nonsense, then it can turn into an in depth conversation about important things. I,m having a harder time understanding this book. Hopefully some in class discussion will help me out. So umm.. I guess I’ll talk about it more. Ros and Guil seem like two different people unlike in Hamlet. Guil seems more levelheaded when Ros is a little more out there.

This scene takes place right before the play happens in Hamlet, so I guess we have fallen a little behind in this book. I wonder if we are going to even talk about this in class. I really hope so, because I like it more than Hamlet.

This section even has less plot that the first in my opinion. The dialogue seems to be very much like a stream of consciousness writing. This is really modern. Apparently Guil’s situation is identical to Hamlet’s. His father has died and his uncle married his mom. Quite interesting. In both of the sections we’ve read, Ros and Guil seem to be just playing around, last time with the coins and this time with the question game. This playful nature makes them seem very immature, which, to me at least, makes the book seem more fun and playful.

I think the playfulness of the character’s is a big part of the story because this is a sort of postmodern partner to Hamlet, which is full of seriousness and formal language, so when these stories are read together, it gives an interesting and unexpected twist on the characters of Hamlet. I actually did not enjoy this section as much as the last, but I’m still into reading this book. Hopefully some really fun things will happen later.

I am actually enjoying this story. Parts of it even made me laugh. I laughed at a book. That’s probably a first. But for real. This book is cool. I haven’t seen very much of the Hamlet crossover except when they run through the scene. I love the contemplation of the odds of flipping a coin heads 92 times in a row. This is obviously impossible, but in the story its legit. They come up with all kinds of reasons for this happening, but really it is just by chance, or fate, which is another theme in the story. The band helps explore this theme more.

We haven’t really seen Hamlet to this point and the story could take place at any point in time. I’m a little confused about them being “dead” but I’m sure I’ll get it later. I actually am excited to keep reading. I’m not as much of a fan of Hamlet, but this should make it more interesting. One thing I forgot to mention is that chronologically we are farther ahead in this novel than inm Hamlet. I have no idea why Ophelia was running. If any one knows, feel free to tell.

So I’ve been watching the show about Stephen Hawking explaining how the universe was made. This guy is so smart it is unbelievable. At first I thought He was just able to ponder the universe in the free time his condition gives him, but apparently he only has had symptoms since he was 21. So this guy was just born smart. Some of these things that this man say are so smart. He showed how the big bang spread out the matter throughout the universe with using metal balls rolling on the as an demonstration. He was able to do this using equations he developed in his 20′s. How many 25-year-olds could possibly do that? He has to be the smartest person in the world.

One of the interesting things he believe in is the existence of extra terrestrial life. I think that it is incredibly possible that it exists because of the immenseness of the universe. The chances of life being able to happen are very slim, but the universe give so many opportunities that it is entirely possible. He actually even says that we shouldn’t talk to aliens and we should avoid them because it would be like when Columbus landed in the United States because we would have a fate similar to the Native Americans. I would definitely recommend watching this show to any one who has the desire to learn about the universe. 9:00 Sunday nights on the Discovery Channel.

I don’t know much about plays so I’m about to spew out everything I know. Shakespeare was the most famous play-write and author in British history. Play have plot, characters, dialogue, monologue and setting. Plays, when performed, require blocking and stage directions. Some plays can be performed with the dialogue in a different context. Setting might not always actually matter. Plays are divided into scenes instead of chapters. There is a play tonight and I’m going so everyone else should go. It will be awesome because it is a musical. Musicals are plays too. Plays are good. It will be fun to view.

I hope I’ll like Hamlet, but I am worried that I’ll get messed up with reading two things at once, but I’ll deal with it.Plays are performed by actors. Umm…

I really wish someone had blogged this week. There aren’t any to comment on. Though it does make me feel better that I was one of the only ones to do it. Really, I can’t blame the people who didn’t. They really had no reminder to do it. We rely on the internet to tell us what we need to do each night, but it really only works for assignments that are assigned one day and due the next. And the way it works for blogging, you see your reminder three days after it is due. This really makes a problem for everyone. I have looked through the blogs this week, and I have seen one that was actually done.

It would be really cool if everyone blogged next week, but really it isn’t going to happen. They won’t see the reminders and this whole process will happen again, just like this week and the whole year. When it is this late in the year, everyone needs all the points they can get, and lots of people lose 50 points a week for not blogging. It really doomsmashes your grade. So hopefully you will remember to blog this week from reading my blog, but you won’t read blogs this week so you’ll never see this. Sorry.

My paper is a Marxist Criticism of the story of Perceval. I chose this because I thought that his whole story was about power. There isn’t one single action he does in the story that is not to gain power for himself. I also find it interesting how he starts as a lowly, powerless mama’s boy, and turns into a powerful knight. This transition should make my paper interesting. I believe this has the potential to be one of my best papers ever.

To make this different from my usual papers, I am going to use citations appropriately I personally feel like I don’t use them well, but I think I can here. I’m really kind of excited about this paper, except for the writing it part. I’m hoping for a good grade, because I really need one after that test. But really, I think I”ll do fine.

I guess I would like to first say that everyone did a great job on their projects. One of the main things I learned is how hard a teachers work actually is. It is very hard to assign a project that helps the students learn. First the teacher has to find the important parts of the story, then find an interactive way to teach the students the important parts. To me it always seemed really easy, until it took my group three days to come up with any ideas. So thanks Mrs. Duke for all of the work you do.

Our group taught that the story is about the characterization of the Miller more than anything else. The Miller’s Tale is hard to do, because it is very slim on deeper meaning and such. The Franklin’s Tale did a good job. I was worried that their puppet show would be based too much on plot, but they made it so it wasn’t. The Wife of Bath held a class discussion. This was helpful because it let the people who actually read clarify what they needed to know. If you did not read, you really could not ask questions. The Pardoner’s Tale had a nice slide show of scenes from the story. It told the plot. I don’t really like that because it wasn’t a goal of the project, but this group probably had the most pretty and polished project. I’m hoping all of these things I’ve learned will help me on the test, which I am actually kind of scared of.