Photoshop and "Barbie Doll"

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The power of Adobe Photoshop

Check out this video, folks.  It might provide some food for thought for anyone planning to revise an essay on Marge Piercy's "Barbie Doll".

Blogging at 41,000 Feet

I'm posting this weekend from my flight from San Francisco back home to the OC after attending the Fall CUE conference in Napa.  Look forward to some #eduawesome posts of some of the tips, tricks, and tools I learned!

For my students this week:

I'd like you to take one paragraph from your recent short works essay, a paragraph that you struggled with, as evidenced by the feedback from me and/or your peer reviewer.  First, post the paragraph in its original form, as you turned it in to me.  You will want to copy the text from Word into a TextEdit or some text program to remove all the formatting before you post it.  Then, under the original, I want to see your revision of that paragraph.  Think carefully about the topic sentence, the evidence you used (and how you set it up and analyzed it), and edit your word choices so your paragraph includes NO weak verbs (to be, to have, to go, etc) and is as concise--yet thorough--as possible.  And of course, be sure to address any and all feedback I gave you on said paragraph.

Happy editing!

Portrayals of Hamlet 1.3-1.5

For this week's post, I'd like you to look at how Act I has been performed in the past and consider the director and actor's choices in presenting these key scenes that set the tone for the rest of the play.

Select one of the following options:

1.  Look at this portrayal of 1.3 and discuss how Ophelia is portrayed in this scene. Do you agree with how this actress approaches her?

Now compare this portrayal with this scene from the Zeffirelli version:

2.  Watch Kenneth Branagh discuss Act 1, Scene 5:

And then watch the actual scene:

What strikes you about this portrayal of the scene and Branagh's approach?

Best version of Hamlet 1.3 I've ever seen...

Thank you, YouTube, for brightening my day...

Hamlet: First impressions of the royal family?

For this week's post, look over your annotations of 1.2, select one member of the Danish royal family (Hamlet, Gertrude, or Claudius), and post your initial impressions of this character.  If you plan to focus on Claudius, consider how Claudius strikes you as a king, as an uncle, as a father figure to Hamlet.  If you choose Hamlet, explore how Hamlet responds to his uncle and mother. What kind of prince is he?  And if you opt to focus on Gertrude, look at how she comes across as a queen, a widow, and a mother.

Make sure that your post is 350-500 words, and that you properly cite the play in your post--utilizing slashes between lines and MLA parenthetical citations of Shakespeare.

You should also include some sort of visual (photo or video) that you think best encapsulates your initial impressions of the character you've chosen.

Your post is due by class time on Monday, and you should submit your URL to Canvas.

Born too late?

In E.A. Robinson's famous poem, "Miniver Cheevy," we meet a character who is convinced he was "born too late," that he was meant to live a far more romantic and exciting life than his "commonplace" world of "khaki suits."

It's one thing to wish you had been born in a different time, but it's quite something else to resent fate for bringing you into the world in the first place.  Miniver Cheevy doesn't live in the past--he romanticizes it, assuming that it must have been better than his present.

But where does that romantic sensibility get him?  Does it inspire him to take control of his own destiny, to make his present more like his fantasy of the past?  Not exactly.

What are we to make of Miniver Cheevy?  What might Robinson be showing us by presenting us a character who "wept that he was ever born"?

While you're contemplating that question, listen to this version of the poem put to music:

Isn't it Ironic?

Irony can take lots of different forms:  sarcasm, reversal of fortune, wearing white after Labor Day.  I love the Oatmeal's take on irony.

In that comic, Matt Inman mentions one of the most frustrating (and yet oh-so-catchy) takes on irony of the last 20 years or so:

In her video, Alanis Morissette alludes...sort of... to one kind of irony--cosmic irony, or what we might call "God's little joke."  When Morissette sings about "rain on your wedding day" or a "free ride when you've already paid," she's not exactly talking about irony as the destruction of expectations, as we've discussed in class. Instead, she's suggesting that sometimes, life is just a bummer, and fate (or the divine, or whatever higher power there might be) conspires against us.  Or maybe she ironically isn't actually talking about irony at all--as John Winokur suggests.

For this week's post--due Monday by class time--I'd like to hear your thoughts about  why Marge Piercy, in her poem "Barbie Doll," and Nadine Gordimer, in her short story, "Once Upon a Time," use irony in their respective texts.  Select ONE of the texts, preferably one you haven't already blogged about, and consider why the author chooses irony as a primary tool to get across her main idea, rather than, say, direct narration.  Using the Oatmeal's take on irony, as well as this definition of irony  identify the kind(s) of irony used in the text, and discuss why irony is such a useful tool in conveying the big-picture idea in this text.

I look forward to reading your posts!