Thursday, March 19, 2009

Unrelated to academia, but on my mind: The actor Natasha Richardson passed away this afternoon, after a "minor" ski accident. So sad, and I will never see Love, Actually the same way again--Richardson's husband, Liam Neeson, opens that film playing a grieving widower with such force and conviction that it is almost unbearable to watch. Many sad things have happened in our world of late--many sad things today, as a matter of fact--but for some reason, perhaps due to her role in The Parent Trap, my niece's all-time favorite film, this felt more piquant than everything else. R.I. P.

Gifted English II: More with memoir today. Think about this:

Do memoirs tell the truth?

According to J. A. Cuddon, "An autobiography may be largely fictional. Few can recall clear details of their early life and are therefore dependent on other people's impressions, of necessity equally unreliable. Morever, everyone tends to remember what he wants to remember. Disagreeable facts are sometimes glossed over or repressed ...." Cuddon, J. A. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, 1991. The English novelist Anthony Powell said, "Memoirs can never be wholly true, since they cannot include every conceivable circumstance of what happened. The novel can do that."

We will be analyzing more of the language in E.B. White's masterpiece, and planning our own memoirs.

APees: Jane Eyre and language; applying AP FRQs to the novel. Final review Q&A for tomorrow's test. BRING A PENCIL TOMORROW.

In other news: I will be participating in a protest after school today in front of Rep. Andy Gardiner's office, to call attention to the 240 million dollar projected (if not exaggerate) shortfall for the upcoming school year. Feel free to stop by. This affects your future, and far be it for me to be political (insert maniacal laughter here) I think we all need to be involved. This stinks for education, and even though the general economy is feeling the pinch horribly right now, education literally cannot take one more hit.

In other, other news: I am experimenting with Twitter and like it. More info pending!