Monday, January 3, 2011

Welcome back!!! We need to get right down to business, since we have a limited window to prepare for first semester exams.

The exam schedule should be published on the BHS website ASAP. There were some minor glitches but the admin and the exam committee are working assiduously to make it work.

GIFTED ENGLISH II:

1. Go over the Author of the Day schedule and see who still needs to present, and align accordingly.

2. Review Acts I-III of Julius Caesar and do a Venn Diagram of the two major speeches.

3. Assign an Extra Credit Opportunity for memorizing a speech from JC.

4. Character analysis of Acts I-III.

AP LITERATURE AND COMP:

1. Act II of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and relevant analysis.

2. Content connections to Hamlet.

Thursday and Friday, December 16-17

The last two days before break! We have so much to plan and execute--the party for the custodians on Thursday, final assignments and lessons on both days, cross-cultural communication exercises, yadda yadda yadda. . .

WINTER BREAK ASSIGNMENT FOR GIFTED ENGLISH II: Please read the first three acts of Julius Caesar per our conversation in class. If you forget your textbook or don't own a copy of No Fear Shakespeare: Julius Caesar you can access the play for free online since it is in the public domain.

AP Lit and Comp: Visual exercise related to Hamlet.

Gifted English II: Julius Caesar, Act I. And there was much rejoicing.

THE DIGITAL STORY OF NATIVITY - ( or Christmas 2.0 )

I'm not posting this to proselytize a particular religious point of view, but to illustrate social networking's pervasiveness in our modern culture. Check this out--I lol'd when Joseph got a donkey on FarmVille.

Hakuna Matata(English)

I find it fascinating that Disney can so sanitize things. Don't get me wrong: I LOVE this film. LOVE IT. But allowing the cheery "hakuna matata" ideal to creep into Hamlet is terrific cognitive dissonance. One could argue that Pumbaa and Timon's abiding philosophy is less than cheery and is an escape mechanism from personal responsibility like Hamlet's avoidance techniques, but I think that might be delving more deeply than the Disney execs expect. Anyway, enjoy a sneak preview of our pre-Winter Break Technology Festival. Yep.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

The Ides of December! (Not really--Ides only come every so often, but since we're introducing the Julius Caesar Unit today. . .)

Gifted English II: After we festively re-bubble the Edusoft Answer Sheets: New and Not My Fault They Were Wrong The First Time, Seriously, we will watch the short video on reading your PSAT scores. And after that. . .Shakespeare! And how he was inspired to write JC!

AP Lit and Comp: Act I of R and G Are Dead, from page 33-on. To enchant you, here are some quotes from the playwright Tom Stoppard himself:

"The days of the digital watch are numbered."

"Every exit is an entrance someplace else."

"We're actors! We're the opposite of people!"

and. . .

"It is better to be quotable than to be honest."

Food for thought, but not necessarily food for imitative behaviors. . .

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

We draw ever closer. . .whoo whoo. . .

Gifted English II: PSAT scores are here! And even though we're not supposed to distribute them until Wednesday (there will be a video explaining all things PSAT) I will give them to you tomorrow to take home. Unfortunately, there was an epic problem with the benchmark testing you did last week, and I have to ask you to rebubble your answers on a new sheet. (Trust me, this will make your scores come up.) And then. . .dun dun dun. . .Queen Elizabeth!!! And you thought the last two days were interesting. . .

AP Lit and Comp: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Act I. And I need to borrow a quarter from someone. Just for a little bit.

Monday, December 13, 2010

ONE WEEK UNTIL WINTER BREAK!!!!! BOOYAH!

Gifted English II: Part II of the epic Lecture on Dead People, otherwise known as the Raging Tudor Dynasty. Prepare to take epic notes.

NOTE TO SOPHYS: As I said in class, we are beginning a unit on Shakespeare and will be reading two plays, Julius Caesar and Othello. If you are interested in getting the No Fear Shakespeare edition from Barnes and Noble, you need to order it online or at the store very soon. (Both, I think, are 5.95 plus tax, but my older students swear by them.) I also want to remind you that BOTH plays are available online and in your textbook for free. FREE! This is just if you want the additional help. ALSO--We will be working with a grammar text called The Elements of Style by Strunk and White beginning in late January, and you WILL need a copy. Awesome little book.

AP Lit and Comp: Make-up Hamlet tests for a handful of you (yes, the rest are graded) and an essay by T.S. Eliot (found elsewhere on this blog) on why Hamlet is an artistic failure. Yes, I had to pull my jaw up from the floor on that one, too, but let's see what Missouri's finest son has to say about the melancholy Dane.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Gifted English II: Finish analysis of the two poems from yesterday; content vocabulary for the next unit; suggestion to take textbook home over the break to read Julius Caesar; beginning of awesome lecture about dead people. A good time should be had by most.

AP Lit and Comp: Hamlet Unit Test!!! And suggestions for the upcoming focus paper. :-)

Straight No Chaser - 12 Days (original from 1998)

Sorry about the KMart commercial at the opening, but this is SO GOOD. Regardless of what you celebrate this season, I think you'll agree that these guys are so awesome.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Gifted English II: 2 Author of the Day presentation, 2 short articles from The Onion, 2 short poems. We are operating in 2's today!!!

AP Lit and Comp: Review for Hamlet Test. If you are out, this is the outline of what we're doing:

If you know all of this stuff, you should be fine on ye olde Hamlet test. (And you know how I feel about superfluous vowels, so that's really saying something. Don't even get me going on the illogical spelling of Seminole Towne Centre Shoppes. It's in SANFORD, not SANFOURDE.)

Know this! And you will rock the casbah!

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
Characters to Know

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
Hamlet the Elder (ghost), Fortinbras the Elder, Old Norway: The Trifecta of Old
Claudius
Gertrude

Polonius
Laertes
Ophelia
Players and Player King
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Horatio

Osric
Reynaldo

Gravedigger
Yorick

Themes to Know and Understand
Denmark as a garden
The play-within-the-play motif (know both titles--"The Murder of Gonzago" and "Mousetrap")
Rottenness
The role of the supernatural
The role of philosophy
The significance of three sons mourning three dead fathers
Graveyard imagery

Action v. intellect
Sexual imagery

Final Thoughts:

1. Remember how to spell "soliloquy" and what it means.

2. Review the insults Hamlet gives to Polonius.

3. Understand that this is NOT a typical Aristotilean tragedy, but is rather the first "modern" one in that sense of the word; Macbeth was a medieval play with Renaissance overtones, whereas Hamlet is Renaissance to the max. Hamlet, despite his myriad of character flaws, is an essentially good man fighting a corrupt universe.

4. Understand Horatio's complex role, perhaps even as significant as providing a narrative "voice" for us.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Gifted English II: Finish up any missing work, and multiple Authors of the Day.

AP Lit and Comp: Distribute the Hamlet obituary assignment, due tomorrow, and finish Act V of Hamlet. Hamlet test is Friday and the review will be in class tomorrow.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Gifted English II:  Edusoft Benchmark Testing.  Bring a pencil!  You can have extra time tomorrow if needed.

AP Lit and Comp:  Finish Hamlet; Hamlet Creative Assignment.  (I'd tell you more now but it would be a massive plot spoiler.  You want him to live happily ever after, right?)

Monday, December 6, 2010

Reminder to Sophys:  Tomorrow is Edusoft Benchmark Testing!  Bring a pencil!

Gifted English II:  Finish the Candide test and catch up on Author of the Day presentations; proofreading activity.

AP Lit and Comp:  Act IV and V questions while reading Act V of Hamlet; work on the study guide/character chart from week one of this unit.  Extra copies on the front table.

. . .and this is why you have to college.

Enjoy!

Friday, December 3, 2010

FRIDAY!!!

Gifted English II: Candide test. Open book, open notes, open your mind.

AP English Lit and Comp: Hamlet, Act IV.

Hamlet, Explained: TS Eliot Denigrates Art

You can find this essay in its entirety at this website; Eliot's work is in the public domain, due to the elapsed copyright date: http://www.bartleby.com/200/sw9.html

T.S. Eliot (1888–1965). The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism. 1922.

Hamlet and His Problems

FEW critics have even admitted that Hamlet the play is the primary problem, and Hamlet the character only secondary. And Hamlet the character has had an especial temptation for that most dangerous type of critic: the critic with a mind which is naturally of the creative order, but which through some weakness in creative power exercises itself in criticism instead. These minds often find in Hamlet a vicarious existence for their own artistic realization. Such a mind had Goethe, who made of Hamlet a Werther; and such had Coleridge, who made of Hamlet a Coleridge; and probably neither of these men in writing about Hamlet remembered that his first business was to study a work of art. The kind of criticism that Goethe and Coleridge produced, in writing of Hamlet, is the most misleading kind possible. For they both possessed unquestionable critical insight, and both make their critical aberrations the more plausible by the substitution—of their own Hamlet for Shakespeare's—which their creative gift effects. We should be thankful that Walter Pater did not fix his attention on this play.	1
Two recent writers, Mr. J. M. Robertson and Professor Stoll of theUniversity of Minnesota, have issued small books which can be praised for moving in the other direction. Mr. Stoll performs a service in recalling to our attention the labours of the critics of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 1 observing that they knew less about psychology than more recent Hamlet critics, but they were nearer in spirit to Shakespeare's art; and as they insisted on the importance of the effect of the whole rather than on the importance of the leading character, they were nearer, in their old-fashioned way, to the secret of dramatic art in general.	2
Qua work of art, the work of art cannot be interpreted; there is nothing to interpret; we can only criticize it according to standards, in comparison to other works of art; and for "interpretation" the chief task is the presentation of relevant historical facts which the reader is not assumed to know. Mr. Robertson points out, very pertinently, how critics have failed in their "interpretation" of Hamlet by ignoring what ought to be very obvious: that Hamlet is a stratification, that it represents the efforts of a series of men, each making what he could out of the work of his predecessors. The Hamlet of Shakespeare will appear to us very differently if, instead of treating the whole action of the play as due to Shakespeare's design, we perceive his Hamlet to be superposed upon much cruder material which persists even in the final form.	3
We know that there was an older play by Thomas Kyd, that extraordinary dramatic (if not poetic) genius who was in all probability the author of two plays so dissimilar as the Spanish Tragedy and Arden of Feversham; and what this play was like we can guess from three clues: from the Spanish Tragedy itself, from the tale of Belleforest upon which Kyd's Hamlet must have been based, and from a version acted in Germany in Shakespeare's lifetime which bears strong evidence of having been adapted from the earlier, not from the later, play. From these three sources it is clear that in the earlier play the motive was a revenge-motive simply; that the action or delay is caused, as in theSpanish Tragedy, solely by the difficulty of assassinating a monarch surrounded by guards; and that the "madness" of Hamlet was feigned in order to escape suspicion, and successfully. In the final play of Shakespeare, on the other hand, there is a motive which is more important than that of revenge, and which explicitly "blunts" the latter; the delay in revenge is unexplained on grounds of necessity or expediency; and the effect of the "madness" is not to lull but to arouse the king's suspicion. The alteration is not complete enough, however, to be convincing. Furthermore, there are verbal parallels so close to theSpanish Tragedy as to leave no doubt that in places Shakespeare was merely revising the text of Kyd. And finally there are unexplained scenes—the Polonius-Laertes and the Polonius-Reynaldo scenes—for which there is little excuse; these scenes are not in the verse style of Kyd, and not beyond doubt in the style of Shakespeare. These Mr. Robertson believes to be scenes in the original play of Kyd reworked by a third hand, perhaps Chapman, before Shakespeare touched the play. And he concludes, with very strong show of reason, that the original play of Kyd was, like certain other revenge plays, in two parts of five acts each. The upshot of Mr. Robertson's examination is, we believe, irrefragable: that Shakespeare's Hamlet, so far as it is Shakespeare's, is a play dealing with the effect of a mother's guilt upon her son, and that Shakespeare was unable to impose this motive successfully upon the "intractable" material of the old play.	4
Of the intractability there can be no doubt. So far from being Shakespeare's masterpiece, the play is most certainly an artistic failure. In several ways the play is puzzling, and disquieting as is none of the others. Of all the plays it is the longest and is possibly the one on which Shakespeare spent most pains; and yet he has left in it superfluous and inconsistent scenes which even hasty revision should have noticed. The versification is variable. Lines like Look, the morn, in russet mantle clad, Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill, are of the Shakespeare of Romeo and Juliet. The lines in Act v. sc. ii., Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting That would not let me sleep... Up from my cabin, My sea-gown scarf'd about me, in the dark Grop'd I to find out them: had my desire; Finger'd their packet; are of his quite mature. Both workmanship and thought are in an unstable condition. We are surely justified in attributing the play, with that other profoundly interesting play of "intractable" material and astonishing versification, Measure for Measure, to a period of crisis, after which follow the tragic successes which culminate in Coriolanus. Coriolanus may be not as "interesting" as Hamlet, but it is, withAntony and Cleopatra, Shakespeare's most assured artistic success. And probably more people have thought Hamlet a work of art because they found it interesting, than have found it interesting because it is a work of art. It is the "Mona Lisa" of literature.	5
The grounds of Hamlet's failure are not immediately obvious. Mr. Robertson is undoubtedly correct in concluding that the essential emotion of the play is the feeling of a son towards a guilty mother: [Hamlet's] tone is that of one who has suffered tortures on the score of his mother's degradation.... The guilt of a mother is an almost intolerable motive for drama, but it had to be maintained and emphasized to supply a psychological solution, or rather a hint of one. This, however, is by no means the whole story. It is not merely the "guilt of a mother" that cannot be handled as Shakespeare handled the suspicion of Othello, the infatuation of Antony, or the pride of Coriolanus. The subject might conceivably have expanded into a tragedy like these, intelligible, self-complete, in the sunlight. Hamlet,like the sonnets, is full of some stuff that the writer could not drag to light, contemplate, or manipulate into art. And when we search for this feeling, we find it, as in the sonnets, very difficult to localize. You cannot point to it in the speeches; indeed, if you examine the two famous soliloquies you see the versification of Shakespeare, but a content which might be claimed by another, perhaps by the author of the Revenge of Bussy d' Ambois, Act v. sc. i. We find Shakespeare'sHamlet not in the action, not in any quotations that we might select, so much as in an unmistakable tone which is unmistakably not in the earlier play.	6
The only way of expressing emotion in the form of art is by finding an "objective correlative"; in other words, a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of that particular emotion; such that when the external facts, which must terminate in sensory experience, are given, the emotion is immediately evoked. If you examine any of Shakespeare's more successful tragedies, you will find this exact equivalence; you will find that the state of mind of Lady Macbeth walking in her sleep has been communicated to you by a skilful accumulation of imagined sensory impressions; the words of Macbeth on hearing of his wife's death strike us as if, given the sequence of events, these words were automatically released by the last event in the series. The artistic "inevitability" lies in this complete adequacy of the external to the emotion; and this is precisely what is deficient in Hamlet. Hamlet (the man) is dominated by an emotion which is inexpressible, because it is in excess of the facts as they appear. And the supposed identity of Hamlet with his author is genuine to this point: that Hamlet's bafflement at the absence of objective equivalent to his feelings is a prolongation of the bafflement of his creator in the face of his artistic problem. Hamlet is up against the difficulty that his disgust is occasioned by his mother, but that his mother is not an adequate equivalent for it; his disgust envelops and exceeds her. It is thus a feeling which he cannot understand; he cannot objectify it, and it therefore remains to poison life and obstruct action. None of the possible actions can satisfy it; and nothing that Shakespeare can do with the plot can express Hamlet for him. And it must be noticed that the very nature of the données of the problem precludes objective equivalence. To have heightened the criminality of Gertrude would have been to provide the formula for a totally different emotion in Hamlet; it is just because her character is so negative and insignificant that she arouses in Hamlet the feeling which she is incapable of representing.	7
The "madness" of Hamlet lay to Shakespeare's hand; in the earlier play a simple ruse, and to the end, we may presume, understood as a ruse by the audience. For Shakespeare it is less than madness and more than feigned. The levity of Hamlet, his repetition of phrase, his puns, are not part of a deliberate plan of dissimulation, but a form of emotional relief. In the character Hamlet it is the buffoonery of an emotion which can find no outlet in action; in the dramatist it is the buffoonery of an emotion which he cannot express in art. The intense feeling, ecstatic or terrible, without an object or exceeding its object, is something which every person of sensibility has known; it is doubtless a study to pathologists. It often occurs in adolescence: the ordinary person puts these feelings to sleep, or trims down his feeling to fit the business world; the artist keeps it alive by his ability to intensify the world to his emotions. The Hamlet of Laforgue is an adolescent; the Hamlet of Shakespeare is not, he has not that explanation and excuse. We must simply admit that here Shakespeare tackled a problem which proved too much for him. Why he attempted it at all is an insoluble puzzle; under compulsion of what experience he attempted to express the inexpressibly horrible, we cannot ever know. We need a great many facts in his biography; and we should like to know whether, and when, and after or at the same time as what personal experience, he read Montaigne, II. xii., Apologie de Raimond Sebond. We should have, finally, to know something which is by hypothesis unknowable, for we assume it to be an experience which, in the manner indicated, exceeded the facts. We should have to understand things which Shakespeare did not understand himself.	8

Note 1

I have never, by the way, seen a cogent refutation of Thomas Rymer's objections to Othello. [back]

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Gifted English II: Author of the Day presentation(s) followed by further review/analysis of Candide and a related activity. Reminder: Candide test is tomorrow! Open book AND notes! I am so nice to you!

AP Lit and Comp: Finish the timed outline from yesterday (some of you) and begin Act IV.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

It's DECEMBER!!!!!! Can you believe it??????

Okay. Couple of announcements first, peeps:

1. The Honors Breakfast is during first period tomorrow; please check in with me if you are in that class so I don't erroneously mark you absent. You all know how talented I am with ProgressBook; let's not exacerbate the woe! The breakfast will start at 6:45 for those of you who don't want to miss a morning class, but I swear I won't hold it against you if you decide to go. We can review Candide more on Thursday. No worries. Benchmark Testing for English will be Tuesday or Thursday next, so don't panic.

2. Guidance will be visiting all the AP classes on Thursday at the beginning of the period to go over your Bright Futures login. This website will allow you to track your financial aid and determine if you qualify for the 75% (now more like 56%) or the 100% (now more like 84%) scholarships, but the cool thing is that you can also track other state-based funding here, too. Let me share with you from prior experience: DO NOT LOSE YOUR PASSWORD after you create it. Make it something memorable. DOE will take FOREVER to help you track it if lost, and no one at BHS can help you. Oy.

So. . .today! It's Wednesday! Whoo!

Periods 1 and 2: For those not attending the Honors Breakfast, a review of Candide and a chance to rewatch something funny if you are so inclined. Second period will probably have a whole-class lesson on the political symbolism of the novel.

Periods 3-7: Instead of doing a Timed Writing for this month, we're going to do a Timed Outline, which will take you the same amount of effort/ingenuity/timed performance. Here's the rationale: The AP Lit (and Lang) exams are READING TESTS more than they are writing tests. In other words, you need to be able to write clearly, coherently, and intelligently, but if you have nothing to say you cannot write your way out of it. Interpretation is everything. I will give you a passage (p. 140 in the CLIFF book) that is likely to appear in some iteration on the exam, and you will have the period to generate a thesis statement, find support, and outline your product. The emphasis is on READING. And I think you will enjoy the passage. I know I did.

Squee!

If you need hours, I can help today--I already have two lovely assistants coming in after school to tidy up and record some data, so more help is welcome. Let me know; I have a teacher coming in for some assistance with satire at the same time. Love to all!!!

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Today is the SENIOR BREAKFAST. It will begin at 6:45 in the cafeteria for students who can't miss a morning class, and will go on through first period. Bon appetit! The Honors Breakfast will be tomorrow, same time, same place.

Gifted English II: Candide, backwards and forwards, and satire in action (handout).

AP Lit and Comp: Evaluation of Nash's critical essay of Hamlet and his delay, followed by the Act III quiz and possibly the introduction of Act IV.

Monday, November 29, 2010

Was your Thanksgiving week awesome? I mean, really, really awesome? I don't think we have enough awesomeness in our world, or if we do, we fail to appreciate it. Cheers to awesomeness and no residual turkey-related gastrointestinal distress.

Welcome back!

GIFTED ENGLISH II: Be warned, guys--we have TWO tests this week. Thursday is Edusoft Benchmark Testing, Part II, and we HAVE to show improvement over the last score or. . .dun dun dun. . .we have to do Mini Benchmark Activities in class instead of the AP-prep stuff I'd rather do with you. I'll go over the expectations in class tomorrow. Friday is an open-book assessment of Candide. I'll go over that tomorrow, too! Hope you fulfilled your moral obligation and read that book over the break. . .if not, find a good hour during the week and READ. It goes fast. Most chapters are three, four pages, tops. And it's HILARIOUS.

Today, though: Author of the Day review of dates for presentations; journal entry related to Candide and then a discussion; reiteration of satirical elements of the short stories/novel we are generating; review of the Monty Python paper revision, which is due WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1. As in WEDNESDAY.

AP LIT AND COMP: Before the break, I gave each of you a critical essay and asked you to read SOME of it. (It's plot-spoiler-y, so at some juncture you have to set it aside and wait for Acts IV and V to elapse. But the central motif of the critique, Hamlet's delay, is so central to our discussions this week that the essay is a necessary evil now. Wait until you see what T.S. Eliot thinks of the Melancholy Dane.) Today, we are generating Hamlet's resume, part I (on the board and in your notes), reviewing Act III, and then taking the Act III quiz if time permits. We have a lot to do this week, guys. . .moving onward and upward.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: We need help in the Writing Center, particularly during the A lunch shift. And we need help coordinating the Winter Party for the custodians, too. If you need service hours for NHS or Bright Futures see me.

Also, I am writing a grant to get copies of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, the hilarious sequel to Hamlet written in 1967 by subversive playwright Tom Stoppard. We currently have 24 copies hanging out at Boone, so we could do it as a class set, but I'd rather have copies students can check out and take home. (Yes, the play is that good, and yes, I'm biased because I wrote my AP Lit FRQ on it in 1989 and got a 5, so I think it's a panacea.) Anyway, as mentioned in the course syllabus that none of you read, this is the ONLY expensive text of the year, but if you have to acquire your own copy for future purposes or if you need to write in the text, you can get a copy at this website for only 11.99. (Regular price ranges from 12.99-16.99 depending on the publisher.) www.prestwickhouse.com. Just FYI. I'm working on getting these outright for 313.

Three weeks until Winter Break!!! Can you believe it?

Cheer Pressure: Third Annual Edition

To celebrate the Recession that is plaguing America, I am reposting my suggestion list from my now-defunct LiveJournal blog, with a couple of edits. So read on, if you feel the need. Pardon any irreverence in the tone; 'tis the season to be stressed out! Falalalalalalalalala.

This post is strictly meant to be helpful.

Did you know that the average American family will go into debt over holiday presents?

And that the average holiday expenditure per family of four is over one thousand dollars?

And that everyone seems to want something out of you on the holiday trainwreck--whether it be get-togethers, expanded tipping for the people who provide services throughout the year, or the incessantly tinntinnabulous bellringers outside of local constabulatories?

So, Hilley has solutions for you. Of course, I'd like to suggest gently that we just stop with all of the gift-giving, but that would be really hypocritical of me since I lurve giving presents to people. LOVE IT. I love all of it--selecting them, wrapping them lovingly a la Martha Stewart, and watching with glee as the recipient(s) opens my carefully-contemplated schwag. Love it.

What I don't love is the pre-holiday anxiety about how in the heck I plan to pay for all of this material joy.

So, short of standing on street corners with a sign statingWill Conjugate/Edit/Proselytize for Christmas Money, I have been casting about for financially sound holiday solutions for Loved Ones, and I want to share my new-found wisdom with you.

NEW SUGGESTIONS FOR 2010's CONTINUING ECONOMIC CRISIS:

1A. Just tell your friends and family that the recession is hitting you particularly hard, and you will be praying for them/thinking of them/writing poetry in honor of them in lieu of presents. How can anyone argue with that?

1B. Write up lovely cards stating that you donated to The Human Fund in their name to celebrate Festivus.

1C. Just promise to not discuss politics with them for the next twelve months in lieu of a tangible gift. Most of us would appreciate that, especially if your political views are Wrong and theirs are Correct. In their estimation, of course.

1D. Go to sleep on the 23rd and awaken on the 26th, holiday over. Then hit the 80% off sales, beg for forgiveness, and enjoy the savings. (My trig teacher at LMHS convinced his two kids that Christmas was 12/29 each year so he and his wife could deep-discount their gifts. Lasted until the kids could read calendars. . .)

Now on to the suggestion list from last year, reposted in lieu of a present to many, many of you, because I love you and because I apparently love handbags more than I love you. My apologies. And NONE of these places have given me anything to write about them, so please don't accuse me of being overly commercial.

1. Do not re-gift, unless you are ABSOLUTELY certain that the original gift-giver has moved to Saskatchewan and that the new recipient will not be posting pictures of the new bling on Facebook or whatever. In our newly savvy techno-age, there are a myriad of ways in which a regifter can be busted. I speak from vicarious experience, since my BFF has regifted virtually every gift I've ever given her. . .to me. In recent years I've gotten smart and only given her expendables, like face cream or a gift card. You'd be amazed at what that woman is willing to return, and in what condition, and without what receipts. She is so lucky I love her. (Note from 2010: For her birthday on 11/21, I gave her something I liked just in case it finds its way under my tree on the 25th.)

2. Homemade presents are always great, but be careful that you don't end up spending more money on the materials than you would have on some pre-made stuff of similar ilk. Six years ago, BFF and I went soap-crazy and made homemade soaps for all of our beloveds. While some of the soaps were well-received (and some were hilarious--like the one we filled with toenail clippings, and the one we filled with leftover Ramen Noodles) the average cost per bar of soap was over eight bucks. In other words, NOT COST-EFFICIENT.)

3. Hit the dollar spot at T____ (national discount chain with a bullseye logo). They have amazing stuff there, and, more importantly, they have really good-quality gift wrap and bows for A DOLLAR. Failing that, start saving unusual shopping bags, pieces of paper, and fabric for unique gift-wrap. Those card-stock, unrecycle-able community newsletters? Great giftwrap, guaranteed to raise eyebrows! And I'd also like to point out that P___ (local grocery store chain) has nice reusable grocery bags with festive prints--pop a gift in, close it, and you have two gifts in one!

4. For those of you who are girly: This website has Sephora-level quality cosmetics for a dollar apiece, and gift sets in the five/ten/fifteen dollar range:http://www.eyeslipsface.com. Their packaging is good and the shipping prices are decent. Lately, they've been offering FREE SHIPPING. Whoohaa.

5. For those of you are super-girly, try this website, where every piece of jewelry is "free" (actually, 6.99 for shipping, but when it arrives the stamp says 82 cents, but whatever):www.silverjewelryclub.com

6. For those of you with a slightly higher budget and a quirky sense of humor, try any of these websites:www.fredflare.com,www.blueq.com, andwww.perpetualkid.com.

7. There is absolutely nothing wrong with findingsomething vintage and amazing at Goodwill Boutique--especially the one near Park Avenue in Winter Park. Dechoes is good, too, if you are looking for something in particular--they closed the one on Curry Ford, but the ones on Edgewater and Colonial Drive are still there, and still awesome. Local churches also have thrift stores with a huge array of finds for relatives and friends.

8. If you have a slightly higher discretionary income and want your money to go to good use, you can't beat the fair-trade handmade bags at Amani Ya Juu, which I got for my mom, sister, and sister-in-law last season. All of the proceeds go to the women in the tribe. Special thanks to the Chitty family for their hands-on work with this organization. www.amaniafrica.org.

9. You cannot underestimate the power of a deed or an event. Offer to take a younger sibling out for an afternoon, or pack a picnic for your sig-o, or offer to help the disorganized adult in your life redo her filing system, or whatever. Write the offer in a nice card and revel in the money you're saving--and the real impact you might be creating.

10. Also, don't underestimate the power of your own talents. Burn a DVD of a film you've made, or a performance in which you participated, and include a detailed write-up; take your oddest/most innovative playlist and commemorate it on a CD; make a painting, or write a poem, or short story; if you have leftover art materials from previous craft projects, get creative and see what you can make. Grandparents will squee in glee; little kids will love it; your friends may tease you but secretly adore it.

Final note: You really do not have to get presents for teachers, although the greediest among us do love bling. Overweening giftage can be awkward, and the majority of us would really prefer a heartfelt note wishing us a nice holiday and saying how the class is going so far. Save your money; buy your girl/boyfriend something, go to the movies, go buy a book and READ IT. Then write me a note about how you used the money you almost blew on an apple paperweight or bookmark and how much you really love literature, and we're gravy. Of course, if you are a millionaire, I would like to mention how much I like Starbucks.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Friday, November 19, 2010

Gifted English II: Peer Review for paper--final draft due 12/10/2010, followed by non-fiction information and satire.

AP Lit and Comp: Hamlet, Act III--both in film and play form. Please don't forget to pick up the critical essay by Kenneth Chan titled "Why Hamlet Delays His Revenge." A copy will be on ProgressBook for your convenience, but it's easier to read in hardcopy form. This essay will be due (meaning read and annotated) after the break.

Reduce/Reuse/Recycle: Hamlet, Explained Part II

In which we look at individual scenes and particular details you should note.
Did you know that Hamlet has been translated into Klingon? Really! I had a copy once, but it took a walk right out of my classroom. Oh,Qu'vatlh guy'cha b'aka!


Act I, scene i

We open with a ghost scene; fascinating that the first words of the play are "Who's there?" Suspicion dominates from the very beginning of the play; several guards, some of whom have oddly Italian names, have seen a ghost walking and have asked the trusted Horatio to come take a look. While they wait, Horatio engages them with the protracted tale of how the Norwegian-Danish conflict thus far had been resolved prior to the play's beginning.

Elements to look for: external and internal conflict; supernatural imagery

Act I, scene ii

Claudius, the new King of Denmark, begins this scene with a marvelously nuanced speech about his ascension to the throne; he refers to his bride as "th' imperial jointress to this warlike state." in other words--power comes through Gertrude. Good to know. No one in Denmark seems particularly perturbed by the haste with which the two have married (with mirth in funeral and dirge in marriage) except for the emo boy in the corner, who promptly gets into it with his new stepfather. "Cast thy nighted color off," entreats his mom; after all, how much mourning can a new bride tolerate? He shrugs and promises to obey her, but gives little reply to Claudius's twin edicts that Hamlet A) stop mourning, as it's bringing everyone down, and B) stay here in Denmark, instead of popping back to Wittenberg for further graduate studies in melancholia.

This scene truly takes flight, though, in Hamlet's remarkable first soliloquy--our first gaze into his soul, and our first look at the honest, un-socialized Danish prince. He is profoundly depressed by his father's death and his mother's seemingly oblivious reaction to it. How could she marry so quickly, and to his father's brother? He ends the ruminations when he greets Horatio, an old friend whom he had apparently not seen in some time. When Horatio informs Hamlet of the ghost's appearances on the castle walls, Hamlet perks up and seems eager to investigate this happening for himself. Despite his trepidation (Renaissance thinkers were notoriously skittish about such things) his curiosity outweighs his fear, and he plans to join Horatio and the other guards at the top of the castle after eleven that very night.

Elements to look for: allusions to Greek mythology and the Bible; Claudius's silky diplomacy; Gertrude's maternal requests; Hamlet's use of language alone and with others; color imagery

Act I, scene iii

The scene switches to Polonius's chambers within the castle. Laertes is earnestly talking to his younger sister, and telling her that Hamlet is not a long-term option for her, as he is "subject to his birth." Ophelia, recognizing her brother's genuine concern and affection for her, responds with gentle humor, telling him not to be hypocritical and to watch his own sexual behavior. Since he is heading off to "study" in Paris, we can only assume that he is a bit of a party boy. Polonius himself bursts into the room, chastising Laertes for packing too slowly, then "helps" him by giving him tons of advice on living. Some of it is actually pretty solid--don't get in a fight, but if you do, win; don't lend out money; be careful whom you trust. The most interesting tidbit is when he ways "to thine own self be true," which may as well be engraved on Polonius's self-serving heart. Then, Polonius browbeats his daughter into discussing Hamlet with him, too, and he urges her to "tender yourself more dearly." If his daughter were to be publicly associated with Hamlet's desires, it could be detrimental to his own ambitions.

Elements to look for: metaphors, platitudes, the relationship between father/son and father/daughter, sexual mores of the Renaissance as expressed to both genders

Act I, scene iv:

This comparatively brief scene takes place atop the castle walls. Marcellus, Bernardo, Francisco, and Horatio accompany Hamlet in much conversation before the ghost appears. When the ghost does manifest itself, the brave soldiers lose their bravado and attempt to force Hamlet to stay with them, fearing his destruction if the ghost is a demon. Hamlet threatens his friends with his sword and runs after the ghost. Time loses all meaning as Horatio and the men "search" for Hamlet, presumably while the next scene unfolds. This scene hosts the famous "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark" line, as intoned by Marcellus.

Elements to look for: visual imagery; Renaissance attitudes toward the supernatural

Act I, scene v:
Hamlet confronts the ghost of his father, who is fairly talkative for a armor-clad spectre. Hamlet the Elder reveals that even though the party line claimed he died after being bitten by a serpent, he's actually the victim of fratricide--the oldest Biblical crime. His brother Claudius had waited until he had fallen asleep in his orchard (as was my custom) and poured poison in his ear, killing him with wrenching agony and without an opportunity to make confession. Thus murdered, "with all my sins upon my head/No reckoning made," the ghost must spend each day in Purgatory, suffering, and each night walking the earth. He demands that his son avenge his murder, but leave his mother "to Heaven." Hamlet, spurred to revenge, seems eager to get to work, and once reunited with his peeps, forces them to swear on his sword to keep silent about his plan. He will pretend to be crazy so people will leave him alone--not the greatest plan in the world for someone a few credits shy of a PhD. His "antic disposition" will entertain the Danish for many weeks to come.

Elements to look for: religious symbolism, father/son separation anxiety, serpent imagery


mupwI' yI'uchtaH! (Good night!)

Reduce/Reuse/Recycle: Hamlet, Explained

Reduce/Reuse/Recycle: Reprinted from 2008

Hamlet Review, Part I: For the Land of the Lost

Two years ago,, I wrote summaries/explanations for this puzzling play. Rather than reinvent the wheel, here they are again for your delectation. Trash or treasure, o peeps:

Hamlet, Explained (Part One of an Occasional Series)

Hamlet is more complicated than Macbeth, with higher diction levels--but most of the complications arise from the interweaving of several subplots.Macbeth, you will recall, contains one driving narrative thread--the collapse of one man's morality as he ascends in power. Although other motifs and symbols figure within that tragedy, all go back directly to that main plot. Hamlet is far more complicated, with political intrigues, conjectures, and elements of ambiguity there to enhance the text.

Some things to consider:

1. Hamlet may or may not be insane, which complicates your understanding of his role and his use of language immensely. Note how he pops back and forth effortlessly from prose (paragraph form) to unrhymed iambic pentameter (blank verse) to rhyming couplets, regardless of his audience. The only solidity we get from him is contained in his soliloquies, which are confusing enough due to his high level of education and insight.

2. Claudius is not a completely "bad" bad guy--he is greedy, narcissistic, venial, selfish, and did a very, very bad thing. His sin is Biblical (fratricide) and was motivated by the greatest of all human motivations--jealousy. He has moved into his older brother's life--wife, crown, title--and seems competent in governance if not in morality. On some level, he wants Hamlet's cooperation and approval, but he goes about trying to "parent" the errant prince in increasingly uneven and careless ways.

3. Gertrude, the DSQ, is probably more ignorant than dumb. There is a difference. She and Ophelia, while more complex than other female stock characters in Elizabethan theater, are still two-dimensional compared to the men who rule them. Try to see her as a baffled woman attempting to regain a sense of sexual independence and her role might make more sense.

4. Polonius and other courtiers are interfering and obtuse, to the point of obscuring some of the main narrative thread. Every time Polonius is featured in a scene, we are tempted to see him as the commedia dell'artestock character of the "pantaloon"--the foolish old man. (Hamlet himself refers to him as a "tedious old fool.") However, Polonius is critically important to understanding the overriding motifs of duplicity, spying, and dishonesty that govern everything that goes on in Elsinore Castle--and may well have been going on even before the death of Hamlet the Elder.

And, to further clarify what's been going on thus far, I am going to repost something that appeared in McSweeney's a while ago. I hope that I am not violating copyright; this has made the rounds on Facebook and on several blogs and I am only posting to bring clarity and understanding to my poor, confused students. Here are the first three acts of Hamlet, Facebook- style:

HAMLET
(FACEBOOK NEWS
FEED EDITION).

BY SARAH SCHMELLING

- - - -

Horatio thinks he saw a ghost.

Hamlet thinks it's annoying when your uncle marries your mother right after your dad dies.

The king thinks Hamlet's annoying.

Laertes thinks Ophelia can do better.

Hamlet's father is now a zombie.

- - - -

The king poked the queen.

The queen poked the king back.

Hamlet and the queen are no longer friends.

Marcellus is pretty sure something's rotten around here.

Hamlet became a fan of daggers.

- - - -

Polonius says Hamlet's crazy ... crazy in love!

Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Hamlet are now friends.

Hamlet wonders if he should continue to exist. Or not.

Hamlet thinks Ophelia might be happier in a convent.

Ophelia removed "moody princes" from her interests.

Hamlet posted an event: A Play That's Totally Fictional and In No Way About My Family

The king commented on Hamlet's play: "What is wrong with you?"

Polonius thinks this curtain looks like a good thing to hide behind.

Polonius is no longer online.

(I will post the next two acts after we have read further. No plot spoilers here, unless you've seen The Lion King!)

And here is Hamlet, South Park style:

Another element that might help you understand this play:

Three Reasons Why Shakespeare is Hard to Understand

1. Grammar. Particularly in Hamlet, Elizabethan grammar is different than Standard American English. One common element we see in conversations between characters is inversion, which is easy enough to follow in simple declarative sentences (Go you here today?) but is harder to parse in complex, lengthy expressions--the ones favored by our titular hero. This is where the modern English version can help you, if read WITH the Elizabethan text. (Guys, I'm sorry, but I'm never going to lose my fascination with asking you to identify quotes.)

2. Archaic words. What is a bodkin? Who or what are fardels? What is aquietus? Shakespeare frequently uses words that are no longer in our vernacular, and I'm not merely talking about thou, thee, and whilst. I will continue to define words as I can in class, but out of class in private reading you might need to consistently avail yourself of the footnotes available in every edition. Also, I will be publishing a glossary of Hamlet words, but I have to warn you--it's looooooooong.

(Note: A bodkin is a dagger, and fardels are burdens, and a quietus is the conclusion of one's life.)

3. Words with different meanings. The best example of this is when Hamlet confronts Ophelia in her closet, which at the time simply meant a private chamber or room. A very different visual image than Hamlet, in dirty stockings and no hat, grabbing her amid a sea of coat hangers, eh? If you are hit by the "confusement" train, be sure that the word you think you are reading in its context actually means what you, a 2009 reader, thinks it means. Again, make liberal use of footnotes.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

ALMOST TIME FOR THANKSGIVING BREAK!!!!!!!!!!

Gifted English II: For the first part of the period, we're going to go over the rubric for the final copy of the essay (due Tuesday November 30 because I'm so awesomely nice) and peer-edit if we have time. For the second part of the period, we're going to do something truly odd that involves critical thinking, visual imagery, and possibly a chimpanzee. That's just how I roll.

AP Lit and Comp: Yesterday, I had you assess two elements of Act III--Hamlet's soliloquy and his subsequent treatment of Ophelia. I think some of you are getting lost in the diction, so I'm reposting the awesome Explanation Du Hamlet I wrote for 2009's group. Today, we're watching Act III and receiving the assignment you need over the break-- a critical essay on Hamlet's delay that DOES INVOLVE PLOT SPOILERS. But we're not concerned about little things such as plot, right? We, like the Elizabethans, are engaging in dramatic irony. Oh, yeah.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Today is Teach-In, during which guest speakers come across our campus to educate young people. Some of you will have a guest speaker in your second period class; I won't, due to an incident in 1994 that still rocks my memory banks in a negative way. As soon as George Clooney is available as a guest speaker (or JK Rowling) I will have one, but unfortunately second period has work to do tomorrow. I hope everyone is nice and respectful to their guest!!!

Gifted English II: Writing assignment from yesterday; you have all period to plan and execute your essay. Final copy will be due Tuesday, November 30.

AP Lit and Comp: Hamlet, Act III. And how.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Gifted English II: Further satire exploration with a Monty Python essay assignment (haHA!) and pre-teaching for Candide. HAVE YOUR SATIRE PACKET so we can discuss both last night's HW (selecting three or four episodes of MP for analysis) and go over the character list for Candide.

AP Lit and Comp: Finish going over Act II questions before I collect them, followed by a quiz that will take some of you the remainder of the period and will work quickly for others.

Monday, November 15, 2010

One more week until Thanksgiving break!!!

Thank Goodness.

Gifted English II: Finish "Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail" and then discuss the various techniques of satire utilized in the film.

AP Lit and Comp: Act II Quiz on Hamlet will be tomorrow; today, Act II analysis and discussion of the questions I gave you on Friday. Seventh period Friday watched the single-greatest scene in the Zifferelli Hamlet film, and so third, fifth, and sixth should today. It's that awesome. Mel Gibson acting irrational? Well. . .

Love to all. Study study!

Veggie Tales - Shakespeare's Omlet

This is cute. Don't hate the overposting of videos--it's out of love.

Sesame Street: Soliloquy On B

The venerable Patrick Stewart as Hamlet in Act III, scene i. Or so it seems. . .

Hamlet Act I Scene II

Smell the acting! This is Mel, channeling Hamlet in Act I, scene ii.