"Now the road dives between peaks, past towns...The speckling of quiet houses and rusted trucks draws itself from the much and develops culture and evolves into strip malls, bright knots of gas stations and fast food outlets, before collapsing again into a barbarism of shacks and rusted trucks" (20).

This is a very not glorious version of life around rural W. Virginia, but it's accurate. When my grandfather was alive we frequented the area. I'm not from the city, but I am from suburbia and I could see how it was more "country bumpkin." At the same time, in suburban MD we had exits for towns that were so small it's hard to even call them towns.

I'm also one for the beauty of nature. At least, J. knows that he is jaded by the city.

After Jerz explained in class that many people didn't think of John Henry as a hero anymore, J.'s coldness to the region, his bias, and the differences in the prolouge make a lot more sense.

SO

I have a question though what kind of irony is in "The Necklace" when she finds out it was fake. Is that irony? Situational?

Humor is funny (golly, you think?) in that we laugh at people's misfortune. I love hearing comedians talk about their relationship problems or fights, but during those fights those couples (including myself) it is the farest from fun. The same when watching people fall down slides or something. That could really hurt someone as long as it's not us. "Safety and/or good will prevents harm and insures laughter" (167).

SO

He seems to be cordial and equates himself to his white, older professor in a polite way, but at the very end it slips in: "and somewhat more free" (40). This is really forward from his underlying tone and its a distinct example of where he sets himself apart as a black man from his white teacher instead of pulling each other together because "that's American" (33).

I don't know much about Hughes or the 60s, but it surprised me that be attended Columbia University.

SO

Since I'm indecisive, this is the same strategy I take each time and I look for a long article or book. The bibliography section was like the bibliography exercise that we did and the online library services is like what we went over on Friday and in Intro to Lit last year.

The notecard idea was interesting and I remember using it in high school once, but it costs money and it's time consuming. It's easier today to copy/paste links, bibliographies, notes, and quotes onto Word and save it.

This information actually seemed so outdated to me that I checked the publication date. Most recent: 2006. Originally published: 1964. Maybe this section needs to be updated.

SO

And then hero and heroine shattered her "theatre" world, not only because they pretty much said she wasn't an actress and was actually and old hag, but also because they weren't the beautiful hero and heroine. The boy seemed to be inconsiderate of the girl's boundaries and the way he spoke about Miss Brill wasn't gentelmanly at all. The girl, despite her protests, doesn't seem to the pure heroine and is also very rude.

Poor Miss Brill didn't even finish her routine/act/play by stopping at the baker's for her honeycake that sometimes had an almond in it, that was "like carying home a tiny present - a surprise" (351).

SO

I wanted to note that in chapter nine on page 141 there is a paragraph of information summarizing the poem. This summarization really helped, but I see how (with all the lost metaphors/similies) it loses its greatness and its depth.

This reminded me of the middle and high school books that we would read Shakespeare or other old works. On the left page was the original text (or older English translation) while the right page had notes that explained what a certain passage was saying or an old phrase/reference. The paragraph is Roberts reminded me of this. It's clarification, it's like Sparknotes, it's helpful (sometimes necessary), but not nearly as good.

I'm torn though between liking that old high school style where the answer/message was delivered alongside of story or the new college level of struggling through it, but getting more out of it.

If you had something similiar, which do you prefer? Do you think as college students it's our duty to decipher everything now? What about those still not skilled in the meanings of poetry?

SO

What struck me was that even though his information was wrong, it was still printed and reprinted. It is still talked about for it's great figures of speech and it didn't lose any of the meaning. Either he was already a really famous poet and nobody questioned him, it was an insignificant fact, or the poem was just so good that it didn't matter. Perhaps it was all three.

"Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes/He star'd at the Pacific - and all his men/Look'd at each other with a wild surmise" (141 line 11-13).

SO

• "sessions of sweet silent thought" (line one)
• "And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste" (line 4)
• "in death's dateless night" (line 6)
• "And weep afresh love's long since cancelled woe" (line 7)
• "Then I can grieve and grievances" (9)
• "woe to woe" (10)
• "fore-bemoaned moan" (11)
• "Which I new pay, as if not paid before" (12)

Really it reminded me of the Halloween spirit. Then came the couplet ending as usual in a Shakespearian sonnet that turned the whole feel around and said "It's not that bad" and "sorrows end" (line 14).

SO

I agree with the last part of this quote and even the first part, but at the Setonian we have such a small community that reads the paper that nothing will ever need to be anonymous.

In a class last year, I asked about anonymous quotes because I wanted to do something about drinking or a column about crazy things that happen at SHU. It was made clear that an article like this would not fly with the nuns/administration, we don't do gossipy/ask abby stuff, and we don't ever use anonymous quotes.

People I interviewed weren't willing to come forward though because they were afraid they would get in trouble, but it is these ideas, this popculture focus on sex, crime, drugs, and drinking that would bring more readers to the paper. Only we aren't allowed to put that in. Not in even in a column because of the audience we have now and because of need for anonymous sources.

So these guidelines may work for AP and The USA Today, but not the Setonian. However, I did like and think many of the other guidelines could apply, like saying "The USA Today has learned" and describing the source.

SO

The editorial was leading on that this is the first step towards legalizing marijuana, but more tests need to be made, more discussion hashed out, and FDA needs to approve. I won't share my opinion on legalizing pot, but this article did remind me (and I drew my own connection) that the effects of tobacco are just as harmful as pot (in different ways), yet it's legal.

I especially liked the ending though: "The medical marijuana controversy may be moot in the near future because of a drug known as Sativex, a spray mist approved for conditional use in Canada and the United Kingdom that delivers the active ingredients found in marijuana. If cleared by the FDA, patients will have some confidence that it is safe and effective."

I didn't know about this and no matter what side the person is taking a stand from, I think it is good that the writer included this fact because, if approved and effective, it should really destroy the debate on both sides.

SO 

For example, I didn't know at the end what "finding the grave cerements and corpse-like mask...unentenated by any tangible form" (emphasis added 360). I figured from the combination of the prefix "un" and the word "tenant" to mean no one lived there, but I wasn't sure so I looked it up.

Unentenated = uninhabitated

Cerements = cloth the dead are wrapped in

This in combination with the description "from head to foot in the habiliments of the grave. The mask which concealed the visage was made so nearly to resemble the countenance of a stiffened corpse..." (359) led me to the conclusion that this intruder is a zombie that was killed by the Red Death and infected with the zombie gene/thingy and came back to eat/kill the last people alive.

SO 

But I will say this: Poe's works are the best examples I know of that use setting as another character and use this new character to tell a story. The action in "The Masque of the Red Death" doesn't even start until nearly the last page!

Now onto something else though. I liked this quote: "Setting is often essential and vital in the story." Well duh! You can't have a story without some setting. I would like to try to write one though.

SO