September 29, 2005
Rix, ''Was Oedipus Framed?'' -- Drama as Literature (EL 250)
"The destiny Oedipus is typically "tragic" in the way we often find it in Greek plays, because the disaster that finishes the play is revealed to have been deteremined for the protagonist all along. It is simply required that, at the end, Oedipus should be found guilty in order for the tragedy to work."
Rix points out in the article that Oedipus may not have even committed the murder at all. I find it really interesting that this whole time we believed the killer to be Oedipus, there is a chance that it wasn't. Rix says that the readers infer that Oedipus himself committed the murder because Oedipus believes that he did it. Also, most if not all of the evidence points in Oedipus's direction. He says the only secret left is if there was one killer or many.
Karl Harshbargerhas pointed out in the article "the possiblilty that someone else than Oedipus might have killed the old king. From this asserstion, he develops, at some length, Oedipus's own accusations in the play against Creon and Teiresias of complicity in the murder."
This to me does seem to be stretching it a little far. However, it doesn't seem that many readers never really challenge the outcome of the play because we know that in Greek tragedies, the protagonist is supposed to fall. Does anyone else think that it could have been a setup? Or am I just an idiot?
Posted by AndrewLoNigro at 08:58 AM | Comments (4)
September 28, 2005
Weblog Portfolio EL 250
This is the portfolio for my EL 250 weblogs. Drama as Literature is an interesting class in which I learn a lot of information. I've read many plays already just for this class and I am enjoying it very much. These readings help me think deeper than I normally would about the text. Drama as Lit. is also helping me become a better writer in the context of learning how to express what I really feel quickly and honestly. I hope that these weblogs can help others as much as they helped me.
Coverage
Jack's change
Dicussion
stronger than me
Ramsey, Traction
Hill, "Heart in the Ground"
Glaspell, Trifles
Timeliness
Crazy Second Half
Interaction and Xenoblogging
Comment on Amanda's blog
Another comment on Amanda's blog
Comment on Denamarie's blog
Comment on Chera's blog
Oral Presentation
Reflection on Oral Presentation
Reflections
The Jeweller's Shop
Dead Man Walking
Other
Academic Article
Posted by AndrewLoNigro at 10:16 AM | Comments (0)
No sympathy
Sophocles, Oedipus the King (Finish) -- Drama as Literature (EL 250)
OEDIPUS Say, friends, can any look or voice or touch of love henceforth my heart rejoice?
Haste, friends, no fond, delay, take the twice cursed away far from all ken, the man abhorred of gods, accursed of men.
CHORUS O thy despair well suits thy deperate case. Would I had never looked upon thy face!
It's amazing that the chorus has no sympathy for Oedipus even though none of this was his fault. I just think that it shows how socitey is always looking for someone else to blame their problems on. I think that this situation shows society being something that wavers and is not consant.
Posted by AndrewLoNigro at 02:21 AM | Comments (0)
September 27, 2005
Weblog Portfolio
This is my weblog portfolio for Newswriting. Blogging is a great way to interact with your peers. This is a new experience for me so I know that this portfolio is a little rough around the edges. However, I do see the importance now of blogging and in the future I will use it more than I already have.
Coverage:
Elements of Literature
A.P. Stylebook
Reporter's Notebook
Depth:
Comparison
WTAE-Pittsburgh Channel 4 TV
Timeliness:
True Learning Experience
Wildcard:
Crazy second half
Xenoblogging and Interaction:
Steelers05-06
Comment on Lorin's blog
Comment on Lorin's blog
Comment on Kayla's blog
Posted by AndrewLoNigro at 10:35 PM | Comments (0)
Elements of Lituature
In chapter eight of Elements of Journalism there’s a sentence that says, “Story telling and information are not contradictory. (149)” It talks about the comparison between a comforting story and raw data. I think news writing is finding a common ground between interesting story-telling and boring information. Through many of the exercises I’ve learned that it is easier said than done.
Posted by AndrewLoNigro at 10:18 PM | Comments (0)
A.P. Stylebook
I’ve read newspapers my entire life and never before realized how precise you have to be. The AP Stylebook is a great source to find technicalities. Sometimes it seems like a pain to have to look up every little detail, however now I realize how important it is to rely on the AP Stylebook.
Posted by AndrewLoNigro at 10:17 PM | Comments (0)
Reporter's notebook
The Reporter’s notebook is very useful to me. Actually, one of the things that I used first in that class was the Story Ideas Bank. I thought it was so cool. I often draw mind blanks and this gave me a great spark to bring up some ideas. The only thing was that they were geared towards a younger audience.
Well, for one of our assignments we had to come up with some of our ideas that may apply to an older generation. I have used some of these ideas later.
Posted by AndrewLoNigro at 10:16 PM | Comments (0)
Comparison between my article and the Setonian
I had the opportunity to write a story on the honor’s convocation. It was a great experience for me because I realized how much goes on when the average person isn’t paying attention. It was an awesome experience and I learned a lot. There was an article in the Setonian about the convocation. Our articles contained mostly the same information however mine had a different focus than that of the Setonian.
My article was written with the focus of the freshman’s reaction to the convocation. David Denninger’s, reporter for the Setonian, gave more of a coverage of the convocation. For example, he talked about who spoke and who won awards. In my article, I interviewed people who had ideas about what freshman thought about it. For instance, Pres. Boyle talked about how different this year’s freshman class is from others in the past.
Overall it was a great experience and I’m glad that I got the opportunity to talk to some of the faculty and talk to some interesting freshmen.
Posted by AndrewLoNigro at 10:09 PM | Comments (0)
WTAE-Pittsburgh Channel 4 TV
I had an “interesting” time trying to find a story that appeared in the newspaper, on the website, and on television. However, I found a story about a diver that drowned in a river. The comparison was interesting because with the television broadcast was not as informative as the newspaper article.
Another interesting point is that the online story, surprisingly didn’t have as much information as the newspaper. I didn’t think that the newspaper article would have had as much information as it did. However it was very informative and it gave the best background, I feel.
It was pretty cool learning how different the three media’s are. I take the television for granted so much, but now that I realized the difference, I’m going to try to pay more attention to the newspaper.
Posted by AndrewLoNigro at 09:58 PM | Comments (0)
September 26, 2005
good intentions
Sophocles, Oedipus the King (Up to Scene III) -- Drama as Literature (EL 250)
OEDIPUS Well, I will start afresh and once again Make dark things clear. Right worthy the concern Of Phoebus, worthy thine too, for the dead: I also, as is meet, will lend my aid To avenge this wrong to Thebes and to the god.
I think that the readers feel even more bad for Oepipus in the end because his intentions in the beginning were so honorable. He started out with a great plan to help Thebes and he really wanted to help Thebes and wanted to be a great king. I think that people in their lives want to set out with good intentions and they want to finish their lives by meeting them. This play however goes against that. It really doesn't give people hope however it is one of the most popular plays ever written. How can that be?
Posted by AndrewLoNigro at 12:12 AM | Comments (1)
September 20, 2005
stronger than me
Robbins and Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Shooting Script -- Drama as Literature (EL 250)
I'd like to talk about the strength that Matt had throughout the whole play. If you're like me you wonder why he has to be a pain in the **** all of the time. However, if I as a reader don't take into account my emotions and look deeper into what Matt is actually doing, I can see that his qualities are actually qualities that I would want to have.
Matt. I just let it flow. I told mama that I loved her. I talked to each of the boys. I hated to say good-bye. I told them that if I get a chance I'll call 'em back right before I go.
This is the first point in the play that Matt lowers his tough guy mentality and opens up to his family and his friend. He seems to keep it hidden all this time; that takes strength. I know that if I was in Matt's situation, and would know that I was going to die in 6 days or something like that, I would definitely be letting it "flow" a lot sooner than he did.
I feel that Matt had to be extremely strong emotionally to want to hang on to his secret for that long. The will power that's shown is so intense. His new found openness may be his way of reconciliation. But, if it was, why did he wait so long. I wish that I had the will power that Matt has. I wouldn't want it to hide my inner feelings, but in other things in my life. It seems that Matt just needed someone to trust. Luckily, Helen was that person and she seemed to draw it out of him.
For some reason, Helen's situation with Matt seems to run parallel with the story of Helen Keller. I don't know why this popped into my head, but I guess, Helen is trying to pull something out of Matt, and Helen Keller's nanny is trying to pull something out of her. It just seems like the same situation. Is it weird that I pulled that out of nowhere?
Posted by AndrewLoNigro at 07:55 AM | Comments (6)
September 19, 2005
A True Learning Experience
Spot-News Roundup -- News Writing (EL 227)
The Spot news assignment was a very interesting endeavour for me. Don't get me wrong, it was an ejoyable excercise, nonetheless I have a lot to learn.
I had in mind to write on the 1st ever home football game, however due to a cross country meet at Thiel University, I had to switch to a more convienient event. Since I had to be there anyway, I decided to write my article on the Honors Convocation.
This was a great idea because it really made me pay attention while the program was going on. Not that I wouldn't have anyway, but let's just say that there were many opportunities for one to lose interest. I however found that when you pay attention to something, anything, you will always find an interesting piece of information or two. For me, it was awesome to meet so many faculty members. Not just regular teachers either, they were exteremely warm hearted and friendly. This in turn made it easier for me to go and initiate conversations with people that I didn't know.
The program itself was very long and full of information. So I had to try and take as much in as I could. There were many awards and many people speaking which leads me to my first important lesson about newswriting: don't write everything that happened in your article. I realized that with all of the information that I had, my paper would be too long.
One thing that really helped me was that I quoted seven or eight people. I learned that it's always a good thing to quote as many people as you can because you never know what quote will fit where in your story. I'd have to say that getting quotes was probably my favorite part of the whole excercise. During the interviewing process I got to meet friendly professors and students. I even got to talk to President Boyle one-on-one. I really enjoyed this conversation because it made me feel that I wasn't just a student here at SHU, I was someone important in which the president of the University had time to sit down and talk to.
The paper itself was a whole new ballgame. I think that since I had so much information, I felt compelled to make sure that it was all touched upon in my article. What I learned in the two hour workshop on friday however, is that you don't need all of that information. You need to stick with the info that agrees with your lead.
The lead. Another issue for me was that my information did not stay on topic. My paper was more of a feature piece than a news article. It gave a whole overview of the program, and did not follow the "upside down pyramid" theory. I realized that my lead was too broad and I needed to slim it down by picking a narrower topic.
Thanks to the brilliant minds of my classmates, Evan, Kevin, and Michelle, I found out that my paper also consisted of a large amount of wordiness. I could say the same thing with less words which also made my article shorter, and easier to keep the attention of the reader.
I'd have to say that the thing that helped me the most was attending the optional workshop last friday. I believed that my article was "good" and I was confident about it, until I attended that class. Then I realized that I could improve on countless mistakes.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this assignment and am glad that I decided to stick with the class. I really like the journalism aspect of English and maybe I'll change my path towards that direction in the future. I met lots of people in the process of this excercise as well and that is always a plus. It was great to feel like someone important, even if it only lasts for a little while and this assignment did just that.
Posted by AndrewLoNigro at 01:57 PM | Comments (2)
September 14, 2005
Crazy second half
Treadwell, Machinal (Finish) -- Drama as Literature (EL 250)
I have a few things to talk. I'd just like to say that this play is crazy. I didn't particularly like the end because it was difficult to find the message.
In episode 7, the tension between Helen and her husband was killing me!
YOUNG WOMAN. I'm reading.
HUSBAND. What you reading?
YOUNG WOMAN. Nothing.
HUSBAND. Must be something.
Come on!!! This happens so many times in that episode. She is obviously playing stupid and he doesn't seem to pick up on it. Like Chera said, he could be ignoring it.
The other thing was in episode 9, Helen keeps crying out, "Father, Father!" Later on in the dialog, we know that she is refering to the priest. But what if she was crying to the true father for help, God. Maybe she was starting to think about her religious situation.
The final thought was, in the same episode when the mother came to see Helen, she didn't even have a speaking line before she was taken away. Why didn't Treadwell, have the mother at least give Helen some consolance. It just seemed that Helen was crying out for help and no one would help her. In a way, I kind of feel for her, even though she did so many things wrong. I think she's just lost in her life.
Posted by AndrewLoNigro at 09:34 PM | Comments (6)
September 13, 2005
changing the subject
Treadwell, Machinal (Scenes 1-5) -- Drama as Literature (EL 250)
I find that the offstage voices in the second episode is a sort of forshadowing device used by the author. While the YOUNG WOMAN is trying to make a life changing decision by attempting to consult her mother, there are other conversations off stage that occur. I think that they're use as an effect to prove to the audience what kind of situation YOUNG WOMAN is going throughLike the husband and wife dialog:
HUSBAND'S VOICE. What's the matter - don't you want me to kiss you?
WIFE'S VOICE. Not like that.
HUSBAND'S VOICE. Like what?
WIFE'S VOICE. That silly kiss!
HUSBAND'S VOICE. Silly kiss?
WIFE'S VOICE. You look so silly - oh I know what's coming when you look like that - and kiss me like that - don't - go away -
I think this scene is reminding the audience of some of the bad moments in marriage. However in the dialoge before it, between the boy and the girl, they are in love and are excited. I think that Treadwell, is showing in the background the stages of love. She's also trying to foreshadow the importance of YOUNG WOMAN's decision. She may end up like the husband and wife. Does, she really want to marry this guy? Do you think that Treadwell is doing this on purpose or not? Maybe for some other reason?
Posted by AndrewLoNigro at 11:50 AM | Comments (5)
September 12, 2005
Jack's change
Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest -- Drama as Literature (EL 250)
Algernon. By the way, did you tell Gwendolen the truth about you being Ernest in town, and Jack in the country?
Jack. My dear fellow, the truth isn't quite the sort of thing one tells to a nice, sweet, refined girl. What extraordinary ideas you have about the way to behave to a woman.
This strikes me as humurous. Jack up untill this point Jack seems to be the sensible one when it comes to women. Algy, doesn't even seem to acknowlege love, and yet Jack is so "in love" with Gwendolen. By the end of the play, Jack's attitude totally changes. I wonder if that is because he feels like he has a fresh start?
Posted by AndrewLoNigro at 12:46 AM | Comments (1)
September 09, 2005
Krogstad or Dracula?
Foster, How to Read Literature Like a Professor Intro through p. 22 -- Drama as Literature (EL 250)
Foster depicts Dracula as “a nasty old man, attractive but evil, violates young women, leaves his mark on them, steals their innocence-and coincidentally their usefulness.” This is parallel to the following scene from A Doll House.
Krogstad. I promised to get you that amount, on certain conditions. Your mind was so taken up with your husband's illness, and you were so anxious to get the money for your journey, that you seem to have paid no attention to the conditions of our bargain. Therefore it will not be amiss if I remind you of them. Now, I promised to get the money on the security of a bond which I drew up.
Nora. Yes, and which I signed.
Krogstad is an older man in whom Nora decided to trust a secret with. He helped her by giving her a loan; however Nora made a mistake that Krogstad spotted. In this scene Krogstad blackmails Nora and tries to get a better position at the bank. This blackmail could also be seen as an older man (Krogstad) stealing a young woman’s (Nora) innocence. Nora innocently tried to save her husband and yet Krogstad is taking advantage of her as Dracula would, according to Foster.
Posted by AndrewLoNigro at 02:32 AM | Comments (3)
September 02, 2005
Steelers 05-06
The 2005-2006 football season for the Pittsburgh Steelers looks extremely promising. The team has great leaders in veterans like Hines Ward and Jerome Bettis. Also, great young talent is obvious in players such as Big Ben. I hope this season turns out as great as it looks on paper. Go Steelers!
Posted by AndrewLoNigro at 12:11 PM | Comments (4)