CoreyStruss

Lemire (skim Ch 2-7) -- Jerz: EL150 (Intro to Literary Study)

"The best advice I ever got: People want to read about people!"
Chapter 4

Good advice, to someone studying Journalism. Although I am not looking into the journalism field, I feel that it can apply with books, poems, short stories, etc. It seems obvious to write about people in novels, but behind that, it is a really good idea. Think about this: What if your favorite book was about an object or something...and not a person...would you still love it? I don't think it is possible. You wouldn't be able to relate to the character's emotions, or use his/her experiences to help you in your life. It sounds dumb, but I sometimes get to thinking, "What would Harry Potter do in this situation?", or "How would Rand Al'Thor feel about this?". Please don't make fun of me. :-D I am just trying to say that people in books are the things that we relate to the most.

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Lemire (skim Ch 2-7) -- Jerz: EL150 (Intro to Literary Study)

"What's the best time to attend graduate school?"
Chapter 3

As we approach the end of our freshman year (YIKES!), I find myself frequently thinking about graduate school. I know that I will eventually have to go, focus, and get my master's. But no one has ever said when I should go. A lot of teachers I know go to night school in their first few years of teaching, and that is all well and good to me, but it seems like a huge workload. Some of my friends at Pitt are going to attend their graduate program directly after getting their Bachelor's. This is also another option, but...that would mean that I would go from 4 years at Seton Hill, and another 2 at Pitt. I hate to say it, but that's a lot of learning packed into a huge time frame. 6 years. Jeez. Someone tell me what to do?!

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Jerz, ''Poems: Short but Effective'' -- Jerz: EL150 (Intro to Literary Study)

"you fit into me
like a hook into an eye

a fish hook
an open eye"

This is the best imagery in a poem that I have read in a long while. It is so short, but brutally true at the same time. With just 16 words, the author portrays a haunting image that can be interpreted in many different ways.

I, for one, think that she is talking about a significant other. This person is compatible with Margaret, but in all the wrong ways. She makes it sound as if she is desperately flailing to get away from this man, but will always be pulled along in his lure.

Short poems are also more to my fancy, mainly because the reader can analyze the poem without too much effort. All you have to do is look at *every single* word, and determine why it is used in the situation. When you do this, you can sort of get into the mind of the author and see why he/she did it.

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Jerz, ''Poetry is for the Ear'' -- Jerz: EL150 (Intro to Literary Study)

"So there are two kinds of rhythm going on here -- the monotonous march of the "feet", and the pauses indicated by the sense of the poem -- poet's use of punctuation and phrasing in order to convey meaning."

OOh. Now I realize why my poetry sucks. I knew prior to this that there are different types of rhythm, but I never narrowed it down to only two types. In my poetry, I usually write in using the "marching of the feet" method. It becomes monotonous, I know, but hey, I didn't know anything better.

I can't wait to use the new kind of rhythm with the hyphens. I'm thinking that it could convey emotions like fright and acceptance, to temperature. Now I won't have to use words to explain how certain characters feel, I can just change the punctuation and phrasing, and get the point across to readers through that.

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Kennedy, ''Short Stories: 10 Tips'' -- Jerz: EL150 (Intro to Literary Study)

"Write a Catchy First Paragraph"

This seems easy enough. But it really isn't for a lot of authors. With a quick start to a story, a reader is sucked in and easily hooked on whatever words you present next.

Last semester, we read Rebecca in Popular Fiction. Although this is a novel, it can still relate to the quote above. It started out dull and dry. Absolutely nothing happened in the first 4 chapters that was worth noting. This immediately shunned me away from the book, making me not want to read whatsoever.

This proves that if an author can manage to hook an audience early, then they will beg for more of what you have to say. :)

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Portfolio 1 -- Jerz: EL150 (Intro to Literary Study)

My Portfolio! BOW DOWN!

Okay, so this class strays a bit from the format of Writing for the Internet, the class that Dr. Jerz taught me last semester. It took me a little while to get used to the deadlines and demand of quality work that Dr. Jerz has in this class. After the first few weeks, I seem to have gotten on a steady pace with the class, dissecting the readings, and presenting my own thoughts on my blog. This portfolio is some of my best work thus far, which will indeed be better further down the road as we advance in the class.

Coverage - This section of the portfolio presents you (the reader) with everything that has transferred from my mind to this here blog of mine. You may not agree with everything I have to say, and some people didn't, which is what makes Dr. Jerz's class discussions interesting. Check it out:

- Is Freedom of Speech a rule in blogging?
- My thoughts on Bernice Bobs Her Hair
- A sample of a close reading on the play, Trifles
- How geography affects a story
- My thoughts on symbolism
- An interpretation of the symbolization used in "The Love Song..."
- Thoughts toward "A Good Man Is Hard to Find"
- Violence is everywhere.
- Dramatic Monologues. OH SO FUN.
- Machines taking over society?!
- The ironic comedy behind Everyman
- Show and tell
- I understand Diction . . . Finally. :)
- Misinterpreting The River.
- Connecting four different stories
- Are you being sarcastic, dude?

Depth
These few entries go into a tad bit more detail, or link to further information found online. They are the articles that pulled at my brain, so to say.

- Luke Skywalker. This entry, although about Star Wars, used information that I know, as well as some I found on the Internet, about how geography changes characters.
-Trifles This was an entry that linked to Mike's blog. His idea's helped me create some of my own for my entry. I guess you could say that his ideas got my mind going.
- Symbolism This was an entry on symbolism. I compared information that I found online about Animal Farm to how the symbols in the book are interpreted by people.

Interaction
This is an area of blogging that shows that we interacted with our peer's entries, providing feedback whether we agree or disagree. This usually sparked some sort of discussion, which is what the class is all about.

- I commented on Bethany Merryman's blog about sarcasm. I agreed with her that The Crucible was sarcastic, but I let her know that I felt that Arthur Miller was being sarcastic in a different way than she thought.

- This is a comment I left on Maggie Jones' blog dealing with The Machine Stops. I agreed with her emotions towards the story, but I disagreed with her as to why it is creepy to think about computers taking over humanity.

Discussion
The best part about blogging is the discussion that starts because of it. I love hearing other people's opinions in comparison to mine, and politely agreeing or disagreeing. See what I mean:

Freedom of Speech and Blogging? No thanks!
This entry of mine has sparked discussion and controversy, which I am proud of. Diana posed a point, and Dr. Jerz disagreed with it somewhat. Then he moved on to explain why he felt the way he did toward Freedom of Speech in blogging.

Timeliness
This part of my portfolio contains entries that I blogged awhile before class, giving my peers a chance to express themselves in relation to my entries.

- Explaining the Prufrock Poem
- The staire in Everyman

XENOBLOGGING!
This portion of the portfolio shows that I did my part by contributing to others' blog entries.

The Comment Primo
Mike's Marshmallows
The Comment Informative
In this entry, Bethany touched on both The Crucible and Animal Farm, so I went into a bit more detail about the books.
The Link Gracious
Mike's entry on Trifles helped me realize the repetition of when Mrs. Peter's said "I know what stillness is...". I gotta give my props to him. Thanks Mike! Thanks to you, I got to create this entry!

Wildcard! It's time to get buckwild, baby!

This entry pretty much sums up my blogging talent. I feel like I excel when it comes to starting conversation and discussion in a blog. This entry shows that.

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Hamilton, Essential Literary Terms (32-67) -- Jerz: EL150 (Intro to Literary Study)

"Sarcasm is synonymous with verbal irony."

I love sarcasm. Sarcasm might just be one of my favorite things on this earth, besides food and water. When I think of it in literature, I just think of Ron Weasley from Harry Potter. Almost everything he says is sarcastic. From the Sorcerer's Stone when they had to do pass the three-headed dog, he was just so eager to do that. (Sarcasm there, too.) Every Ron moment I can think of is sarcastic. You can always find him reluctantly doing something, but not without a hint of sarcasm first.

This shows how sarcasm can shape a character. It shows a tad bit of weakness, but never hope lost in something. It makes a do-good protagonist a little bit more personable.

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London, ''To Build a Fire'' -- Jerz: EL150 (Intro to Literary Study)

"His wet feet froze the faster, and his exposed fingers numbed the faster, though they had not yet begun to freeze. Nose and cheeks were already freezing, while the skin of all his body chilled as it lost its blood."

Reading this short story really gave me the chills. AHAHA. (pun intended). No, but really. I usually start a story out by skimming through its entirety and then go back and read. While skimming, I found the words that London uses to be extremely frigid, emotionless, and just plain...cold.

He babbles on and on about darkness, cold, frigidness, frost, arctic, winter, etc. I felt as if the story was unwelcoming because of the vocabulary that he used. Needless to say, he set a tone and an atmosphere that I think he was definitely trying to reach.

To me, each of the past four stories we have read had certain "feels" to them. Everyman had a distinct feeling of hopelessness, because it was a story about man being abandoned in times of need. "The Machine Stops" felt like a futuristic wheel of fortune, never knowing how things will end up. "The River" felt like a hot summer's day, with the sun beaming down on everything Bevel was involved with.

I guess the feel of the stories is the connection that I have noticed, to sum it all up.

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O'Connor, ''The River'' -- Jerz: EL150 (Intro to Literary Study)

"Bevel didn't see him at all. He only saw the river, shimmereng reddish yellow, and bounded into it with his shoes and his coat on and took a gulp."

Oi. I hated the fact that Bevel was being called Harry and vice versa. It really confused me as to why Flannery O'Connor did that. But putting that aside, I agree with Jennifer that there was a true connection between Bevel / Harry and Mr. Paradise. It was kind of cool how O'Connor kept pulling off the quick switch from one character to the other, only to keep us on our toes. I think she did this so that we purposely got them mixed up and thought of them as one in the same.

Perhaps Bevel and Mr. Paradise were two different characters all along, but once they entered the river, they became one?

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Hamilton, Essential Literary Terms (68-97) -- Jerz: EL150 (Intro to Literary Study)

"Diction denotes the word choice and phrasing in a literary work."

Diction. Where do I start? I've seen this term used loosely on these here blogs, never knowing what it meant. I was also a dink and never took the time to look it up. I'm pretty glad that we have Hamilton's trusty book in proximity, because now I don't have to blush every time someone mentions diction.

Diction is the word choice / phrasing in a piece. This could be abstract or concrete. It could be literal or figurative. It could be a multitude of styles...but either way, it doesn't change the fact that I now know what diction is! YAY!

Another thing was how Hamilton used "The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock" to describe an allusion. Since we read that, Hamilton's definition and examples of allusions meant a whole lot more to me. THANKS SHARON HAMILTON! :-D

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Hamilton, Essential Literary Terms (112-149) -- Jerz: EL150 (Intro to Literary Study)

"In depicting characters, authors use methods of either showing or telling."

I have always been told that you should show, don't tell, when writing anything. I know that I should do this, but I never had a good grasp on what it means to "show". Thanks to Hamilton, showing is presenting characters' words and actions without commentary. Every author seems to use this method of showing nowadays.

I can see why all modern literature is "shown", not told. Telling just seems boring to me. By having the author tell us everything, he/she just relies on words to let the reader relate to the characters. This seems impossible to me.

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Anonymous, ''Everyman'' -- Jerz: EL150 (Intro to Literary Study)
Cousin: "No by our Lady; I have the cramp in my toe.
Trust not to me, for, so God me speed,
I will deceive you in your most need."

Although I laughed at these few lines, I realized that this is the only way the author could say what he meant.

A cramp in his toe is causing man's family to abandon him? It seems a bit far-fetched for me. Then you begin to realize that everyone is abandoning man in his time of need. No one will live up to their end of the bargain. They all say that they will stick with him side by side until the end, but when the end comes into view, they flee. By the end of the poem, Man realized that the things you can trust in life is your knowledge and the good deed's you have done. All else will forsake you in the end. Very true.

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Forster, ''The Machine Stops'' -- Jerz: EL150 (Intro to Literary Study)

"Then she generated the light, and the sight of her room, flooded with radiance and studded with electric buttons, revived her. There were buttons and switches everywhere - buttons to call for food for music, for clothing. There was the hot-bath button, by pressure of which a basin of (imitation) marble rose out of the floor, filled to the brim with a warm deodorized liquid. There was the cold-bath button. There was the button that produced literature. and there were of course the buttons by which she communicated with her friends. The room, though it contained nothing, was in touch with all that she cared for in the world."

Everything that we could ever need in the world is coming from this one machine. It brings to mind a little something called the computer in modern day times. Forster said that the machine could call forth food, music, clothing, etc. Guess what? The internet and a computer can do that. Pizza Hut has an online pizza ordering service. There's the food. MP3's? Well, everyone downloads them. There's the music. And www.amazon.com. . . there is basically everything else you need in life. The machine holds everything in life, even the beauty of the world.
As Bethany Merryman said, this is quite scary, after first glance. Upon first glance, one would be like "Wow. Forster is pretty good at predicting the future." After that, I got scared. It seems that as soon as the machine left the picture in the story, then mankind dwindled away. I only hope that Mr. Forster isn't dead-on with this prediction. :P

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Hamilton, Essential Literary Terms (1-31) -- Jerz: EL150 (Intro to Literary Study)

"Other examples of dramatic monologues are T.S. Eliot's 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock' ..."

Whoa. I knew that when we read "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" there was something about it that I was unable to give it a specific label. I knew that it was poetry, and we saw through the eyes of the narrator, but that was about it. From Hamilton's excerpt on Dramatic Monologues, I know what category "The Love Song..." falls into. Hamilton calls J. Alfred Prufrock a prudish and self conscious man, and it is slapped with the tag of Dramatic Monologue. It is told through the eyes of Prufrock, giving the reader his personality traits, values, and experiences. These are essential when making a dramatic monologue. It is also safe to say that after reading the poem by Eliot, we came to know more about Prufock than he knew about his own self.

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Foster (6-9, 11, 14) -- Jerz: EL150 (Intro to Literary Study) "Violence is everywhere in literature."

Think about it. Can you think of a novel that hasn't been driven by violent acts? It could be specific injury to the characters, or narrative violence that causes characters harm in general. Like Foster says, violence is one of the most "personal and even intimate acts between human beings." Think about that as well. Violence isn't just random. It has motivation, whether direct or indirect to the victim. Books thrive off of this. Face it. It sets up stories, (Who dun' it? or OMG, A SERIAL KILLER IS IN MY FRIDGE!) and it can end them as well. Violence will always be kind of taboo to each one of us, but we are all faced with it. Whether it be in literature, or in real life, we face it every day. We are just too used to it to see it.

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O'Connor, ''A Good Man is Hard to Find'' -- Jerz: EL150 (Intro to Literary Study)

"A good man is hard to find," Red Sammy said. "Everything is getting terrible. I remember the day you could go off and leave your screen door unlatched. Not no more."

I know that my peer Jennifer used this quote already, but I feel that it was by far the most important line in the story. It seems that The Misfit has just strayed down the wrong path in life and is at the point of no return. He reached the lowest point whenever he murdered the entire family. This greatly impacted the perception that people had on him. He is one of the main reasons why people view men as hard to find.
Then again, a woman isn't so easy to find either. O'Connor blatantly states at the end that a woman could be good, only if there had been "somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life". So, I think that O'Connor is trying to say that humanity has strayed from the right path of life. We are all corrupted, and may never get back on the right track again.

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