EricaGearhart

Welcome to my third and final blogging portfolio for my Introduction to Literary Study course.  This segment of my blogging portfolio encompasses all of the blooging work that I have done during the final portion of this semester.  This portfolio is somewhat shorter than my other two ( Portfolio I, Portfolio II) because we had fewer assignments, but I feel that many of my blogs improved in depth.  I did have less discussion this time despite the increase in depth with some blogs, but this could again be because I was not always one of the first to put my blogs up, or maybe just becasue everyone has been much busier with assignments and other work.  Here are all of my blogs as well as comments I posted on classmates' blogs, broken up as usual into the categories of Coverage, Timeliness, Interaction, Depth, and Discussion.

Coverage: I have tried to be very good about coverage.  I want to make sure that I give credit to each person who wrote the works we are discussing in class, as well as anyone else I quoted or referenced in my blogs.  Here are just a few that I thought were done well, even though every blog had all of the necessary coverage information:

Commas in Wit: This quotes two works we talked about in class.

The End of Ender: Not only did I choose a quote that I put at the start of my blog I also incorporated other quotes within my blog comments.

Sci-Fi Is Actually Real: I refenced three other novels and included the authors of the novels so that if anyone is interested they can find the works themselves. 

I Still Prefer the Oxford English Dictionary: In this blog I referenced definitions from urbandictionary.com, as well as other wesites and blogs that I found the words on.   

Timeliness: I still have not been able to completely improve in this area.  I do get my blogs done on time, but not early, which is what I would have liked.  Here are a few blogs that were on time and early:

The End of Ender

The Bibile and Free Verse?

Hidden Rhymes

I Still Prefer the Oxford English Dictionary

Subplots or Superplots, They All Make a Difference

"One Tiny Little" Problem

Interaction: During the last third of the semester, I had less interation than in the first two semesters.  It's hard to keep up with the competition that is created through the great blogs by my classmates.  However, here are a few blogs where people left some great comments on what I had to say. 

Subplots or Superplts, They All Make a Difference

Sci-Fi is Actually Real

Why Are They Outcasts?

Depth:  I think that I improved most in this category over the third portion of the semester.  Especially when we read Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, I found that I could discuss the works in much more depth than I previously could.  Looking at the works from a literary standpoint instead of from a consumer standpoint has really helped me to improve my criitical and analytical skills.  Below are links to some of my more in-depth blogs. 

Hidden Rhymes

The End of Ender

Commas in Wit

 Sci-Fi is Actually Real

The Bible and Free Verse?

Discussion:  The following blogs are classmates blogs on which I left meaningful and interesting comments. I did have fewer this time, but we also had fewer assignments. I also included some where I commented that the blogger helped me to better understand the texts we had read.  I could still work on improving this area of blogging, but I think that overall, I have improved much during the short time that I have experienced blogging.

Angela's Ender's Ugly Transformation

Lauren's Research or a Human Being?

Jeanine's Punctuation Gets Personal

Overall, this blogging experience has been wonderful.  If blogging had not been required for this class, I know I never would have blogged.  I used to have no real interest in anything that had to do with technology, but blogging has really opened my eyes to how valuable experiences such as this one can be.  I enjoyed reading all of my classmates comments and well as I loved contributing my own. Blogging has helped me to better and more deeply express myself in a public venue.  Who knows, I might even continue blogging on my own in the future.  I hope you have enjoyed the blogs that I have written this semester.  If you would like to see more great blogs, take a look at these written by my classmates. 

"Nothing but a breath--a comma--separates life from life everlasting.  It is very simple really.  With the original punctuation restored, death is no longer something to act out on a stage, with exclamation points.  It's a comma, a pause."

-From pages 14 and 15 of Margaret Edson's Wit

This entire passage reminded me of many of Lynne Truss' comments in Eats, Shoots & Leaves.  Truss constantly pointed out the importance of proper placement of commas, and any punctuation for that matter.  Similarly, Edson's character Vivian's professor comments on how only a comma can be the determining factor in the entire meaning of Donne's Holy Sonnet Six.  I think that it is very creative how Edson relates this sonnet and the study of Donne to Vivian's situation.  I love how she uses this scene to highlight Vivian's misunderstanding of her own involvement in society.  Basically, her professor tells her that one seemingly insignificant action, such as actually trying to talk to someone about something besides Donne, could help her to learn more about life and, eventually, death.  Edson continues to explore Vivian's loneliness in this and other creative ways throughout the rest of the play. 

"The initial models for free verse poems were the psalms and the Song of Solomon in the King James Version of the Bible.  While reproducing the Song of Solomon in English, the translators attempted to imitate the cadences of the original Hebrew..."

-From page 239 of Sharon Hamilton's Essential Literary Terms

I was really suprised by this fact.  I have always recognized that the printing of the Bible in English was a major accomplishment; however I have considered the Bible as more of a historical reference and religious text rather than a literary work.  This makes me think that maybe more people should read the Bible as a piece of literature just to see what differences and similarities this point of view has to offer when compared to the former religious and historical perspectives.  Maybe people have already done this, and if so it would be interesting to see the comparisons. 

It does make a lot of sense though that literary concepts from the Bible would be the first to be imitated.  This would have been the first text translated into modern languages, and the Bible has been one of the most important texts to society practically since its creation.  It is just very interesting to compare free verse poems now to the psalms, especially because the content is often so different.  Hamilton gives the free verse example of the psalms followed by the example "Song of Myself" by Walt Witman which deal with some of the most conflicting ideas possible.  It is just very ironic that free verse poetry would have originated this way when compared to more recent free verse poetry. 

"It's not my idea of freedom to go live in the house of the people that I killed."

-From page 312 of Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game

This thought of Ender's is completely revealing, probably one of the most revealing in the novel.  The reader is constantly informed along with Ender that the buggers had no free thoughts, that only the queens could think, reason, and cause the populous to act.  After Ender kills the entire species of buggers without knowing it, he is seriously depressed, even though all this time everyone told him that they were brainless, they were not like people, only the queens could think, and he would just be killing a few intelligent beings to save millions.  However, Ender still calls them "people" here, and he is not just referring to the queens.  He is referring to every bugger he killed.  He knows that humanity is not always right in their actions or their thoughts because of all of his experiences at the Battle School and on Earth, so he thinks that they could also be wrong about the buggers.  Regardless of the buggers' intelligence levels, Ender sees them as people, an entire species that he has mercilessly destroyed.  Yet he hopes for redemption.  He moves on to the colony with Mazer and Valentine, becomes governor, and begins looking for a new site for another colony from Earth when he discovers the reason why he was able to see them in this light.  His thoughts were somehow connected to the buggers the whole entire time.  They knew exactly what was going on and what would happen to them, and even how it would happen.  Why would the queen bugger allow him to destroy them then?  And more interestingly, why would she leave the only chance of her species' survival in the hands of the boy who destroyed them in the first place?  Because she knew Ender and he knew them.  I'm sure the answer is much clearer in the following novels; however Card is still able to end this novel in such a way as to provide the perfect balance of answers and questions. 

 I believe that this thought of Ender's proves that he is not desensitized to killing.  If Ender did not care about the buggers at all, why would he want to repopulate their planets with humans, why would he want to learn from them, and most of all, why would he want their species to be recreated?  Card writes the following on page 298:

"'We had to have a commander with so much empathy that he would think like the buggers, understand them and anticipate them.  So much compassion that he could win the love of his underlings and work with them like a perfect machine, as perfect as the buggers.  But somebody with that much compassion could never be the killer we needed.  Could never go into battle willing to win at all costs.  If you knew, you couldn't do it. If you were the kind of person who would do it even if you knew, you could never have understood the buggers well enough.' 

'And it had to be a child, Ender,' said Mazer.  'You were faster than me.  Better than me.  I was too old and cautious.  Any decent person who knows what warfare is can never go into battle with a whole heart.  But you didn't know.  We made sure you didn't know.  You were reckless and brilliant and young.  It's what you were born for.'"

Graff and Mazer's descriptions of Ender here are perfect.  These comments display that without a doubt Ender is not completely desensitized by his actions because deep down even he knows that they were not really his actions but the actions of those around him that caused the destruction of the buggers and the humans he directed.  After the years of isolation, after the unknown killings he committed, and after the psychological program they put him through, Ender can still feel and care.  Someone who is desensitized by killing would not even care a little bit.  Even Ender's rational ultra-human thought processes do not allow him to ignore his moral feelings, which is why the novel ends with Ender planning to repopulate a world with buggers instead of with Ender going back to Earth to lead a 3rd world war or create a military dictatorship for his brother. 

I love that this is not the end for Ender.  Even if Card had not continued with the series, the book would still have a final ending for me.  The reader doesn't see Ender succumbing to the horrors he was taught, but instead is able to hope for and even act for peace. 

"'I'm a girl,' she said, 'and you're a pissant of a six-year-old.  We have so much in common, why don't we be friends?'"

-From Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game page 79

This comment really struck me.  First, Card tells the reader that Valentine, Ender's sister, had been a candidate for general of the entire army of the world.  Then he tells us that there are only a few girls at battle school.  Finally, he has Petra tell the reader that she is an outcast because she is a girl.  I'm still not very sure what the view of women is in the society in this novel.  Petra is obviously an outcast at Battle School because of her gender, not because of her performance: she is one of the best shooters.  Would Valentine have been an outcast too despite her abilities?  I think so because Ender is one and because the men in charge of the Battle School make Ender an outcast in order to prepare him for his future position.  Petra also seems to be a member of one of the minority races in the novel, which could also contribute to her position as an outcast in the Battle School society.  I hope that the following chapters will afford a clearer picture of the roles and significance of gender and race in the novel, as well as a clearer picture of why Card has chosen certain characters to be outcasts.

"The blank verse is so understated that a reader might at first mistake the lines for prose."

-From Sharon Hamilton's Essential Literary Terms page 235

I really agree with Hamilton's comment here about blank verse poetry.  For most of my life I only thought of a poem as being "Roses are red, violets are blue..."-you know the rest.  I never really considered anything longer than a page a poem until I learned about blank verse poetry in high school.  Although blank verse seems to be less restrictive than a sonnet, this is not true when length is considered.  I really admire those who are able to write very long poems in blank verse.  I have read many British authors in my Major British Writers course who have been able to write these long, yet meaningful poems.  I enjoy these so much more than regular poems because they are able to tell stories that are fun and exciting while still restricting themselves in a more formal way.

"Father came home and kept saying it was such a wonderful surprise, they had such fantastic children that the government told them to have three, and now the government didn't want to take any of them after all, so here they were with three, they still had a Third...until Ender wanted to scream at him, I know I'm a Third, I know it, if you want I'll go away so you don’t have to be embarrassed in front of everybody, I'm sorry I lost  the monitor and now you have three kids and no obvious explanation, so inconvenient for you, I'm sorry sorry sorry."

-From page 15 of Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game

First, I just want to say that I love this story.  I haven't read too many science fiction novels, but I do love Sci-Fi movies.  My father loves them so much, so I basically grew up watching shows like Sea Quest, Star Trek, and Stargate SG1, not to mention all of the popular Sci-Fi movies.  I've read books like Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, and The Giver and Gathering Blue by Lowis Lowry, but I have never read a science fiction book like this one. 

Science Fiction writing, or fantasy writing, is the most flexible in my opinion.  The author can create different worlds, characters, races, religions, etc. in order to create a great story.  But more than this, the author can create completely fictional places and people, and yet still discuss important themes of reality.  Already, and I've only read to chapter five, Card has included so many ideas and themes that resonate with our current society: education, societal pressures, child psychology, videogames, and technology to name just a few.  This flexibility of science fiction allows the author to reflect on the world around him or her and to provide a commentary about it without actually saying, "Look at the problems with ---" or "--- is a terrible leader."    

For instance, in the above quote, Card could be referring to the previous rule that Chinese families (in China) could only have a limited number of children as a means of population control.  I don't know if Card was thinking of this as he wrote or not, but it is definitely a possibility.  Despite the obvious seriousness of this matter, I was reminded of when my mother told me she was going to have another baby, a "Third," and I cried saying that I didn't want another sibling.  Later I told her that she could have the baby as long as it was a boy.  She told me that she really couldn't decide.  Well, we got another girl, but she is a tomboy through and through.  Now, I couldn't imagine my family without her.

Anyway, I think that this book is going to provide us with a lot of discussion about important issues that are discussed in the world and in our personal lives today, even though it takes place in the future where aliens are called "buggers" and where children have more complexthoughts at age six than some adults have in their entire lifetimes. 

"A short research paper assigned in the first month of class is not the proper occasion for you to tackle huge issues, such as, "Was Hamlet Shakespeare's Best Tragedy?" or "Women's Struggle for Equality."  You won't be graded down simply because you don't have all the answers right away.  The trick is to zoom in on one tiny little part of the argument."

-From Dr. Dennis Jerz "Short Research Papers" (online work, 1998)

I have never written a short research paper.  In elementary school I did write research reports that were short, but never a formal, MLA style research paper.  The shortest I have written was supposed to be four to six pages, and mine was exactly six.  The problem is that, though I may be able to find "one tiny little part of the argument," I may have trouble keeping it short.  I think that this will be a challenge for me, but it is very important to learn to write restricted papers, especially if I eventually wish to obtain a job in the English field. 

Okay, I know that most people are having or are going to have lots of fun with this activity, but I really think this website is not at all great.  I have never visited Urban Dictionary before this assignment, only because I knew exactly the sort of information that the site contained.  I love to laugh, but I absolutely hate the excessive use of foul language and crudeness.  Anyway, now that everyone knows that I am conservative, here are some words and definitions that I found on urbandictionary.com, along with these words used in sentences elsewhere:

"Rhymes may also occur within a line of poetry rather than at the end, as in this example from William Blake's 'The Garden of Love':

      And binding with briars my joys & desires.

In this case, the device is called internal rhyme."

-From Sharon Hamilton's Essential Literary Terms page 211

I really love internal rhyme in poems and sonnets, sometimes even more than end rhyme.  I think that rhyming internally is sometimes much harder, especially when you want to find significant words that rhyme.  They are also much more difficult to find when you are analyzing poetry. I also love alliteration, assonance, and consonance in poetry.  All of these devices add a more lyrical flow to poetry that is not always possible in prose.  I just wanted to present the entire Blake poem that Hamilton used in her book to describe internal rhyme because it is one that I discussed in my British Literature class and liked:

"The Garden of Love"

by William Blake

"I went to the Garden of Love,

And saw what I never had seen:

A Chapel was built in the midst,

Where I used to play on the green.

And the gates of this Chapel were shut,

And 'Thou shalt not' writ over the door;

So I turn'd to the Garden of Love,

That so many sweet flowers bore,

And I saw it was filled with graves,

And tomb-stones where flowers should be;

And Priests in black gowns were walking their rounds,

And binding with briars my joys & desires."

-From The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Stephen Greenblatt, General Editor

Blake also uses the other literary devices mentioned above.  Here are a few:

-the a's in "Garden" and "saw"

-the i's in "built" and "midst"

-the a's in "Chapel" and "shalt"

-the t's in "'shalt not' writ"

-the t's in "turn'd to"

-the s's in "so" and "Sweet"

-the i's in "it," "filled", and "with"

-the i's in "binding" and "briars" and "desires" 

Here is also another internal rhyme: "gowns" and "rounds"

Can you even imagine this poem without all of these rhymes and similar sounds?  They really make the poem as good as it is.