Warm-Up 2/28/08

I. I agree with Keedy. If a cause is seen as worthy by consumers, they are going to appreciate the advertising around it even if the poster is not the best one around. There are many billboards about the dangers of smoking that catch my eye as a consumer. Even if the poster is not the most "inept," it is still easy for me as a consumer to see the message of the advertisement.

Homework for 2/28/08
Analyzing the Design of an Everyday Text
This text is perfect for guiding us through our second essay. I personally was a little bit confused about what I was going to write about in the second essay, but reading this makes everything more clear. The article gives direct guidelines for what to do in order to analyze common "everyday" texts. It gives the purpose of doing so as well as how to do it. It even gives some sample essays.

Reading the Politics of Design
This reading is a compilation of several short articles/stories. In the first one, the author is a graphic designer. It seems that she is complaining about the lack of seriousness in her job and the way that they have to advertise things such as "butt toners, light beer, and cigarettes." This writing is a manifesto and it is signed by many graphic designers. They are calling "for [their] skills to be put to worthwhile use." This writing makes sense because if I were a graphic designer that had gone through extensive training, I would want to have work assignments that seemed important to me. The next reading is about the difference between advertisements and design. The author claims that consumers can't be expected to see a difference. I agree with this author because as a regular consumer, I do not have the same view of advertising and design as a graphic designer or an advertisor would. Neither of these professions would probably be happy about this article because it does not really speak kindly about either.All of the articles in this compilation are interesting, especially because I don't usually put much thought into the advertising that goes behind product. Now it is clear that it can be a controversial issue, especially for those behind the scenes.

Homework for 2/26/08: Car Culture

This is a witty article by Sharon Waxman. It is mainly about Hollywood drivers and their choice of cars, but everyone can relate to it. It discusses the differences in the choice between a car that gets great gas mileage (Prius) to those that have poor gas mileage (Hummer.) The article even claims that rappers with "new money" are more apt to purchase a Hummer while those with "old money" are more likely to purchase the Prius. The funny part about this is that they describe "old money" as having it since around the 1980s. I thought that when people said "old money" they meant that money had been in the family for generations. The article does not have that much of a plotline other than the argument between which is better and for whom: the Prius or the Hummer. In the end, the author points out something very funny when she is discussing Hummer dealerships. She spoke to one man who sold a Prius to a famous woman and he pointed out that she had 3 people living in a 20,000 square foot house that used all kinds of electricity. He, on the other hand, lived in a more reasonable 3,000 square foot house but had a Hummer. One has to wonder, who is really expending more energy?

Warm-Up 2/14/08

I don't quote movies or songs much, but one of my friends quotes movies often. Her favorite movie is Old School and she not only has watched it several times, she quotes lines from the movie very often. They are usually lines spoken by Will Ferrell. There is never one particular line or quote, but several different ones from throughout the movie. They aren't serious or meaningful sayings, they are just catchy and funny. Sometimes she just quotes them when she's thinking of them and other times it fits into a situation and it's funny. There isn't much meaning to her quoting the movie, it is just because it is her favorite movie and she finds it to be very funny.

Topic Proposal:
The text that I have chosen to write about for Essay 1 is the poem “Hidden Things” by Ed Madden. The central claim to this poem is that even if something horrible occurs, positive things can still take place. In other words, just because something unfortunate happens to a person does not mean one cannot recover. There are many passages in this poem that support this idea, but the one that struck me as the most meaningful was “We may not see the purple tulips again / this year, the second spring a gamble in this zone, / but tuberose will return in full, and the iris / at the corner has multiplied, three shoots / for last year’s one…” (stanzas 2 and 3, lines 3-4 and 1-3). These lines automatically struck me as meaning that even though one thing (the purple tulips) may be gone; there will be an abundance of other things (tuberose and iris).
Important word choices in the text include the often mention of flowers and blooming, which signifies new life and happiness. The last line of the first stanza mentions a jonquil flower, which is also known as a narcissus. This may be a metaphor to selfishness because the narcissus is named after the Greek god Narcissus, who was known as being very self-absorbed and in love with himself and his beauty. Also, the line “the plans you’ve made, are fingering forth in green” means that the plans that have been made are progressing well, just as grass becomes green when it comes alive after winter. Although this poem does use flowering and blooming to indicate life and happiness, there are also a lot of negative words used, such as dark, alone, forced, and quiet. Even though there is a significant amount of negative words, I believe that the overall tone of the poem is one of happiness and re-growth. The thesis for my essay will be “This paper will argue that even though negative events may happen in one’s life, there is always room for new life and growth.” This fits the poem because although the negative event is not directly mentioned, there is enough evidence to prove that something bad may have happened in a person’s life, life will keep going and if one is positive, things may even be better than before.

Introduction to Paper:
“Hidden Things” by Ed Bert is a poem that many can relate to. Throughout life, most people endure at least one tragic event, such as the loss of a loved one, witnessing a horrible crime, etc. “Hidden Things” is a poem about rebirth, growth, and moving on. The poem is written right before springtime, a period of new life. Bert uses flowers to signify this concept. In the poem, it is obvious that a tragic event has taken place in one’s life. The speaker of the poem is trying to convince the person that even though this event (unknown to the reader) has occurred, there is still hope in life. It seems that the speaker is allowing the mourning person to take his or her time to reflect on the negative event, but also lets the person know that he/she will be there for support. This paper will argue that even though negative events may happen in one’s life, there is always room for new life and growth.

Sonny's Blues- Places with laugh/smile:
1. pg 18: Narrator describes the children's laughter as "mocking" and "insular" not joyous
2. pg 18: Narrator is talking to Sonny's old friend who hangs out on the streets. "He grinned. It made him repulsive and it also brought to mind what he'd looked like as a kid." This relates to children again, but in a negative way.
3. pg 21: Narrator sees Sonny for the first time in a while: "He was smiling all over his face." This smile is more positive and the narrator does not relate it to anything negative.
4: pg. 22: Narrator is discussing the relationship between his wife and Sonny: "And she's always been able to tease Sonny in a way that I haven't. It was nice to see her face so vivid again and to hear her laugh and to watch her make Sonny laugh." This laughter is definitely positive and brings happiness to the narrator.
5: pg 24: Narrator is having a flashback of a conversation with his mother about his father: "...and she smiled in a way that make me feel she was in pain." This is another negative form of smile and laughter. The narrator seems to have an even amount of positive and negative feelings toward laughter and smiling at this point in the story. Here, the smile probably looked painful because she was talking about her dead husband.
6: end of pg 25: Sonny and the narrator are having a conversation and Sonny keeps laughing. This is a positive laughter and the narrator makes no negative remarks about it.
7:pg. 34: " And Sonny, also being funny...grinned, and put both hands to his heart and bowed from the waist." This is Sonny giving a bow after playing at a bar. This smile is genuine and the way the narrator describes Sonny makes him seem truly happy.


Exercise:
1. You're a girl
and you'd better not forget
that when you step over the threshold of your house
men will look askance at you.
When you keep on walking down the lane
men will follow you and whistle.
When you cross the lane and step onto the main road
men will revile you and call you a loose woman.

If you've got no character
you'll turn back
and if not
you'll keep going
as you're going now.

2. My reaction to this poem is that whoever wrote this poem has a biased view of women. I'm assuming the author is a woman and that she may have had bad experiences with men. She obviously has had men "look askance" at her and she has struggled with whether to keep going or turn around and say something. Also, the use of the word "loose" makes me think of sexual promiscuity. It is possible that this author feels that the only way that men view women is sexually. This leaves me to believe that she is self-concious when she is around men. The way that she writes the poem starting with "You're a girl" makes it seem that everything below that first line are the consequences of being a girl. I do not really agree with this because I am a girl and I do not feel that every time I leave my house I am in danger of men doing the things described in the poem.

3: askance, adverb, the idea expressed has varied considerably, different writers using them to indicate disdain, envy, jealousy, and suspicion
revile, verb, To subject to contumely or abuse; to assail with opprobrious or abusive language

The story of the poem is that whenever this woman leaves her house, all the men abuse her with words, but at the same time want to be with her. They view her as promiscuous and seem to only see her in a sexual way.

4. The narrator is probably an older woman, maybe a mother. The one being spoken about in the poem is obviously a girl that has issues with the way men view her. The speaker/subject relationship seems to be one in which the speaker has authority over the subject. The speaker is giving the subject advice on how to handle men.

5. The theme is feminism because it deals with the way women can be verbally mistreated by men.

Sonny's Blues
"Sonny's Blues" is a short story of two very different brothers. The younger one, Sonny, is a jazz musician who has gotten involved with heroin and been sent to rehab. There is an article about it in the newspaper and I am pretty sure that the story takes place in New York City or another large urban area. The older brother is the speaker of the story and the two brothers are much different. The older one is the more responsible one, being a teacher, while the younger one is obviously irresponsible and involved with drugs and is a musician. The older brother goes through what seems like a period of realization in the story and his perspective on many things change. He changes his idea of children's laughter from being joyous to being mocking and questions why he ever gave Sonny's friend money on the streets. Later in the story, he also remembers his mother's advice that although he may never be able to stop Sonny from doing bad things, he can always be there for him. In this moment, the story seems to turn and the older brother realizes his importance as a brother.

Lost in the Funhouse:
"Lost in the Funhouse" was an interesting piece that was confusing and hard to understand for me. The speaker begins by talking about a boy named Ambrose and his family vacations to the beach three times a year. He questions what the funhouse is, and because he never gives an answer, I also wonder what the funhouse is. This piece was written in an odd way because for a minute the author will discuss Ambrose and his family and then interrupt the story with different facts about literature and writing, such as when to use italics and Freitag's triangle. The story does not really have a very good flow. In the end, I came to the conclusion that these may have been a look into Ambrose's thoughts as a writer because he would tell parts of the story, then interject with writing tips or instructions. He also asked questions that were never answered, which led me to believe that he was writing for himself and that this was his true thought process. I liked this reading because it was interesting to try and decipher.

Videotape:

This writing is very interesting. It is not necessarily a short story, and it could be a poem. The speaker seems to be undermining the family video, saying things like "it is just a kid..." and "this is just another game..." etc. The tone of the speaker makes him seem like he does not have a family or that he is bitter about family life. Before long, the story takes a very negative turn. It ends up that this videotape is a recording of a murder. Apparently it is a special occurance because it was recorded by a child and the murderer had murdered several other people, therefore this videotape was perfect evidence. The author of this story describes the death in a very gruesome way that left me feeling that the author had a sick and twisted mind.