Jake's Take on Pride and Prejudice

For my second independent reading book I choose Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I had heard from several people that this was a gossipy chick flick type book. I hadn’t concidered reading it, until it conveniently appeared on the reading extravaganza as well. My indolent (gold star for Jake!) ways decided it would be better to read two books instead of one. I prove to be a creature of habit and again read the entire book in the five days before the dealine. Pride and Prejudice was considerably shorter than my first book, which was a big plus. I cannot say that I was disappointed in Pride and Prejudice. The book had many unique characteristics that I have not come across in all the books I have read. Its central topic is marriage, written from a woman’s perspective. Austen described how vastly different the culture of England during the Elizabethan era was compared to today, with marriage mainly focused on social status and class. Another unique thing about the book was the way Austen wrote it. Never have I seen so many long, several claused sentences. Some paragraphs were composed of one or two sentences. If you have never read Pride and Prejudice, I would recommend reading it. It is very unique and differs from all books I have read recently.

My 9 Most Beautiful Words

Phil Cousineau wrote an article last week which he described the art of language in the simplest form. He discusses how an individual word without any context can be beautiful, and continues to list the 9 most beautiful words in his opinion. Cousineau states that words, both short and long, can leave you with a “shiver down your spine.” Now I do not think that words are that powerful, but there are some pronounciations that have an exceptional flow. In judging words on beauty, I picked the words that best roll off my tongue and make me smile while saying them. I do not think that extra long words hold higher beauty (if you want my reasoning, take a look at the back of your shampoo bottle). In no particular order, here are my 9 most beautiful words: 

-Anemone: For anyone who has seen Finding Nemo, this needs no explanation

-Anesthetize: I enjoy saying the middle of the word. Feels odd. Makes me feel like a snake.

-Awl: It’s a simple word and sounds like it is from the South (the greatest country on Earth)

-Hippopotamus: The consecutive p’s are what make this word fun to say for me

-Mirror: This word makes me smile especially when squashing it into one syllable. Meerrrrrrr

-Poop: Try saying poop with a straight face. You can’t. Or atleast I can’t. Argh the 5 year old in me...

-Schladt (as in Becca Schladt): The 4 consecutive consanants makes this word enjoyable to say. It's a mouthful

-Staphylococcus: I know I said I wasn’t a fan of long words, but who doesn’t enjoy saying this?

-Squib: This word refers to a type of kick in football. This word is beautiful because it’s short and gives you that warm feeling inside of you. Or something like that.

Don't be so Dramatic

I was anticipating an overbearing drama unit, but we have already read one play and it has not been so bad yet. Was I the only one worried about this drama unit? I mean this is big, bad, AP Senior English. Given we have not gotten to the Shakespeare yet, I still anticipated trying to translate Old English for hours and envisioned humiliating myself trying to role play in front the entire class. I guess I still had incorrect fears about the AP class after taking advanced last year. Also, this literary analysis stuff seems to be getting a tad easier (credit Mr. Mullins for his teaching skills). All my English reservations have been put to rest. So how bout that play, Salem: A Play with Puppets? I found it to be interesting, drawing parallels between it and The Crucible while watching it. Both conflicts were introduced by a young girl making accusations against an authority figure, and the rumors spreading throughout all the characters. They also both had a supernatural element- witchcraft in The Crucible and the vortex in Salem (though I never fully understood what it represented, any thoughts?). Both plays were also centered arounf a social conflict during that time, the red scare and civil rights. I realize my blog is a hodgepodge of thoughts so comment on whatever you feel like. Also, if you were to second guess yourself about making an appointment to tour a Native American homeland, you would be having a reservation reservation reservation (credit Brian Regan).   

Fate or Fortune?

When prophecies are fulfilled, it is interesting to explore how they were filled. In Oedipus Rex’s case, it is especially intriguing to see how his prophecy came true, when he and his parents knew his fate. Oedipus’s parents first became aware of the prophecy when he was a baby, so they abandoned him to try to beat fate. Much later in his life, Oedipus became aware of this prophecy when he visited an oracle. Oedipus decided to flee from his current city back towards Thebes, where he would fulfill the prophecy of killing his father. Analyzing this, it is difficult to determine the role of fate in this story. Both the abandonment and return of Oedipus were actions done to guard themselves against fate. In fictional literature, fate can be more evident from an objective point of view. But how about in real life? Last week, Nebraska was trailing Northwestern in the fourth quarter, and quarterback Taylor Martinez threw what would be a sure interception. Three Northwestern linebackers all fought for the ball and dropped. Next play- another dropped interception. 99% of the time Northwestern would have intercepted one and iced the game, but Nebraska retained the ball and scored a go-ahead touchdown. A handful of peculiar plays led Nebraska to victory that night. Was Nebraska fortunate? Or were they supposed to win the game? Given that this is a poor metaphor, I hope you smell what I’m stepping in. I believe that Nebraska was fortunate that night because I doubt fate would care enough about a college football game. What do you think? Is everything decided, nothing decided, or only some things decided?

A Refreshing Alternative

I have a secret, but you have to promise not to judge me. I am partly looking forward to writing this short story essay. I can’t explain why I am not dreading writing this; normally writing a well-developed essay is the last thing on my to-do list. I can tell you one thing though, many essays will be in my future this semester. I just started on a college essay, the first of seven I need to write.  What I like least about college essays is that they are less contextually relevent (the part I am usually solid at) and more focused on the tone (...what does that mean?), a significant curveball for a writer like me. Compared to the in-class essays we write, college essays seem like a breeze. I can’t imagine what Mr. Mullins thinks about my unedited writing. When the timer starts I get confused and stuck and redundant in my vocabulary. Both timed essays have given me nightmares so far. The reason I am looking forward to this essay in that it is a better substitute for the essays I have recently written, no scrambling to finish or reflecting about myself. I hope my feelings about this paper don’t change between now and the final draft.

Learn From My Own Mistakes

A couple entries ago I discussed the pain of reading Catch 22 by Joseph Heller. It was so much pain and torture that I decided to switch things up, and just to make things interesting I decided to start reading The Poisonwood Bible a week before the in-class essay. I had not done any research on the book, because why would the length of a book I need to read quickly matter? So I downloaded the electronic copy of Barbara Kingsolver’s book and began on page 1 of a whopping 696. Because I’m a magnet, I ran some quick statistics on the pace I needed to read to finish on time: 99.4 pages per day, and given that I read at a 1.5 min/page rate for the text size that equates to 2.5 hours of reading per night, and over 17.5 hours in one week.  That’s just cray. Ironically, my adventure reading this book last week paralleled the plot, maybe. Given that it’s way past my bedtime and I am half asleep right now anything could make sense to me. In The Poisonwood Bible, Nathan Price goes on a mission trip to the Congo and desires to baptize the town’s children. He is so myopic on this goal that he loses sight of understanding the African culture and the whole thing is a bust, leading to his death at the end. Likewise, my experience reading this book was all about finishing it, getting to page 696. However my speed-reading technique inhibited my text-absorbing skills and I only partially comprehended the story. I would do it a tad differently if I had a redo, but I don’t so know I should be glad it’s over and hope my next book is the Tortoise and the Hare. That would be nice. 

Existentialism, you say?

In class we are discussing the viewpoint of existentialism, which has been very difficult for me. Existentialism seems to cover a whole array of philosophies and it has been hard to grasp. I understand the belief that each person is unique and man is defined by what he does, that part of our discussed I comprehended well. Then we started talking about selfishness and selflessness. That started to make my head hurt. It was argued (or proven, it seemed) by Mullins that there was no such thing as selflessness. That every action, in one way or another, was done to produce a desirable consequence for yourself. I thought about an experience I had during the summer that I thought was selfless. I went to volunteer on maintenance at Kanakuk Kamps for a week after my term as a kamper. I did work projects and set up for parties and events the whole week. I had not anticipated this, but seeing these kids have as much fun that I did the week before felt good, knowing that I had contributed to this. I had not known this feeling would occur, but I knew that I would be serving these kampers. So my motive to stay this extra week wasn't to feel good about my work. I had thought that this act wasn't selfish, but the class discussion had challenged my previous belief. Any thoughts on how/if selflessness can be achieved? Also, I have provided an 'existentialist' joke from one of my favorite shows, Criminal Minds. Ironically (you're welcome Mr. Mullins) I had seen this episode the night before we began our class discussion over existentialism.