Oh, the places you can go

If you could visit any of the setting locations from any of the books, where would you go?  Why?

It's easier to discuss stuff when you don't have to look at people...

Now that you are done reading (I'm sure of it), which of the characters in the three books would you most want to meet?  Be friends with?  Would any of them go to Saul and like it?  Can you imagine any of them in your current life?

Do you see yourself in any of these characters?

Discuss.

Questions from your colleagues

Here are some questions about All the Pretty Horses which I think you all can discuss with each other:

1.  What's up with the untranslated Spanish?  What effect is McCarthy going for?
2.  Ditto with the lack of quotation marks--besides generating reader confusion, what purpose is served by not being able to keep track of who's speaking? 
3.  Why do Rawlins and John get locked up?  What is the sequence of events that lead up to their incarceration?
4.  What BIG IDEAS is McCarthy working with in this novel?  What truth about life or how the world works can you glean from the book?  What do you predict for John's future?

(REMEMBER TO DO THE QUESTIONS FOR EACH BOOK AS YOU GO!!!)

All the Pretty Horses: What the heck is going on in the first 7 pages?

What repeats?  Who's "he," and why is there no antecedent to that pronoun?  Doesn't that break a grammatical rule right off the bat?  And where's the punctuation in that big paragraph on p. 5?  Where and when does this take place and how do you know?

Welcome, AP Lit class of 2012-13!

You got the email, you saw the questions, you cursed me for ruining a perfectly lovely first day of summer vacation.  Remember, you are the few, the proud, the going-to-be-reading-all-summer.  There is really no finer activity.

Jabberwocky Redux

What follows are student-created poems which began as "nonsense poems" written using at least eight words which the students did not know. After the students discovered the real meanings of the words they had previously used solely for their sound and/or associative values, they had to then reconstruct a poem using words related to the original terms' actual meanings, and within the universe of their creations, these poems needed to make sense.

Here's my example, and following in the comments, their creations.

Poem one:

orgeat kerfs
dibble in
samisen tondo,
plagal the mesic
illuviation, and
berk in agamic
euphorbia.


Poem two (the revision based on actual word meanings)

Paint this:
on a banjo's
circular face,
a syrup of sweet
almond
seeking slits and
holes,
infusing the pitch,
suspended
in moist foolishness,
in the midst of asexual shrubs.

Betrayal

Who's to blame for the destruction of Thornfield? Who is the betrayer? Who is the betrayed? Are those roles static or shifting in each novel? Discuss.

Landscape

Stating the obvious: rural England and rural Jamaica are different. How are characters products of the environment they come from? How does setting relate to theme? Compare the way Bronte uses setting and the way Rhys uses it. You can start with the differences, but also see if there are similarities, as well.

Is Rochester a Reliable Narrator in Section 2?

Think about what you think you know about Rochester (remembering, of course, that he is presented entirely through Jane's narration in Jane Eyre). How do you feel about him as a narrator in Wide Sargasso Sea? How does he portray Antoinette? Why do you think Rhys shifted POV from Antoinette to Rochester?

Young Bertha/Antoinette and Young Jane

What do these two girls have in common, even though they are brought up (almost) half a world away? How are they different? Give specific examples to illustrate your assertions. What reasons might Rhys have for writing Antoinette's (Bertha's) childhood as she does?

Jane Eyre Question (for your consideration and comment)

This will be one way we work together on this blog. Respond to the question; respond to other people's comments. Because I know you, I know that you will maintain standards of civil discourse.

What social issues does Charlotte Bronte address in Jane Eyre? What beliefs do her characters espouse which might have been revolutionary in England in 1840? Are any of the issues still relevant today? How do they resonate for you? Discuss.

What's with the blog title, Steiner?

The title "The Metaphysical Conceit," my people, comes from a literary analysis of my FAVORITE POEM IN ALL THE WORLD: John Donne's "The Flea." A metaphysical conceit is a sort of EXTREME METAPHOR. Donne says that it's when the two subjects of comparison are "yoked by violence." In other words, there is just no way that the two subjects of comparison should ever be compared to one another, because they have not one thing in common. Or do they? Donne is the master at putting things together that should, in the interest of good taste, remain far apart. When we read the poem "The Flea," (and we will read it, rest assured) you will see a flea and a flea bite compared (very elegantly) to love, marriage, and um, all that might follow from there. The metaphysical conceit is just so wrong, it's right.

So now, why name the blog "The Metaphysical Conceit"? Because it's my job to yoke you (with loving violence, if necessary) to the texts we're reading, to one another as scholars, and to your best selves as writers. Maybe it's easier to just imagine it all a big metaphor: I say, metaphorically, "You are scholars," not the much weaker simile "You are LIKE scholars." Even though you may not always literally feel all that scholarly, metaphorically, you always are. Perhaps the best any of us can do is to act metaphorically--and to believe in the power of metaphor to help us become our best literal selves.

Ooh, I'm a blogger now!

Hey, my people! In a stark departure from normal PD practice, I am DOING SOMETHING REAL WHILE AT PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT! And what have I chosen to do? I have created this awesome blog so that you, my people, can interact in your favorite milieu: virtuality. Apparently, I can post here; you can comment here; we can engage in deep academic discourse here. (Also, I can demonstrate elegant parallelism here...and so can you.) And then, it's a long walk on a short pier to some sort of wiki hoo-ha and a paperless world. Let me be clear: this is not the end of essays. This is merely a new way for us to publish those essays. Let the fun begin!