This a blog for Mr. James Cook's eleventh grade honors English class at Gloucester (MA) High School. Remember what Northrup Frye writes in _Fearful Symmetry_, "No one can begin to think straight unless [she or] he has a passionate desire to think and an intense joy in thinking."

Friday, January 29, 2010

Was Aldous Huxley a racist?

If you'd like to follow up on our discussion about Huxley's views on race you might be interested in this review of a biography on Huxley. The title of the article is quite long:

Back to the future. Aldous Huxley was very much a product of his time: racist, snobbish and superior. But he was also a visionary, a chronicler of our disturbed modernity.

If you'd like, respond in the comment box.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Brave New World Chapter One

Responding to chapter 1

Imagine that you spent yesterday touring the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre in the year 632 A.F. Write a diary entry or a letter to someone describing your day. Record details about the Centre and your feelings about the Centre. Use many details. Be thoughtful.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Midyear Exam Essay Prompt (Updated)

O.K. After talking to a few of you I have decided to amend the writing prompt:

"I believe that man suffers from an appalling ignorance of his own nature."
William Golding

"Simon thought of the beast, there rose before his inward sight the picture of a human at once heroic and sick."
from Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Each of the works we have studied during the first semester explores the relationship between heroism and monstrousness. Choose three works we have studied. Compare and contrast how the authors of the three works use heroes (and/or heroism) and monsters (and/or monstrousness or what Simon sees as "sick[ness]") to reveal something about being human.

Be careful. Make sure you go beyond merely identifying and describing heroes and monsters. Make sure you compare how the authors use monsters (and monstrousness) and heroes (heroism) to suggest something about human nature.

To analyze how the authors use monsters and heroes think about how the monsters/heroes are characterized, how they develop, what they do, what is done to them, what they think, what they struggle with inside and out; also, think about what the images, symbols, motifs reveal about monsters, monstrousness, heroes, and heroism.

Avoid merely showing what is monstrous and what is heroic. Avoid plot summary. Have something bold and insightful to say about the similar and different ways the authors make use of heroes and monsters to reveal their insights.

Then, in an epilogue use first person to carefully explain and fully develop an insight into human nature you have developed while studying heroes and monsters this semester.

Lord of the Flies Practice "Quest" for Review

Practice "Quest" for Review.
Write down your answers and bring them in on Tuesday (1/19).

Looking at Lord of the Flies through an anthropological model for a balanced society by William Irwin Thompson, Kathleen Woodward, and your intrepid English teacher…

In the novel…

1. ____________________ and ____________________ are both ideational.
2. ____________________ and ____________________ are both operational.
3. ____________________ and ____________________ operate best on a subconscious, irrational level.
4. ____________________ and ____________________ operate best on a conscious, rational level.

5. In the society, Piggy fulfills the role of ____________________.
6. Jack fulfills the role of ____________________.
7. Ralph fulfills the role of ____________________.
8. Simon fulfills the role of ____________________.

*** The model originally referred to a successful Kalahari society as seen in John Marshall’s anthropological film The Hunters. Why then is the society of marooned boys so unsuccessful in Lord of the Flies? (In your answer refer to the roles, the characters, and the events of the book.)


Author’s Biographical Context
9. What two experiences may have influenced William Golding to write Lord of the Flies? Briefly explain how the experiences may have influenced the novel.

Symbols & Motifs

10. ____________________ seems to symbolize democracy, rationality, order, authority.
11. ____________________ is paradoxically a symbol of destruction and a symbol of hope.
12. ____________________ is a “sign [that] came down from the world of grownups,” representing the consequences of violence in the adult world beyond the island.
13. ____________________ helps Simon understand the true nature of the beast.
14. ____________________ frees the boys from “shame and self-consciousness,” compelling them to do things they otherwise would not.
15. To what does the title literally refer? ____________________
16. How does the answer to #6 symbolically represent what happens to the society?
17. What does the title refer to in translation? ____________________
18. Piggy is most closely associated with what symbol? ____________________
19. Simon is most closely associated with what symbol? ____________________
11. Who says, “‘This head is for the beast. It’s a gift?’” ____________________
20. Roger is most closely associate with what motif? ____________________
21. Who discovers the “beast from air”? ____________________
22. Name four things that at least some of the boys think of as “the beast” at one point or another in the novel.
23. In the quotation, “‘What I mean is…maybe it’s only us;” who is peaking and what is it?
24. “____________________ was the only boy on the island whose hair never seemed to grow.
25. After he reminisces about home in England, many readers are surprised to read that “____________________ too was fighting to get near, to get a handful of that brown, vulnerable flesh.

• Explain how one motif evolves or changes in three different scenes in the novel.
• How might the conch shell and the long hair be seen as opposing symbols?
• How might the scar, the fire, the storm, and the rock be connected as symbols?
• What is the symbolic significance of Piggy’s name?
• What is the relationship between the pigs, the pig’s head, the beast and Golding’s statement that “man suffers from an appalling ignorance of his own nature.”

END OF PRACTICE "QUEST"
*******
More to review:

Lord of the Flies:
characters and motifs

Characters
Understand the significance of Golding’s characterization of each, the significance of each character’s development, the significance of each character’s role in the plot. When thinking about significance think about allegory and theme.

Ralph, Piggy, Sam and Eric, Jack, Simon, Roger, littluns (Johnny, Henry, Percival, mulberry-colored birthmark, etc.)

Motifs
Motifs are objects, ideas, etc. that are repeated in a work of art.
Understand the literal and allegorical (symbolic) significance of each motif as it develops through the novel.

PHYSICAL OBJECTS
• scar and other symbolic descriptions of the island:
o the island as alive;
o as an inanimate object: car, boat, bomb, etc.;
o as light or dark, calm or stormy, etc.
• conch/shell,
• glasses,
• fire,
• rock,
• pig/boar,
• monsters/beasts/animals (other than the pig/boar),
• uniforms, painted faces, masks, hair and other descriptions of the boys’ appearance

Grendel Vocabulary

Vocabulary Words from the novel Grendel by John Gardner
(Words 1-10)

Sycophant [sik-uh-fuh nt]
A person who attempts to win favor by flattering influential people; a kiss-up, a flatter, a toady, a yes man. (Noun) Sycophantic (adjective)
Greek

Fuliginous [fyoo-lij-uh-nuh s]
Colored as if by soot; dark; black (Adjective)
Latin

Hex [heks]
1. An evil spell; a curse (Noun).
2. To curse (Verb)
German

Leer [leer]
1. desirous, sly, or knowing look (Noun).
2. To glance sidelong esp. sexually or maliciously (Verb)
Anglo Saxon/Old English

Moor [moo r]
A broad area of open land, often high but poorly drained, with patches of heath and peat bogs. (Noun)
To secure (a ship, boat, dirigible, etc.) (Verb)
A Muslim of the mixed Berber and Arab people inhabiting NW Africa (Noun)
Old English

Solipsist
A person who believes that the self is the only reality. (Noun)
Solipsism[sol-ip-siz-uh m] is the belief that the self is the only reality. (Noun)
Solipsistic[sol-ip-sis-tik] (Adjective)
Latin

Ominous [om-uh-nuh s]
Menacing; threatening (Adjective)
Latin

Undulant [uhn-juh-luh nt]
wave-like (Adjective)
Undulate means to move like a wave. (Verb)
Latin

Debauch [di-bawch]
To corrupt morally. (Verb)
Debauchery is moral corruption. (Noun)
French/German

Omniscient [om-nish-uh nt]
all knowing; complete knowledge and awareness (adjective)
Omniscience means infinite knowledge. (Noun)
Latin

Vocabulary Words from the novel Grendel by John Gardner
(Words 11-20)

Hoary [hawr-ee, hohr-ee]
Gray or white with or as if with age. (Adjective)
Old English/Anglo-Saxon

Dirge [durj]
A funeral hymn or lament. (Noun)
Latin

Dogmatism [dawg-muh-tiz-uh m]
Arrogant, stubborn assertion of opinion or belief. (Noun)
Dogma is an established, fixed, unchanging, predetermined set of beliefs.
Dogmatic (Adjective)
Greek

Petulant [pech-uh-luh nt]
1. Insolent or rude in behavior or speech. (Adjective)
2. Unreasonably irritable, annoyed, or ill-tempered; peevish; cranky. (Adjective)
Petulance is unreasonable irritability and peevishness. (Noun)
Latin

Intimation
A hint; an obscure or indirect suggestion or notice; a remote or ambiguous reference; as, he had given only intimations of his design. (Noun)
Intimate [in-tuh-meyt] means to hint, imply, suggest. (Verb)
Latin

Nihilism [nahy-uh-liz-uh m]
A belief that rejects all values, morals, purposes for living, etc. as baseless and arbitrary (Noun)
A nihilist is someone who rejects all values, morals, purposes, etc.(Noun)
Nihilistic (Adjective)
Latin

Paradox [par-uh-doks]
A seemingly contradictory statement that may nonetheless be true. (Noun)
Paradoxical (Adjective)
Greek

Inchoate [in-koh-it, -eyt]
1. In an initial or early stage; incipient (Adjective).
2. not fully formed, incomplete (Adjective)
Latin

Ossify [os-uh-fahy]
1. To change into bone; become bony. (Verb);
2. To become rigid. (Verb)
Latin

Omnipotent [om-nip-uh-tuh nt]
Having unlimited power (Adjective)
Omnipotence is unlimited or universal power (Noun)
Latin

Beowulf Vocabulary

Beowulf Vocabulary

Seven words that appear in Beowulf

af•flic•tion ( -fl k sh n)
n. A condition of pain, suffering, or distress; A cause of pain, suffering, or distress.
—Synonyms 2. mishap, trouble, tribulation, calamity, catastrophe, disaster. Affliction, adversity, misfortune, trial refer to an event or circumstance that is hard to bear.
—Antonyms 1. relief, comfort, solace.
[Origin: 1300–50; ME affliccioun < L afflīctiōn- (s. of afflīctiō).]

mail (m l)
n. Flexible armor composed of small overlapping metal rings, loops of chain, or scales. 2. The protective covering of certain animals, as the shell of a turtle.
[Middle English, from Old French maile, from Latin macula, blemish, mesh.]

mead (m d)
n. An alcoholic beverage made from fermented honey and water.

sen•ti•nel (sěn'tə-nəl)
n. One that keeps guard; a sentry (a guard, a watch, a lookout).
[Middle French, from Old Italian, from Latin]

sin•ew (sĭn'yōō)
n.
A tendon.
Vigorous strength; muscular power.
The source or mainstay of vitality and strength.
[Middle English, from Old English]

sol•ace (sŏl'ĭs)
n. Comfort (or a source of comfort) in sorrow, misfortune, or distress; consolation; alleviation; relief.
[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin]

weird (wîrd)
adj.
Of, relating to, or suggestive of the preternatural or supernatural.
Of a strikingly odd or unusual character; strange.
Archaic Of or relating to fate or the Fates.

n.
Fate; destiny.
[Middle English from Old English wyrd, fate]


Five words that will help us understand Anglo-Saxon poetry.

al•lit•er•a•tion ( -l t -r sh n)
n. The repetition of the same sounds or of the same kinds of sounds at the beginning of words or in stressed syllables, as in “on scrolls of silver snowy sentences” (Hart Crane). Modern alliteration is predominantly consonantal; certain literary traditions, such as Old English verse, also alliterate using vowel sounds.
[From ad- + Latin littera, letter.]

cae•su•ra also ce•su•ra (s -zh r , -z r )
n. Prosody. a break, esp. a sense pause, usually near the middle of a verse, and marked in scansion by a double vertical line
A pause or interruption, as in conversation
[Latin caes ra, a cutting, from caesus, past participle of caedere, to cut off. See ka -id- in Indo-European Roots.]

ep•ic ( p k)
n. An extended narrative poem in elevated or dignified language, celebrating the feats of a legendary or traditional hero (or any literary work, period of history, etc. resembling an epic)

adj. Related to a literary epic; Surpassing the usual or ordinary, particularly in scope or size; Heroic and impressive

ken•ning (k n ng)
n. A figurative, usually compound expression used in place of a name or noun, especially in Old English and Old Norse poetry; for example, storm of swords is a kenning for battle and wave traveler is a kenning for boat.
[Old Norse, from kenna, to know, to name with a kenning. See gn - in Indo-European Roots.]

scop (sh p, sh p)
n. An Old English poet or bard.
[Old English.]

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Help with Poetry Lenses

Option #3
Here is a link to "The Second Coming" by William Butler Yeats. Here's a link with an interesting historical note on the poem.

*******
Option #4
Here are links to scanned versions of the original plates of "The Lamb" and "The Tyger" by William Blake. (Notice the original spelling of "Tyger".) These plates contain the poems and art work created by Blake.

Here are links to text only versions of "The Lamb" and "The Tyger". Here's a link to the poems (as transcribed from the original plates) side by side.

If you would like to explore Songs of Innocence and of Experience beyond these two poems. You can find the poems with artwork here and without artwork here.

Monday, January 4, 2010

Monster Letter Forum

Role: A monster from your independent reading book
Audience: Classmates and other "monsters" from the books
Format: Letter (300+ words)
Topic: Discuss three topics in the letter. 1. What makes you-as-the-monster monstrous? In other words, in what way are you a monster? 2. What influences, experiences, decisions have made you who you are? 3. Looking back, what do you have to say to Mr. Cook's 11th graders, other monsters, or someone else in particular? What do you want to say about your monstrousness? Do you want to justify your actions? Do you want to apologize or express regrets? Do you want to give advice? What do you want to say?

Show that you have read and understood the book by weaving details into your letter.
DUE BY THURSDAY (January 7) 11:59pm. Copy your letter into the comment box on the class blog.