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."

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Gloucester Narratives: Ways of Looking at Gloucester

Over the next two weeks you will read a narrative in which depictions of Gloucester -- or parts of Gloucester -- play a significant role.

While you read you will maintain a double-entry journal, which will be collected on Friday, April 30.

Read the directions carefully.


On the left side of your journal you will record quotations from throughout the book -- at least ten.

Select quotations in which some aspect of Gloucester -- people in or from Gloucester, places in Gloucester, the history of Gloucester, etc. -- is depicted or in which a direct statement about Gloucester is offered. Choose passages that seem significant in presenting a particular perspective on Gloucester and set of perceptions about Gloucester. (Note: If your book has sections that do not deal with Gloucester you may select up to five quotations that are not directly related to Gloucester people, places, history, etc. These quotations should still be significant in some way to the book as a whole.) Also, make sure you choose passages from the beginning, middle, and end of the book. You will write down each quotation and the page on which you found it.

On the right side of your journal you will respond to the quotation.

Make inferences. What does the depiction of Gloucester suggest? How is it significant? What does it seem to mean?

Respond. Do you agree or disagree with the depiction? Are you skeptical? Are you surprised? Do you have a personal or family connection to the way Gloucester is depicted in the quotation? (Show me that you are reading with your head and your heart.)

Remember some guiding questions:
How do writers depict Gloucester? How are the differing depictions significant? What's at stake in differing projections of the polis? (How is Gloucester used by the writer? What does the writer suggest about Gloucester? Does Gloucester seem to represent something -- an ideal, an alternative, a warning, a trap, a set of values -- in the work?)

Here are some of the books. In the comment box post your name (first name, last initial) and the book you plan to read.

Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling


The Maximus Poems by Charles Olson


Know Fish by Vincent Ferrini


The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger


The Last Days of Dogtown by Anita Diamant


Dogtown: Death and Enchantment in a New England Ghost Town by Elyssa East


The Last Fish Tale by Mark Kurlansky


At the Cut by Peter Anastas


Broken Trip by Peter Anastas


The Finest Kind: the Fishermen of Gloucester by Kim Bartlett


Cape Ann, Cape America by Herbert Kenny


Hammers on Stone and A Village at Lane's Cove by Barbara Erkkila


Voices by Richard M. Swiderski


When Gloucester Was Gloucester (a series of oral histories about Gloucester in the mid and early twentieth century) edited by Peter Anastas and Peter Parsons


New England Blue: 6 Plays of Working-Class Life by Israel Horowitz


Prologos and Gloucesterbook and Gloucestertide by Jonathan Bayliss


The Lone Voyager (about Howard Blackburn) and The Fish and the Falcon (about Gloucester's involvement in the War of 1812) (formerly called Guns Off Gloucester) and many more by Joseph Garland


Out of Gloucester and several other books (not all books on the linked page deal with Gloucester) by James B. Connolly


History of Gloucester by John Babson


History of the Town and City of Gloucester, Cape Ann, Massachusetts by James Robert Pringle




Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Starting to think about your Gloucester...

In the comment box write a response (300+ words) to the following question:

In what way is "your" Gloucester different from other people's?

To answer this question you might think about your own life and experiences in Gloucester. What people and events have influenced your view of the place. You might think about the places in Gloucester that are "yours". You might think about family history in this city -- or elsewhere -- that affects your view of Gloucester. You might think about the ways in which you feel you belong and, perhaps, the ways in which you feel alienated. Do you want to stay? Do you want to leave? Do you want to leave and come back? Certainly think about what you think is the dominant view about what Gloucester "really is" and whether you also have that view or not. Those are just some of the ways you might begin answering the question.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Here are the rest of the "C" words...More to come...

circuitous (adj.) roundabout (The bus’s circuitous route took us through numerous
outlying suburbs.)
circumlocution (n.) indirect and wordy language (The professor’s habit of speaking in
circumlocutions made it difficult to follow his lectures.)
circumscribed (adj.) marked off, bounded (The children were permitted to play tag
only within a carefully circumscribed area of the lawn.)
circumspect (adj.) cautious (Though I promised Rachel’s father I would bring her home
promptly by midnight, it would have been more circumspect not to have specified a
time.)
circumvent (v.) to get around (The school’s dress code forbidding navel-baring jeans
was circumvented by the determined students, who were careful to cover up with
long coats when administrators were nearby.)
clairvoyant (adj.) able to perceive things that normal people cannot (Zelda’s uncanny
ability to detect my lies was nothing short of clairvoyant.)
clandestine (adj.) secret (Announcing to her boyfriend that she was going to the gym,
Sophie actually went to meet Joseph for a clandestine liaison.)
cleave 1. (v.) to divide into parts (Following the scandalous disgrace of their leader, the
entire political party cleaved into warring factions.) 2. (v.) to stick together firmly
(After resolving their marital problems, Junior and Rosa cleaved to one another all
the more tightly.)
clemency (n.) mercy (After he forgot their anniversary, Martin could only beg Maria
for clemency.)
cloying (adj.) sickeningly sweet (Though Ronald was physically attractive, Maud
found his constant compliments and solicitous remarks cloying.)
coagulate (v.) to thicken, clot (The top layer of the pudding had coagulated into a thick
skin.)
coalesce (v.) to fuse into a whole (Gordon’s ensemble of thrift-shop garments coalesced
into a surprisingly handsome outfit.)
coerce (v.) to make somebody do something by force or threat (The court decided that
Vanilla Ice did not have to honor the contract because he had been coerced into
signing it.)
cogent (adj.) intellectually convincing (Irene’s arguments in favor of abstinence were so
cogent that I could not resist them.)
cognizant (adj.) aware, mindful (Jake avoided speaking to women in bars because he
was cognizant of the fact that drinking impairs his judgment.)
coherent (adj.) logically consistent, intelligible (Renee could not figure out what
Monroe had seen because he was too distraught to deliver a coherent statement.)
collateral 1. (adj.) secondary (Divorcing my wife had the collateral effect of making me
poor, as she was the only one of us with a job or money.) 2. (n.) security for a debt
(Jacob left his watch as collateral for the $500 loan.)
colloquial (adj.) characteristic of informal conversation (Adam’s essay on sexual
response in primates was marked down because it contained too many colloquial
expressions.)
collusion (n.) secret agreement, conspiracy (The three law students worked in collusion
to steal the final exam.)
colossus (n.) a gigantic statue or thing (For 56 years, the ancient city of Rhodes featured
a colossus standing astride its harbor.)
commendation (n.) a notice of approval or recognition (Jared received a commendation
from Linda, his supervisor, for his stellar performance.)
commensurate (adj.) corresponding in size or amount (Ahab selected a very long roll
and proceeded to prepare a tuna salad sandwich commensurate with his enormous
appetite.)
commodious (adj.) roomy (Holden invited the three women to join him in the back seat
of the taxicab, assuring them that the car was quite commodious.)AT Vocabulary
complacency (n.) self-satisfied ignorance of danger (Colin tried to shock his friends out
of their complacency by painting a frightening picture of what might happen to
them.)
complement (v.) to complete, make perfect (Ann’s scarf complements her blouse
beautifully, making her seem fully dressed even though she isn’t wearing a coat.)
compliant (adj.) ready to adapt oneself to another’s wishes (Sue had very
strong opinions about what to do on a first date, and Ted was
absolutely compliant.)
complicit (adj.) being an accomplice in a wrongful act (By keeping her daughter’s affair
a secret, Maddie became complicit in it.)
compliment (n.) an expression of esteem or approval (I blushed crimson when Emma
gave me a compliment on my new haircut.)
compunction (n.) distress caused by feeling guilty (He felt compunction for the shabby
way he’d treated her.)
conciliatory (adj.) friendly, agreeable (I took Amanda’s invitation to dinner as a very
conciliatory gesture.)
concomitant (adj.) accompanying in a subordinate fashion (His dislike of hard work
carried with it a concomitant lack of funds.)
concord (n.) harmonious agreement (Julie and Harold began the evening with a
disagreement, but ended it in a state of perfect concord.)
conduit (n.) a pipe or channel through which something passes (The water flowed
through the conduit into the container.)
confection (n.) a sweet, fancy food (We went to the mall food court and purchased a
delicious confection.)
confidant (n.) a person entrusted with secrets (Shortly after we met, she became my
chief confidant.)
conflagration (n.) great fire (The conflagration consumed the entire building.)
confluence (n.) a gathering together (A confluence of different factors made tonight the
perfect night.)
conformist (n.) one who behaves the same as others (Julian was such a conformist that
he had to wait and see if his friends would do something before he would commit.)
confound (v.) to frustrate, confuse (MacGuyver confounded the policemen pursuing
him by covering his tracks.)
congeal (v.) to thicken into a solid (The sauce had congealed into a thick paste.)
congenial (adj.) pleasantly agreeable (His congenial manner made him popular
wherever he went.)
congruity (n.) the quality of being in agreement (Bill and Veronica achieved a perfect
congruity of opinion.)
connive (v.) to plot, scheme (She connived to get me to give up my vacation plans.)
consecrate (v.) to dedicate something to a holy purpose (Arvin consecrated his spare
bedroom as a shrine to Christina.)
consensus (n.) an agreement of opinion (The jury was able to reach a consensus only
after days of deliberation.)
consign (v.) to give something over to another’s care (Unwillingly, he consigned his
mother to a nursing home.)
consonant (adj.) in harmony (The singers’ consonant voices were beautiful.)
construe (v.) to interpret (He construed her throwing his clothes out the window as a
signal that she wanted him to leave.)
consummate (v.) to complete a deal; to complete a marriage ceremony through sexual
intercourse (Erica and Donald consummated their agreement in the executive
boardroom.)
contemporaneous (adj.) existing during the same time (Though her novels do not
feature the themes of Romanticism, Jane Austen’s work was contemporaneous with
that of Wordsworth and Byron.)
contentious (adj.) having a tendency to quarrel or dispute (George’s contentious
personality made him unpopular with his classmates.)
contravene (v.) to contradict, oppose, violate (Edwidge contravened his landlady’s rule
against overnight guests.)
contusion (n.) bruise, injury (The contusions on his face suggested he’d been in a fight.)
that you take off your boots before entering their houses.)
convivial (adj.) characterized by feasting, drinking, merriment (The restaurant’s
convivial atmosphere put me immediately at ease.)
convoluted (adj.) intricate, complicated (Grace’s story was so convoluted that I couldn’t
follow it.)
copious (adj.) profuse, abundant (Copious amounts of Snapple were imbibed in the
cafeteria.)
cordial (adj.) warm, affectionate (His cordial greeting melted my anger at once.)
coronation (n.) the act of crowning (The new king’s coronation occurred the day after
his father’s death.)
corroborate (v.) to support with evidence (Luke’s seemingly outrageous claim was
corroborated by witnesses.)
corrosive (adj.) having the tendency to erode or eat away (The effect of the chemical
was highly corrosive.)
cosmopolitan (adj.) sophisticated, worldly (Lloyd’s education and upbringing were
cosmopolitan, so he felt right at home among the powerful and learned.)
covet (v.) to desire enviously (I coveted Moses’s house, wife, and car.)
credulity (n.) readiness to believe (His credulity made him an easy target for con men.)
crescendo (n.) a steady increase in intensity or volume (The crescendo of the brass
instruments gave the piece a patriotic feel.)
culmination (n.) the climax toward which something progresses (The culmination of
the couple’s argument was the decision to divorce.)
culpable (adj.) deserving blame (He was culpable of the crime, and was sentenced to
perform community service for 75 years.)
cultivate (v.) to nurture, improve, refine (At the library, she cultivated her interest in
spy novels.)
cumulative (adj.) increasing, building upon itself (The cumulative effect of hours spent
in the sun was a deep tan.)
cunning (adj.) sly, clever at being deceitful (The general devised a cunning plan to
surprise the enemy.)
cupidity (n.) greed, strong desire (His cupidity made him enter the abandoned gold
mine despite the obvious dangers.)
cursory (adj.) brief to the point of being superficial (Late for the meeting, she cast a
cursory glance at the agenda.)
curt (adj.) abruptly and rudely short (Her curt reply to my question made me realize
that she was upset at me.)
curtail (v.) to lessen, reduce (Since losing his job, he had to curtail his spending.)