Words. Weeerrdddsss.

Defend this claim: Human beings should be greatly invested in the well-being of other human beings.

Something that people like to say helps humans define their "humanity" is their inherent nature to feel sympathy for each other. In society, when someone loses that and does things without thinking about the effect of others aka shooting other people, they are really really REALLY not accepted. Humans are social creatures. It is in our nature to care about each other.

There is also this societally constructed idea of "goodness". And contained within that is the idea of selflessness. It is widely thought that by helping others we ourselves can reach a transcendent plane of living by being able to move out of instinctual self preservation and be invested in not just ourselves but others as well.

When it comes down to. It's actually really hard to defend that idea not on a purely emotional or religious level. What about us inherently says that we need to care for others....?

The Story so Far. Aka Rambling about this ridiculously massive assignment our Troll-like (i use that adjective affectionately) English teacher gave us

The story so far... Where we have arrived right now is a momentarily very accomplished place. Our meetings with resident have been awesome. We've definitely reached some major checkpoints with regards to our event planning although I anticipate that we will shortly run into some problems just because we are teenagers and, well, foresight - what's that?  For Isabel and I, at least, our group dynamic is working just fine and hopefully Mikayla doesn't mind that we're pretty much taking all the work for ourselves. Adding Julia definitely changes things up a little bit. She will be invaluable with us using the BAC seeing as she has worked there the past few months but adding another person to a group that may already be to large will force us to adjust a bit. I think that our interactions with you, Hilt, have improved. In the beginning of the project just a little bit more guidance would have been nice and that was a tad frustrating but lately you've actually been really helpful. How surprising is that?

I've just realized that we should probably be blogging after each of our meetings at the nursing home. But we have been recording our entire interviews with them so that we don't forget anything and we're hoping to be able to incorporate some of what we've learned from them into our event. So far we've met with two ladies. Marcia spent her entire childhood traveling around and spent her teen years in Austria. She was actually on the first ship over to Europe after the war. Later back in Colorado Springs she and her husband started this program called S.H.A.P.E U.P (Showing How A Prison Experience Undermines People) which is literally the best acronym ever. And she has a brass belt buckle with that and her name on it. So pretty much a badass. (Oops. Am I to supposed to say that on a school blog?). Anyways their program operated for around 20 years with just the two of them running it. Almost every week of the year they would take around 10 kids that had gotten into trouble and would probably end up in jail if they stayed on the track they were on and they took them down to the prisons to talk with inmates that Marcia and her husband had selected. She said that it had a positive impact on the inmates and in all their records every teenager that went through that program never once ended up in jail. That's A LOT of kids that they helped set straight. And before that she taught first grade for 12 years and always requested underprivileged school because she loved to see the kids eyes light up when they realized someone cared and they started to understand things. The other lady Isabel and I met was Kathryn. I literally felt like I was in a movie. We drank ginger ale, ate popcorn and talked to possibly the hippest 90 year old ever. She's going to help us find more people to talk to. So that part of the project is going absolutely perfectly.

We asked both of them for a piece of advice and interestingly enough they both emphasized how important it is to carefully choose your friends and that traveling as much as you can and keeping an open mind are really the most important things.

I'm a little bit nervous about our event and getting our posters printed and put up, getting food donated, advertising, getting poets lined up etc etc. O.o

Now I'm just rambling. This isn't even reflecting anymore... So yeah....

Trois

1) In light of our discussion yesterday,what is your favorite character (it can be from any story including, but not limited to: movies, comic books, concept albums etc.) and why? Is character an archetype of some kind? Next, perhaps slightly more difficult to identify, what is your favorite plot ever (again this can be taken from any story) why? Since all plot lines are in some way archtypal, how would you create this plot to make a story of your own? Finally, do you prefer plot-centre stories  character focused stories and why?

First of all, let me just say, that this is such a terribly cruel thing to ask an honors student.... Although this is not my favorite character of all time by any stretch, when I think about having to actually choose that, my soul curls up and dies a little bit, so I'm going to have to go with Jacky Faber from the Bloody Jack series. I practically grew up reading her books. She's is a very archetypal femme fatale. Especially as a young girl, it was awesome having that sort of role model (ugh, such a cliche) who is just a complete badass, a pirate, and pretty much has the ability to control every male that crosses her path. The only thing that keeps her from being my absolute favorite is she is super cocky and doesn't think anything out. Ever. Which can get super frustrating as a reader.

Ugh. Favorite plot. Equally cruel. Hmm. Although I don't remember it that well because i read them so long ago, His Dark Materials (which is the Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife etc by Pullman) blew me away. Also the Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Definitely those two a at the top of the list. His Dark Materials are, yes, archetypal of an epic journey taken by a a genuine person who is up against people that seek to stop her at any cost and is helped along by unexpected allies. But there are some parts of the book that are just chilling amazing I seem to remember. And then Hitchhiker's. I mean, come on, those books are a mockery of other mockeries mocking things that mock things that are sacred. And it's just like the best thing ever. No other book ever can make the thoughts of a bowl of petunias and the conversation between a robot and matress relevant in the grand scheme of things. Actually while I'm on the subject of Hitchhiker's, Marvin is also one of my favorite characters for no other reason than he is simply a morose robot.

I probably prefer character-centre stories just because, for me, it's more impactful to connect to characters and follow their journey, regardless of what that journey is, than to just follow a plot line without every making a deep connection to any of the characters in the book. As humans, it's easier for us to find a bit of ourselves in other people (be it human characters, humanoid characters, or personified animal characters) than in events themselves.


2.) Of the critical theories which do you think your generation would predominantly favor and why? Use at least three pieces of evidence.

I think that my leans towards different parts of several different theories. (Warning: the following is probably going to be exceptionally cynical.) I think we favor the aspect of structuralism that allows us to try to put people into little boxes and predict exactly who we think they are. I think we favor post-structuralism because every new generation wants to be unique and be able to say that everything the previous genarion has tried to figure out is wrong and that everyone's individual truths are the right ones. I think we lean towards Marxist theory because analyzing power struggles makes us feel intelligent and like we've got things way more figured out than we actually do. Feminism is an easy fall back because, even if someone doesn't agree with the theory, it's so easy to point fingers and say that something is anti-feminist. All in all, I think that many aspects of some of the critical theories are just ways for my generation to justify their pretentious opinions.

Blog Prompt Number Two. Date (3/5/2013)

1) tell me about something worth celebrating in regards to your projects. Then tell me something that happen without the last 2 weeks that has made you feel frolicsome.

We finally made a connection to a nursing home and have started to actually get things rolling. Another celebration occured when we got an email response from the Alzheimer's association from a person in a fairly high ranking position. Althought that was slightly marred by the fact that it got stuck in my spam folder and we didn't respond back to that response for 2 weeks. So hopefully she hasn't lost interest in us. Things that made me feel frolicsome: I skied Vail on Saturday with my quasi-brother. I placed second in poetry slam. We played Danse Bacchanale again in symphony rehearsal last night <3. I ate at Chipotle.

2) something about my relationship with poetry...

Poetry is a manifestation of the miscellaneous thoughts that float about in my head. Poetry is like my Pensieve for all of the ideas cluttering my head. When I first heard slam poetry it first seemed like an uncomfortably angsty cult but now it's addicting. I love that I seeks to transcend individual experience and create something larger and more relatable. It's also fairly impermanent, unlike a classic work of literature, in that, for most of the slammers at this school, a poem's lifespan is only a few short months while that emotion is relevant to that person. And there's something awesome in creating something that is relevant for a short while, but loses importance as something else becomes more important.

Journal Entry número 1

I am, so far, both enamored with this class and becoming increasingly more terrified. It is really refreshing to have a class that is actually challenging -- a class that I'm not entirely sure that I'm going to get an A in... I am getting way more comfortable with vocab quizzes although metaphor charts are still tricky to say the least. Reading quizzes have been easy from the start (granted, I was paying attention when I read). It's really nice to start writing although right now I feel a little bit in over my head, especially with regards to the in-class writes. I look forward to the rest of the class, but am a little bit worried about what is to come.

I adore English -- written, oral, and otherwise. From the time when I was little I have adored reading. When I was in middle school I spent much of my time writing and I did the infamous "career project" in eight grade on the publishing industry. But I feel that, despite my passion for English, my knowledge of the specifics (ie. grammar, formal writing) is lacking. Looking back on my three previous English classes, I can't recall learning the concepts that now seem to be important foundational building blocks of this class and the writing in it. As a result of getting involved in poetry slam last year, my tastes in literature have definitely changed a bit. I find myself more and more drifting from any classic literature, which saddens me. I miss the intellectual challenge of reading the work of true masters of English.