To complete my draft, I have been working on my research. I have been able to make an outline of what I want to do, but that is about it. I have not been able to interview my internal sources due to the madness that has been the past two weeks. I will try to find time but this has proved extremely difficult because I have been working from nine to six for the last three days. For my artifact, I was thinking about making a video that highlights moments in film that have had a profound emotional impact on the audience through their representation of powerful themes. The main idea I’ve found so far is that realistic representation of themes can cause people to be moved and shift their ideas, so I want to show those moments. I’m going to consult Clay about some movie clips he thinks would work well and how to format the video. What I need now is to figure out how this is all going to work at home.
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Among the different readings from the assignment, one word stood out among the rest: chaos. Whether it was a capitalized noun in Paradise Lost or simply a descriptive way of talking about the state of the universe before creation, the word was repeatedly used. The idea of chaos and disorder seemed to be the inevitable state the world will always be in. In both of the time periods where the world was literally non-existent and when there was thriving civilizations, chaos ensued. I believe that the readings were trying to talk about the persistence of evil. Even after humanity has been established and may have once been wholesome, a sense of chaos and deceit will sneak in.
All of the similarities between three different creation stories struck me when I was reading. Ancient Rome, Christianity, and a more grounded, scientific story all had overlapping themes that cannot be ignored. In the beginning of each story, they spoke of absolute emptiness being the status of the universe. From there, the world was created with the planet we live on being shaped and morphed into what we more or less know today. While humanity lived in harmony in the beginning, evil snuck in and had to be wiped out. How was it that three different stories from different time periods all had such overlapping ideas? The storylines show the similarities all religions and cultures have with each other even though people tend to think they are all different. The only main difference to me was in the Lucretius text. Speaking of atoms and particles, he seemed to speak in a more scientific tone than the theological approach to the others. Going forward in the remainder of the semester and into next year, I feel that we will be looking deeply into humanity and human nature. The essence of how we act as a culture seems to be a main idea, and I believe that we will look at it in relation to the texts. Paradise lost was confusing to me, but I feel that the idea of Satan is a concept to illustrate the workings of good and evil in our world. Diving deeper, I believe that the text probably will uncover lots of interesting points about how people act under different circumstances across history. Each of my thoughts on the readings has started the same way. I have a vague idea about the concepts. My conclusions are mostly surface level and content based observations on the reading. Once I start thinking about the text with the class, I usually have to start over the rethink everything I had thought. Putting on a new lens has been one of the biggest changes I have had to make so far this term. Especially when it came to breaking down the paragraphs in Greenblatt, I’ve been exploring new ways of going back and examining text in a new light in order to think about it differently. Writing my thoughts down in my common place book has been a tool of success when dealing with my new ways of thinking. Thinking about the text in different lenses has required me to be able to put down my thoughts because I’ve needed to constantly go back and refer to them. Once my class has collectively and individually have worked over a text again and again, usually breaking it down multiple times and writing about it in our CPB, there seems to be a moment of realization. I saw this most in Scott when I felt that all the thinking had paid off and we were able to grasp his concepts in more ways than a literal sense. Common-placing and in-depth re-reading have allowed myself and our class to be able to understand and look over the two main texts we’ve read and they serve as the two most important takeaways from the term so far.
My two blog post images show two different ways of thinking that I’ve been able to improve on this term. The first is breaking down a text in different lenses and looking at it through writing. The second is being able to take an idea and concept we’ve been working on and create a drawing or concept map of shorts to demonstrate the ideas. The ideas of on each page draw on the themes and ideas surrounding self fashioning and Greenblatt’s ideas. Both surround the thought process of Greenblatt and his ideas, one being personal and the other theoretical, expressing his ideas through mapping his concepts in order to be understood and learned from. I struggled quite a bit with the concept of self-fashioning and Greenblatt’s way of never settling on a concrete example. I personally am a thinker that is able to operate best when given an example or analogy, but I feel that Greenblatt steered clear of that. Since figurativeness and passive voice were his ways of communicating, I took longer to grasp what he was saying, and I am still a bit confused. My main goal for going forward is able to not be reliant on examples and explanations, but I want to be able to look between the text and find the information I need to understand the reading. As a class, I see us being able to move faster through texts. The process of understanding and communicating what we’ve learned has only progressed more everyday, so I think that we will be able to productively move through more readings at a faster pace. “Self Fashioning” was one of the harder pieces of text for me to tackle, saving the best for last. The Renaissance was a unique time for Europe because of the changing time and artistics styles, so the fashion and look of the powerful had to change as a result. Powerful people over any time period since a social hierarchy began to be developed tended to have a unified look to show the superiority of the upper class compared to the rest. Greenblatt’s concept of self fashion exemplifies the idea of a single class wanting to look a specific way, but focusing on the Renaissance the nobles needed to receive a wide range of education and artistic understanding to be a well rounded person overall. Again, authority or another power at play can be seen creating a uniform type of people. Individuality seemed to only appear under creatives who were breaking new ground in their forms of art, so they did stand out amongst the rest of the flock following the same guidelines to dress fancy and act ladylike. Even Greenblatt said that most people who were powerful still submitted to a higher authority because they felt a calling to whether it be a secular king or the teachings of the bible. Acting as an individual keeps reappearing as a common theme among all the reading sections, but I find it most interesting here as falling into the background of trends dictated by one source of power has been around since the time of the Renaissance. Criticism of art and uniform judgement are no new forms of human nature to modern times. My interpretation may be more off than usual on this passage since I struggled with grasping the ideas, but I think it sets an interesting groundwork in the early time periods for a trend of authority to come in every century after.
My journal connects notes on the authoritarian control of self fashioning in the time period, seemingly locked in this endless loop of new authority always coming into power no matter if an alien removes it. There seems to be a removal of individual thought because of this authority, veering away from my notes in the previous journals about how individuality is something to strive for. Throughout my notes, I repeatedly talked about how authors in the time of the Renaissance lived through struggles and triumphs, whether it be progression in the culture at the time or religious influence over the art. They took all the good and the bad and seemed to use it as inspiration for all their works of art at the time. From what I’m trying to gather from this complex piece is that we will try and have our voices stand out in our writing. Unlike the uniformity of the Renaissance self fashioning period, our opinions on art and approach will try and vary to build off each others differing points of view instead of trying to come together and all just agree. With no differing opinions and getting rid of individual thought, a class would not be able to grow as a whole. I tend to think that I am a curious person. When I was young I would not stop talking, always asking my mom questions about life and how things worked, so the first part of the passage related to my life and way of thinking when I was younger. Though, I tended to disagree with the stats about how when reading and writing rise in a students life, questioning go down. In my experience, I feel that the more I read into something and gain knowledge on any particular topic, I have a number of doors opened up to me from subject matter. After these doors are opened, I tend to continue to search for more information until I feel I have a complete grasp. Though, I do agree with the statements about how questioning does decrease as one gets older. Around middle school, I found myself asking my parents less and less about life and its wonders. Recently though, I found a resurgence in my curiosity as I have found a new found love for reading. From science to history to the human mind, my journey in discovering knowledge has lead me on different paths over the last several months, but as I read into topics more I ask more questions, disagreeing with the studies found. I feel like this might be because of the environment around me. Warren Berger speaks on schools extensively, and I feel that my educational surroundings thrive on asking questions and being interactive. Galloway to me related to the schools Berger talked about where the classroom was built around interaction and not just lecturing and regurgitating notes back in quizzes and tests. In my short time attending the school, I felt much more engaged during class, interacting with material more in depth as a result. Seeing the other side of Berger’s observations in schooling systems, I agreed with his data collected that said many schools are preparing young minds to work rather than think. Attending such a place, students are bogged down with so much material that they lack an interest in pursuing “what (they) don’t know, not just what (they) do.” The authority figures dictating the learning patterns of students in Bergers writing reminded me of the control of art and beauty that Scott talked about. I feel that the writers are trying to say that the head authorities views may not always be the best for an individual person, and that we should emphasize learning on our own to think and expand our though in education.
The pages from my journal highlighted comparisons types of environments that foster thinking and asking questions compared to ones that result in quieter, less interactive learning environments. My comparisons from both my school environments that I’ve been a part of tied into the first page where I took notes on how I become most creative in asking questions and seeking information in educational environments. Berger’s writing leads me to believe that we will be pursuing to ask more questions and interact in the upcoming school year. From discussions to finding new and creative ways to approach reading, a goal of the course will be for every student to find ways to delve deeper into reading to search for new meaning in information along the way, renewing an interest in learning. The first passage “Better Living Through Criticism” resonated with me because I have been doing reflection often about how I view forms of art such as photos, movies, and music. While I’ve been compiling my essays to submit to film school I can’t just merely say I like a film, but I need to be able to articulate why. AO Scott talked about how aging results in more varied tastes and growth in general in how the average person consumes art, and I couldn’t agree more. Recently, I have been trying to grow in my music taste and discover new and revisit old records. I found my tastes have grown out of many mainstream rap and pop albums, but some more mature cuts stood out to me in ways they never could have when I was younger. Experimental and avant garde records I deemed “noise pollution” in the way they used unorthodox sounds to create melodies and beats are now some of my favorite music to listen to as I can appreciate the artistry applied in new ways. Many of these new experimental records I listen to are not widely listened to and accepted by a mainstream audience, but just as Scott talks about not all popular pieces equal quality and vice versa. Beauty can be found in other ways than simply popular outlets taking risks to find art that highlights beauty in unorthodox ways can create an individual taste. Scotts words stood out to me as his descriptions of criticism, beauty, and individuality put into words the journey of discovery I have set out on in finding art over the past couple months. Now in the future, I will be able to apply his philosophy and understand what I am doing better.
The main idea that stands out to me from my journal pages is about the journey to find beauty in an individual path. The ability to be self aware of criticism and every step of enjoying and being moved by a piece of art is a centerpiece of the quotes I collected from Scott’s writings. Authority also ties into the search as one person should not always look to a higher power to find the “right” answers in criticism. Likewise, the notes on the Louvre point out that even when we don’t realize it, authority can be molding and emphasizing certain forms of art before our eyes. Accepting and coming to terms that what we see in acclaimed museums as the “proper” forms of art defeats the journey of self-discovering that comes with reading in and evaluating for yourself what you see in each piece. Finding one’s own examples and reasons are more important. All of these notes lead me to believe that in the upcoming year, AP Lit will be based on looking inward when reflecting on a piece and asking ourselves “why does this speak out to me?” instead of merely focusing on what the work is saying on a surface level. Diving deeper into text and finding our own feelings and tastes towards pieces of literature will help the class and ourselves grow over the upcoming year. |
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March 2020
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