Cover Letter - Multi-Modal Milton The process for writing this paper came naturally to me since I was drawn into the passage when I read it in the class. How is it that in the middle of what I viewed as a poem with lots of negative themes was the most beautifully, pure display of emotions? The words that Adam expressed stuck with me, so when the assignment came around I had to write about it. I viewed the relationship much like a balanced force that had each side requiring the other. I understood that Eve walked away at first, but she just came into the world. She didn’t know what the creation was like without Adam, so she had no idea the gift of the bond they were given. My edits helped me hone in on what their raw relationship meant to Adam. The result of the paper I wrote was satisfying because I was able to delve into the mindset of a person who appreciated a relationship and fellow human at the most raw level that someone can.
Multi-Modal Milton - Adam and Eve
“back I turnd, Thou following cryd’st aloud, Return fair Eve, Whom fli’st thou? whom thou fli’st, of him thou art, His flesh, his bone; to give thee being I lent Out of my side to thee, neerest my heart Substantial Life, to have thee by my side Henceforth an individual solace dear; Part of my Soul I seek thee, and thee claim My other half”
Rarely in a poem about Satan and a war of good and evil occurs a moment of raw, pure interaction. In the garden, Adam remained all alone. He was the only one of his kind. All the sudden at the hand of God, part of himself was taken out of him and formed to make another human, Eve. Eve, the creation of God, was made perfect like Adam in the Garden. Not only is Eve human, but God made her of Adam. They are made of the same flesh and bone, created for each other. The moment Adam sees her he cannot control his emotion. He is so connected and in love, and he cannot bear to see her anywhere else but alongside himself. Milton portrays pure love and connection in the excerpt. The love demonstrated is not built on societal examples or what he thinks is acceptable, but the reaction comes from a raw instinct. Adam knows that they are made for each other. He is bound by flesh to this person. His reaction is that of pure, unbridled love, wanting nothing more than to protect and keep his other half close to him. His un-filtered response acts as a model for the importance of human connection in its most basic form. In modern relationships, social media and image can blind people from how much they value a person in their life. Couples can tend to get caught up in how they can look better in society through their significant other. Rarely people look inward without any of the extra baggage on top of a bond and ask, how important is that person? To Adam at that moment, Eve was everything. He wanted nothing from her, but to be in her presence feeling true, uncompromised love. The word choice that Milton uses contributes to the idea of how important they were to each other. Adam states that she is his “other half.” The other words in the passage lend to the idea of connection and bond. His emotions and life are tied to hers as he needs her by him for his heart to be full again. Milton places emphasis on the nouns like heart and other half. He uses such important words to a person to make sure that the audience can tell that their lives are meant to be tied together. Adam and Eve are a part of a bond that flows in both directions. She was a part of him and he was a part of her. They were both made to complete each other. For my artifact, I thought back to the simple symbol of the Ying-Yang. Without one half, the symbol is incomplete. The balance is off and nothing can be right. When Adam was alone, he was sad because something was missing, Eve came and created balance to his existence as he does to hers. Adam the moment he saw her called out because he knew that his heart was with her, and without her there would be no balance. There was nothing written that told him this, but his emotions were pure human nature just as the Ying-Yang shows the two pillars that were believed to hold up civilization.
Greenblatt + Scott Cover Letter For this essay, I focused on the self and how outside forces influence the choices of the self. My thought process for this essay was based on the in class discussion we had. Views I held when originally writing a paper about this topic in the beginning of the year differed because the thinking I had done was more plot and surface level. I was able to dive deeper and understand parts like the ten conditions and examples of Scott with a different lens. I found that the main idea that linked the two together appeared naturally without much digging, so I searched for examples and specific points in the plot that provided evidence. The result was more gratifying than the previous paper on my concept map. In my edits, I was able to rework some of the wording, hopefully making my conclusions clearer as a result.
Greenblatt + Scott How does each person become their own self? Stephen Greenblatt writes about self-fashioning and someone’s ability to make autonomous choices based around the Middle Ages. On the other hand, A.O Scott tries to make sense of how someone comes to form an idea of how they like or dislike anything they come across. Both of their writings have one main aspect in common: the self. Scott has spent the main part of a career as a critic. He views forms of art, mainly films, and comes to a conclusion about his feelings towards the piece. His process of forming thought out decisions on what he views comes from a process of inward self-reflection. Scott believes that to be able to consume a piece of art properly, one must shut-out all preconceived notions and outside influences. Focusing less on the notoriety or hype behind any form of art can help someone see how exactly the piece can move them. Then, the viewer can be aware of what exactly they witnessed to match the observations to their tastes. Though, none of the reflection process works if the person is not in touch with him or herself. Knowing “why” they like something and what got them to that point is essential to be able to make an accurate and informed criticism. Greenblatt wrestles throughout his story with the idea of self-fashioning. Self-fashioning is a process that occurs to an individual person. Each person has an authority that they submit to and an alien that is a distorted reflection of that authority. An authority and alien are not set for every individual because they can change as a result of taste. One person may submit to certain authority and agree with what they say. On the other hand, someone else can reject that authority and submit to what may be the other person’s alien. The alien and authority can be interchangeable, but the part that always stays the same is the self in the center of the picture. Greenblatt believes that the self is always getting influenced by outside forces, such as the authority showering down influence and ideas down to the subject, or the self. Pure-autonomy in his world is unattainable for humans as their is some outside force dictating what we think and choose to do no matter what. Outside forces attacking the self seem to be unavoidable in both Scott and Greenblatt’s writing. Scott wants his readers to know what is influencing the self and what the effect is on taste. Greenblatt wants the reader to know that the self will never be free of outside influence. Their writings work together to make people aware of where the self stands in world of wavering authenticity and varying taste. One’s self will always be in the center of the picture, but around it there will be some form of force working to determine choices. Each writer wants to at least make the process known so that the average person can understand the outside forces to try and have the most authentic experience with a form of art. In conclusion, each writer wants to drive in the idea of the self and what molds the self into what it is uniquely for each person. Shaping the self is just a part of being in a culture where forces around anyone will affect it whether one rejects or submits to the power that determines the choices so many people make.
CMPD Cover Letter (Final) At first the task of drawing themes and ideas from each of the texts to bring them together seemed daunting, but after taking a closer look at all of the pieces and the notes in my common place book I felt myself seeing the bigger picture quickly. The only part to me that seemed difficult to draw together would be the Self Fashioning. I struggled with this text and read over it many times, not being able to get a grasp in how it relates. The idea finally came to me that the piece may not directly relate, but instead be the example of how dull the opposite of a varied source of opinions would be. Everyone dresses the same. Everyone talks to the same. No one stands out since they're all following trends. After my realization, I understood how important the ideas of rejecting authority were. At that point I knew I had to have lines from the themes and ideas going into the rejection of mainstream ideas as the meeting point before spreading out into the two hopeful possibilities if one was to follow what the authors planned out. In my persuasive descriptions I wanted to make my piece a journey where the reader could feel the pull of the arrows, so every jump from theme to idea to end result felt natural and the reader would be able to work it out with or without the arrows present, just as Popova can connect quotes and ideas from intellectuals from different fields of study without it even feeling unnatural. In my revision stages, I focused in on Popova’s connections and tried to be able to draw lines that were clear and able to be understood by the reader in order for each summer reading piece to come together in a cohesive piece. Throughout my rounds of edits, I tried working on drawing clearer lines between the texts by using more supporting details. I also worked on making the piece my authentic voice through simplifying the paper down to the essentials.
Concept Map Persuasive Description (Final) When making the concept map, I first asked myself what the main ideas where for each piece of text. For Better Living Through Criticism, I found that it was the distinct motivation behind art. I believed this to be the main idea because of the overall discussion on how we evaluate art in general. Where one’s attraction to an aspect of a piece comes from is important to understand in order to wrap your head around the piece itself. If someone can’t know why they hold a criticism, how can they know what’s right or wrong in the piece of art? Valuing new ways of thinking and questioning stood out in A More Beautiful Question. Right away my brain drew a line between the two themes. By valuing new ways of thinking and questioning, one can show a full understanding in the reasoning of a person and their criticism. Being open to new trains of thought can expand their world view and now allow them to understand people’s motivations in a light that didn’t exist before. Unlike the first two texts, Self Fashioning seemed more centered around uniformity in life. Separate from the freedom of thought ideals of the first two texts, Self Fashioning stood out from the rest by emphasizing one way of doing things, so I left it separate for now. In the second row, I added a box for the importance of varied opinions. Reasons for criticism will result in many different angles in a conversation. With complicated human creations like visual art or literature, many varied opinions will present themselves, but without these opinions art will stay the same because everyone would be on the same page. Everyone agreeing on how art should be perceived would be a dull world, which is why the red box ties directly into the light purple box. One must reject authority and mainstream thought to avoid this homogenous void of opinions that could plague a homogeneous society. A More Beautiful Question spoke in-depth on the importance of school, which could be seen as a form of authority. If schools accepted only one correct answer when interpreting literature, the result would be a like-minded class with no one pushing themselves to think any differently. The introduction of new ways of thinking and questioning varied opinions felt like they came together naturally at the rejection of mainstream thought. In the heart of the text, the underlying message of “popular does not equal better” can be seen throughout as new ideas are introduced on how to expand criticism and questions. On the far right of that row Self Fashioning has the idea of anti-individualism. At first, the anti-individualist view can seem further away from the other texts as possible, but by highlighting the redundancy of a self fashioning society, the importance of variety peaks through. Just as a single-minded school system would be mundane, a single-style dressing and trend following culture, eliminates the creativity to innovate. Self Fashioning indirectly speaks about the importance of individualism by giving a renaissance example of A More Beautiful Question’s theories of unquestioning, single-minded cultures. At the end of the chart, two lessons appear from the chart. By opening up one’s mind to vary the way one can question and criticize, anyone is able to experience a new appreciation for the beauty that life can offer. Also, without the weight of what society values as important, one can go past the typical education and see for themselves what the world can offer them. Each text seemed to be reaching out almost begging for the reader to see the art the world has to offer in a brighter lens. The authors equipped the audience with the tools and knowledge to arm themselves against the temptations of a monotonous thought minefield into an endless realm of possibility of discussion, made tangible by the ideas in the concept map.
CMPD Cover Letter V2. At first the task of drawing themes and ideas from each of the texts to bring them together seemed daunting, but after taking a closer look at all of the pieces and the notes in my common place book I felt myself seeing the bigger picture quickly. The only part to me that seemed difficult to draw together would be the Self Fashioning. I struggled with this text and read over it many times, not being able to get a grasp in how it relates. The idea finally came to me that the piece may not directly relate, but instead be the example of how dull the opposite of a varied source of opinions would be. Everyone dresses the same. Everyone talks to the same. No one stands out since they're all following trends. After my realization, I understood how important the ideas of rejecting authority were. At that point I knew I had to have lines from the themes and ideas going into the rejection of mainstream ideas as the meeting point before spreading out into the two hopeful possibilities if one was to follow what the authors planned out. In my persuasive descriptions I wanted to make my piece a journey where the reader could feel the pull of the arrows, so every jump from theme to idea to end result felt natural and the reader would be able to work it out with or without the arrows present, just as Popova can connect quotes and ideas from intellectuals from different fields of study without it even feeling unnatural. In my revision stages, I focused in on Popova’s connections and tried to be able to draw lines that were clear and able to be understood by the reader in order for each summer reading piece to come together in a cohesive piece.
Concept Map Persuasive Description V2. When making the concept map, I first asked myself what the main ideas where for each piece of text. For Better Living Through Criticism, I found that it was the distinct motivation behind art. I believed this to be the main idea because of the overall discussion on how we evaluate art in general. Where one’s motivation to be drawn to a certain aspect of a piece comes from is important to understand in order to wrap your head around the work. Valuing new ways of thinking and questioning stood out in A More Beautiful Question. Right away my brain drew a line between the two themes. By valuing new ways of thinking and questioning, one can show a full understanding in the reasoning of a person and their criticism. Being open to new trains of thought can expand their world view and now allow them to understand people’s motivations in a light that didn’t exist before. Unlike the first two texts, Self Fashioning seemed more centered around uniformity in life. The text stood out from the rest by emphasizing one way of doing things, so I left it separate for now. In the second row, I added a box for the importance of varied opinions. Reasons for criticism will result in many different angles in a conversation. With complicated human creations like visual art or literature, many varied opinions will present themselves, but without these opinions art will stay the same since everyone is on the same page. Everyone agreeing on how art should be perceived would be a dull world, which is why the red box ties directly into the light purple box. One must reject authority and mainstream thought to avoid this homogenous void of opinions that plagues society. A Beautiful Question spoke in-depth on the importance of school. If school accepted only one correct answer when interpreting literature, the result would be a like-minded class with no one pushing themselves to think any differently. The introduction of new ways of thinking and questioning and respecting varied opinions felt like they came together naturally at the rejection of mainstream thought. In the heart of the text, the underlying message of “popular does not equal better” can be seen throughout as new ideas are introduced on how to expand criticism and questions. On the far right of that row Self Fashioning has the idea of anti-individualism. At first, the anti-individualist view can seem further away from the other texts as possible, but by highlighting the redundancy of a self fashioning society, the importance of variety peaks through. Just as a single-minded school system would be mundane, a single-style dressing and trend following culture, eliminates the creativity to innovate in culture. Stephen Greenblatt indirectly speaks about the importance of individualism by giving a renaissance example of Berger’s theories of unquestioning, single-minded cultures. At the end of the chart after connecting the themes and seeing the ideas that stem off of them come together, two lessons come out of the chart. By opening up one’s mind to vary the way one can question and criticize, anyone is able to experience a new appreciation for the beauty that life can offer, and without the weight of what society values as important, one can go past the typical education and see for themselves what the world can offer them. Each text seemed to be reaching out almost begging for the reader to see the art the world has to offer in a brighter lens. The authors equipped the audience with the tools and knowledge to arm themselves against the temptations of a monotonous thought minefield into an endless realm of possibility of discussion, made possible by the ideas in the concept map.
Cover Letter CMPD At first the task of drawing themes and ideas from each of the texts to bring them together seemed daunting, but after taking a closer look at all of the pieces and the notes in my common place book I felt myself seeing the bigger picture quickly. The only part to me that seemed difficult to draw together would be the Self Fashioning. I struggled with this text and read over it many times, not being able to get a grasp in how it relates. The idea finally came to me that the piece may not directly relate, but instead be the example of how dull the opposite of a varied source of opinions would be. Everyone dresses the same. Everyone talks to the same. No one stands out since they're all following trends. After my realization, I understood how important the ideas of rejecting authority were. At that point I knew I had to have lines from the themes and ideas going into the rejection of mainstream ideas as the meeting point before spreading out into the two hopeful possibilities if one was to follow what the authors planned out. In my persuasive descriptions I wanted to make my piece a journey where the reader could feel the pull of the arrows, so every jump from theme to idea to end result felt natural and the reader would be able to work it out with or without the arrows present, just as Popova can connect quotes and ideas from intellectuals from different fields of study without it even feeling unnatural.
Concept Map Persuasive Description When making the concept map, I first asked myself what the main ideas where for each piece of text. For Better Living Through Criticism, I found that it was the distinct motivation behind art. I believed this to be the main idea because of the overall discussion on how we evaluate art in general. Where one’s motivation to be drawn to a certain aspect of a piece comes from is important to understand in order to wrap your head around the work. Valuing new ways of thinking and questioning stood out in A More Beautiful Question. Right away my brain drew a line between the two themes. By valuing new ways of thinking and questioning, one can show a full understanding in the reasoning of a person and their criticism. Being open to new trains of thought can expand their world view and now allow them to understand people’s motivations in a light that didn’t exist before. Unlike the first two texts, Self Fashioning seemed more centered around uniformity in life. The text stood out from the rest by emphasizing one way of doing things, so I left it separate for now. In the second row, I added a box for the importance of varied opinions. Reasons for criticism will result in many different angles in a conversation. With complicated human creations like visual art or literature, many varied opinions will present themselves, but without these opinions art will stay the same since everyone is on the same page. Everyone agreeing on how art should be perceived would be a dull world, which is why the red box ties directly into the light purple box. One must reject authority and mainstream thought to avoid this homogenous void of opinions that plagues society. The introduction of new ways of thinking and questioning and respecting varied opinions felt like they came together naturally at the rejection of mainstream thought. In the heart of the text, the underlying message of “popular does not equal better” can be seen throughout as new ideas are introduced on how to expand criticism and questions. On the far right of that row Self Fashioning has the idea of anti-individualism. At first, the anti-individualist view can seem further away from the other texts as possible, but by highlighting the redundancy of a self fashioning society, the author shows how variety is important, tying right back into the ideas of the other texts. At the end of the chart after connecting the themes and seeing the ideas that stem off of them come together, two lessons come out of the chart. By opening up one’s mind to vary the way one can question and criticize, anyone is able to experience a new appreciation for the beauty that life can offer, and without the weight of what society values as important, one can go past the typical education and see for themselves what the world can offer them. Each text seemed to be reaching out almost begging for the reader to see the art the world has to offer in a brighter lens. The authors equipped the audience with the tools and knowledge to arm themselves against the temptations of a monotonous thought minefield into an endless realm of possibility of discussion, made possible by the ideas in the concept map.
Cover Letter The Rhetorical Analysis came together after reading five of the brain pickings. The ones I found most interesting were the science and philosophy based ones. For example, "Alan Lightman on the Longing for Absolutes in a Relative World and What Gives Lasting Meaning to Our Lives," "Descartes on Wonderment," and "In Praise of the Tamed Metaphysicist: Einstein on Reality, Rationality, and the Human Passion for Comprehension" were three articles I talked about from the impact they had on me when I was reading them. Their use of majorty quotes from some of history's greatest thinkers stood out to me while Popova still guided the conversation. I hoped to highlight her use of quotes to add intellectual support to her arguments. In addition, I wanted to explain how her use of images would evoke responses that sometimes the words alone may not. Her strategies can be easily used because the use of quotes in writing papers can show evidence immediately to the reader, instead of merely paraphrasing all of the information. Quotes can change the reception to open up the audience to accept facts and figures easily, making them a key tool to use. https://www.brainpickings.org/2018/03/27/alan-lightman-searching-for-stars-on-an-island-in-maine/ https://www.brainpickings.org/2017/11/22/descartes-wonderment/ https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/05/12/einstein-passion-for-comprehension/
Brain Pickings Rhetorical Analysis Maria Popova’s brain pickings are simple posts designed to use her original thoughts interspersed with a variety of images and quotes from well-respected minds to tackle complicated concepts and ideas. All of her articles begin with a quote. Quotes serve as a way to set up the reader for the discussion to come. Usually the wisdom of the quotes are able to expose her audience for the purpose and message of the article before they delve in. In fact, quotes are commonly spread all throughout her writing, though the ones in the middle of the article are mainly longer form excerpts. Popova compiles a series of quotes from a variety of thinkers to add to the conversation that she is mainly leading in most articles. Though, she contributes much to each piece, using outside thoughts from some well-spoken people in each conversation brings the reader in more completely. Her points she makes in each article are made trustworthy by employing educational statements that validate her points completely. Popova can also use these quotes to synthesize her point by allowing the reader to draw connections and also see individual differences from the words, to get a variety of views all pointing to her ultimate message she is trying to teach. On the other hand, in the case of some articles, the quotes make out almost all of the words on the page. When Popova uses a quote for the majority of an article, she sees her role as that of a discussion moderator. For the “Descartes on Wonderment” article, she sets up the reader with a question and some background, then using Descartes wisdom to help the reader understand the importance of wonderment. Her allowance of letting Descartes speak for himself, boosts her message. Descartes is a renowned thinker, so hearing him leader the charge of the argument on the importance of wonderment in learning and discovery helps the reader feel comfortable that what they are reading is accurate information. Whether it’s Descartes or Einstein, hearing the raw thoughts of the world’s greatest minds can create trust between the reader and the message that is trying to be relayed. While quotes are heavily used throughout, Popova throws in images in between chunks of text to have an interpretive response to the reading before hand. In “Alan Lightman on the Longing for Absolutes in a Relative World and What Gives Lasting Meaning to Our Lives,” Popova includes an abstract art piece by Lorenzo Mattotti. The work of art hammers in the idea of relativity as art evokes emotional and sometimes unclear messages to different people. Paintings can be as far away from absolute as any form of art at times, so including a piece gives the reader the ability to think about the words of the article by having an outside example before them. Even a simple picture of the cosmos used can show the reader an image from nature that puts the reader in a state of awe, allowing them to capture the emotions that the quotes might not be able to capture.
Concept Map In my concept map, I tried to show how each of the pieces began with main themes that they covered, but eventually began to connect about the value of personal opinions, in part rejecting authority. In the case of "Self Fashioning," individualism was shown through a lack of it, emphasizing why there needs to be a lack of authority dictating what to do. At the end, all the three texts tried to cover a new and individual way to appreciate art and beauty in one's own way as well as having an individual and inquisitive pursuit of knowledge.