Books, Real Life, and what you do with it

Ashley brought up some good points about reading books and traveling. She had an excellent analogy which compared television viewing to traveling in a car (lazy non-interactive, cushy experiences) while reading a book would be more like traveling in a motorcycle where you can FEEL the wind TOUCH the ground if you please. She ultimately argued we needed a mixture of both reading and traveling. Read her blog here.

I think it's a good idea to read books and gain knowledge from each individual context and culture that it highlights, but ultimately we should be experiencing life and doing so in such a way that WE write the stories for the next generation. Much to Professor Sexson's chagrin, I am talking about non-fiction, but we can of course be creative and write fiction based on our own travels and relationships.

This is ultimately the difference between a tourist who travels and from someone who travels and learns from the places they go and the people they meet. By writing about what we know, we can become teachers and friends to a whole new generation of literature 110 students. It's one thing to become an English teacher and teach the same Shakespeare cannon that's been taught for centuries, but it's whole different ballgame if you become an author that expands on a genre or invents a new one. But wait, you say, aren't you just recycling the same literary plots if you try to create a new category of writing? Personally, I think its much more creative to put your personal touch to something as opposed to teaching it straight out of the box.

So go ahead and read your books and travel to those distant lands. But if you're not writing about it, you're passing up an enormous opportunity to leave your stamp on literary history and the hearts and minds of future generations.

Found Poetry Take 2

I found some more poetry on the ingredients label of my Sweet & Salty Nut granola bar. I've structured it similar to the song 'Carol of the bells'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elAtcHU0iCU

Here are the Lyrics:

Carol Of The Bells

Hark! how the bells
Sweet silver bells
All seem to say,
"Throw cares away."
Christmas is here
Bringing good cheer
To young and old
Meek and the bold

Ding, dong, ding, dong
That is their song
With joyful ring
All caroling
One seems to hear
Words of good cheer
From ev'rywhere
Filling the air

Oh how they pound,
Raising the sound,
O'er hill and dale,
Telling their tale,
Gaily they ring
While people sing
Songs of good cheer
Christmas is here
Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas
Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas

On, on they send
On without end
Their joyful tone
To ev'ry home

Ding, dong, ding, dong.

And here's my abbreviated version:

High fructose syrup,

High Maltose syrup,

Wheat, sugar, salt,

Wheat, sugar, malt,

Palm kernel oil,

Ca-no-la oil,

Sweet, salt, sweet, salt,

Yellows 5 & 6,

Total Carbs 6,

Red 40 lake,

Color blue lake,

Peanut, peanut, peanut, peanut butter,

Peanut, peanut, peanut, peanut butter,

Serving size 1,

Serving size 1.

Rough Sonnet

It was fall when we began to play chance,

Red, yellow, and orange sped by so fast,

Our lips touched and we began to dance,

Little did we know, it would never last,

Our hearts were so warm we went without shells,

But before we could settle, dusk had come,

My angst from that day could fill seven wells,

Each day that passes, I become more numb,

Snippets of our date have come here and there,

We talk of our lives as if things were just fine,

And then without warning, you seem to care,

You clutch my heart and forget it is mine,

I cannot see you as simply a friend,

I hope that one day we will cease to pretend.

This sonnet got dark really quickly. I seem to come off as this crazed-stalker, so I think I'll rewrite it in a lighter tone. Writing at 1:30AM probably steers that darkness. Thoughts?

Class Notes 3/5

-Should be finished by book 3 of brothers K by now. The book should be finished by the end of Spring Break.

-Write a 14 line sonnet

-rhyming pattern of a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g

-iambic pentameter (ten syllables per line)

-3 quatrains (4 lines) and a couplet

-intro, middle, conflict, conclusion

-DUE by Friday 3/12

-Find some "found poetry"

-make poetry out of text that isn't meant to be literature, i.e. street signs, labels, instruction manuals, warnings, etc.

-Continue in poetry section

Brittnee posted something very interesting in her blog on Saturday:

I thought it was so funny when the girl read the paper posted on the door. As I watched the professor's face, it looked as if he were a child waking up to christmas morning. He just looked so happy. I wish I would get that excited about reading a piece of paper done by a janitor posted on the door. (Read the whole post here)

If I may, I'd like to steal the expression, "Christmas Face" and use it as a goal for myself and as a challenge to the rest of the class. Think back to when you were a little kid and that wonderful expression you get when you open up a new present. We still get that face when we are pleasantly surprised, but in my opinion, it doesn't happen enough. Our professor knows about the Christmas Face and is probably teaching this class in part to lead us to our next discovery. If that IS one of your main goals Mr. Sexson, I'm on board.

Wouldn't it be surreal if we discovered something cool every day? We would become as giddy as a child on Christmas Day.

Found Poetry!

I found some poetry on the side of my ibuprofen bottle. Enjoy!

Alert!

Hives,

facial swelling,

shock,

blisters,

Stomach Bleeding!

The chance,

is higher,

if you:

Are older,

Have 3,

or more,

alcohol

-ic drinks

Take More,

Take More,

Do not use!

Right before heart surgery

Or after

Stop use and vomit blood!

Definitely stop use

and vomit blood.

Sonnets and Cop Outs

Wikipedia defined a sonnet as a short poem that in Italian means "little song". An English, or Shakespeare sonnet, is usually in iambic pentameter meaning that it follows a pattern of an unemphasized syllable followed by an emphasized syllable and is repeated five times. The rhyme scheme usually goes a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g. Them poem itself is structured like a mini-story where the first quatrain is an introduction, the second quatrain establishes a theme or metaphor, the third quatrain presents a twist or conflict, and the last couplet is the conclusion.

Mr. Sexson assigned the class to write a sonnet by the end of our poetry section. This sonnet is then supposed to be sent to our significant other via the post office. Our professor gave us the option of sending it to our pet, but I see it as a cop out. For those of you who were awake in Monday's class, specifically the first 30 minutes, Mr. Sexson abrasively told us all that we were not living our lives to their full potential and that we were 'asleep'. I'm going to look past his horrendous prejudice towards our generation's lifestyle and take his side for a second. (Mr. Sexson, just because we don't read as much as you do, does not mean our lives have less meaning or less interest. We simply enhance our culture through ways of media that you are not familiar with.)

I don't believe that sending a romantic sonnet to one's significant other (A PERSON) or perhaps an object of one's affection (A "CRUSH") would have any negative consequences. In almost all situations the person will be flattered and probably even more interested in YOU as a person after reading a beautiful sonnet. You can even choose to write the sonnet anonymously, typed, and only use geralizations to conceal your identity.

Just think of it as an opportunity for us to 'wake up and live a little' our otherwise boring world that we all seem to be in.