1. Has blogging been valuable to you as a student, thinker, reader, and writer?
Yes, blogging has been valuable to me as a student, thinker, and writer, though not so much a reader. As a student I was able to read fellow student's ideas to see where my ideas were in relation to their own ideas. This also helped me as a thinker, because if someone had different ideas than I did then I could read their post and see their ideas on the matter at hand, and gain some other insight that I otherwise would not have had. I'm not quite sure how writing on the blog helps me as a writer. I guess it helps me to write essays with my own personal style instead of the mechanical way that essays seemed to write themselves out before.
2. How do you feel about doing and continuing to do this kind of work?
I think that doing and continuing to do this kind of work, writing blogs and responding to other student's blogs is fun. It allows for a better interaction where there normally wouldn't be one, since we have separate classes at different times every day. It allows us to see what everyone is saying about the same topic. Even though it's about the same topic, everyone's answers are all different, because each person has different, possibly similar, ideas for every prompt we are given to write about, since even our free-write prompts have a prompt that just isn't stated as such.
3. Is this work different from other experiences that you have had in English classes?
Yes this work is different than other experiences I've had in English classes before. Before I would hardly ever be able to read anyone's writing, unless I was proofreading a friend's paper for them. Now I have the whole blog at me fingertips to see what other students are saying about our writing and we can actually get some feedback from the same, or possibly different, students.
4. Looking forward, do you have suggestions for how you want to be graded on this writing?
Well the grading system is confusing. I don't understand what I'm being graded on or what I did wrong. I can't improve my writing without strong constructive criticism. I'm very serious about my writing and I always try my best, but I'm not great with writing the right way or the mechanicals of writing. I can write very basically and spice it up later, but I don't know how I'd be able to fix my writing if I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Sure, Mr. Fiorini comments too, but the comments don't go into the specific details of what I have to fix and how I should fix it, which is what I need to help improve my writing.
5. Has doing this work changed the community within your own class or between classes (11-1 and 11-2) in any way?
I think doing the blog work has changed the community within the classes because before this we really didn't know how the other class wrote or their ideas, unless we felt like going through all the posts back on the Google forum. Now we can find the person's whose blog we want to read and read their blog. It's easy to read what they're writing and their ideas on the same questions we're asked.
Mar 27, 2009
Mar 20, 2009
Comments on The Great Gatsby
Christina Bonvicin
March 20, 2009
The Great Gatsby
“My idea is always to reach my generation. The wise writer...writes for the youth of his own generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmasters of ever afterward.”
“Self-interview,” New York Tribune (May 7, 1920)
F. Scott Fitzgerald was writing for his generation when he wrote The Great Gatsby. It was set in the 1920s, the Roaring Twenties, a time which Fitzgerald himself 'grew up' in. He wrote of the heartbreaks and the jealousy and the scandals that rocked New York City during the time. Sure, the characters and such were made up, but New York City and Broadway and Long Island are places you can visit today. The story and situations in the story are fiction, but in fact could be situations that did indeed happen. We could never know. But Fitzgerald was writing for his generation, the "Lost Generation," as it was called, the Jazz Age Fitzgerald himself named it. He was writing for the readers of his time, of the partiers and famous people, people just like the characters in The Great Gatsby.
Reading a little bio, I see that Fitzgerald puts some of his own life into the stories, thus making even more of a generation-appeal, so to speak. The Great Gatsby is considered to be Fitzgerald's greatest masterpiece, and it is continued to be read and taught in schools through the United States, as our class is a perfect example of. And considering that the entire eleventh grade curriculum is the same, that means many other teens are reading The Great Gatsby also, showing that Fitzgerald was a wise writer, for he wrote not only for his generation, but also for the critics of the next, and students and teachers forever after his greatest novel was published.
"That was always my experience—a poor boy in a rich town; a poor boy in a rich boy's school; a poor boy in a rich man's club at Princeton…I have never been able to forgive the rich for being rich, and it has colored my entire life and works."–F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Life in Letters
I can see this theme coming through in The Great Gatsby. Though Nick, the narrator, came from a rich family, he didn’t live nearly as rich as Gatsby or the Buchanans did. He was borrowing some of his father’s money to start his own career, since he didn’t want to take over the family business of owning a hardware store in the Mid-West. He wanted to be out east, in New York City and on Long Island. What I can also see is Fitzgerald making Nick and Gatsby both like himself. Or, rather, putting his own life experiences into the main characters of the story. Nick, the narrator, served in the first World War, “the Great War” as he calls it, as did Fitzgerald for a time. Both Fitzgerald and Gatsby went to great colleges, whether they wanted to or not. There are many other experiences that Fitzgerald puts into his characters, such as Gatsby being broke and then having a financial success after the war, such as Fitzgerald did. Though, Gatsby and Fitzgerald probably made their money two different ways. Possibly, you can never be entirely sure with things like that. Anyway, I can really see the “poor boy in rich boy place” theme going throughout the novel, as that is what Nick was, a “poor” man living surrounded by rich people.
March 20, 2009
The Great Gatsby
“My idea is always to reach my generation. The wise writer...writes for the youth of his own generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmasters of ever afterward.”
“Self-interview,” New York Tribune (May 7, 1920)
F. Scott Fitzgerald was writing for his generation when he wrote The Great Gatsby. It was set in the 1920s, the Roaring Twenties, a time which Fitzgerald himself 'grew up' in. He wrote of the heartbreaks and the jealousy and the scandals that rocked New York City during the time. Sure, the characters and such were made up, but New York City and Broadway and Long Island are places you can visit today. The story and situations in the story are fiction, but in fact could be situations that did indeed happen. We could never know. But Fitzgerald was writing for his generation, the "Lost Generation," as it was called, the Jazz Age Fitzgerald himself named it. He was writing for the readers of his time, of the partiers and famous people, people just like the characters in The Great Gatsby.
Reading a little bio, I see that Fitzgerald puts some of his own life into the stories, thus making even more of a generation-appeal, so to speak. The Great Gatsby is considered to be Fitzgerald's greatest masterpiece, and it is continued to be read and taught in schools through the United States, as our class is a perfect example of. And considering that the entire eleventh grade curriculum is the same, that means many other teens are reading The Great Gatsby also, showing that Fitzgerald was a wise writer, for he wrote not only for his generation, but also for the critics of the next, and students and teachers forever after his greatest novel was published.
"That was always my experience—a poor boy in a rich town; a poor boy in a rich boy's school; a poor boy in a rich man's club at Princeton…I have never been able to forgive the rich for being rich, and it has colored my entire life and works."–F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Life in Letters
I can see this theme coming through in The Great Gatsby. Though Nick, the narrator, came from a rich family, he didn’t live nearly as rich as Gatsby or the Buchanans did. He was borrowing some of his father’s money to start his own career, since he didn’t want to take over the family business of owning a hardware store in the Mid-West. He wanted to be out east, in New York City and on Long Island. What I can also see is Fitzgerald making Nick and Gatsby both like himself. Or, rather, putting his own life experiences into the main characters of the story. Nick, the narrator, served in the first World War, “the Great War” as he calls it, as did Fitzgerald for a time. Both Fitzgerald and Gatsby went to great colleges, whether they wanted to or not. There are many other experiences that Fitzgerald puts into his characters, such as Gatsby being broke and then having a financial success after the war, such as Fitzgerald did. Though, Gatsby and Fitzgerald probably made their money two different ways. Possibly, you can never be entirely sure with things like that. Anyway, I can really see the “poor boy in rich boy place” theme going throughout the novel, as that is what Nick was, a “poor” man living surrounded by rich people.
Mar 13, 2009
The Gatsby Party Mistake
Christina Bonvicin
3.13.o9
The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby is a rather... interesting book. The first two chapters had a lot of information about Nick, the narrator, and the people of both West Egg, East Egg, and New York City. The third chapter is when things start to pick up. There is a lot of description of the party that Nick attended and the people at the party. And even before that party, Nick describes his neighbor, Jay Gatsby, and the parties that he had that lasted until very early in the morning, and how the Monday after the party his servants would fix up the damage the partying people caused.
Nick knew the very intimate details of Gatsby's parties, even though, up until that point, he had never been to one. It seemed to me that Nick was very stalker-like in the beginning of the chapter. I found it extremely creepy that he would know about the gypsy that downed the cocktail for courage before dancing onto the canvas by herself. I could see if he knew this after Gatsby invited Nick to the party, but Nick knew before he even went to the party. It's just extremely creepy.
The one part of chapter three that I liked was the drunks in the car that lost it's tire, at the very end of the night.
"At least a dozen men, some of them a little better off than he was, explained to him that the wheel and car were no longer joined by any physical bond.
'Back out,' he suggested after a moment. 'Put her in reverse.'
'But the wheel's off!'"
This part of the dialogue was extremely funny, simply because of the sheer stupidity of the drunk driver. It's even funnier because I know that in the 20s alcohol was banned in the US, which just makes me think about when the law was passed. And if the book was written before or after that law was passed. It's funny too, because, the man still wanted to try to back the car up, even though it was impossible without the wheel on. The broken down car had caused a lot of traffic, and Gatsby just stood on his porch calmly saying goodbye. Very odd, considering the hold up of the cars in from of his house. I guess Gatsby is a very easy going guy about things like that.
Mar 6, 2009
Ezra Pound and His Oh-So-Interesting Life (And Poetry)
Christina Bonvicin 
3.6.09
Ezra Pound and His Oh-So-Interesting Life (And Poetry)
A Virginal by Ezra Pound
No, no! Go from me. I have left her lately.
I will not spoil my sheath with lesser brightness,
For my surrounding air hath a new lightness;
Slight are her arms, yet they have bound me straitly
And left me cloaked as with a gauze of aether;
As with sweet leaves; as with subtle clearness.
Oh, I have picked up magic in her nearness
To sheathe me half in half the things that sheathe her.
No, no! Go from me. I have still the flavour,
Soft as spring wind that's come from birchen bowers.
Green come the shoots, aye April in the branches,
As winter's wound with her sleight hand she staunches,
Hath of the trees a likeness of the savour:
As white their bark, so white this lady's hours.
1.) I found out much about Ezra Pound and his life. He was American born but more based in Europe for living, and liked the Chinese and Japanese aspects of poetry, such as the clarity and precision of the poetry. The time in which he lived covered a wide range in times. He was born in 1885, and wrote mostly in the 1900s to the 1950s and 1960s. He was influenced by many things of the time, including politics and materialism, as slightly seem in his poem A Virginal. At least, as it is read by me I see the poem as a reference to materialism. This is shown in the line “I will not spoil my sheath with lesser brightness,/For my surrounding air hath a new lightness.” It isn’t much materialism as it is devotion to his love, I want to say. But it seems to me materialism as he doesn’t want to soil himself with anything (anyone?) less than what he already has.
2.) Through a very close reading of the poem, I see that the how poem itself is a metaphor. Ezra Pound can be talking about many things. He can be talking about the change that politics made on his life, going from London to Italy and becoming a Fascist follower in the time he lived in Italy, saying about how the politic life of the Fascists couldn’t compare to any other government. Or he could be talking about the different movements of the time, such as the Imagism and Vorticism movements in Britain, where he lived for a time. Or you could simply take the poem at face value and see that Pound found a woman that he loved so much that he didn’t want anyone else.
Pound uses a rhyme scheme of ABBA CDDC in the first stanza, and EFGGEF in the second stanza. The GG rhyme in the second stanza is slant rhyme, so I included it as the same rhyme. The meter of the poem is very much the same, and Pound doesn’t use much flowery language to convey his thoughts, which is the Asian poetry styles coming through in his own poetry. The tone is that of a struggling man who is trying to keep himself in line so that way he doesn’t soil himself, as he believes he has the best thing that the world could give to him.
Masks by Ezra Pound
These tales of old disguisings, are they not
Strange myths of souls that found themselves among
Unwonted folk that spake an hostile tongue,
Some soul from all the rest who'd not forgot
The star-span acres of a former lot
Where boundless mid the clouds his course he swung,
Or carnate with his elder brothers sung
Ere ballad-makers lisped of Camelot?
Old singers half-forgetful of their tunes,
Old painters color-blind come back once more,
Old poets skill-less in the wind-heart runes,
Old wizards lacking in their wonder-lore:
All they that with strange sadness in their eyes
Ponder in silence o'er earth's queynt devyse?
3.) For the second poem by Pound I chose to read Masks, and I’m very glad I did. The poem is very good and I love it. There is a rhyme scheme of ABBAABBA for the first stanza, CDCD for the second stanza, and EE for the third stanza, kind of reminding me of a Shakespearean sonnet though not in couplet form and not nearly as long. The poem, despite the title, doesn’t quite talk about masks per se, but rather starts off talking about masks not being a strange myth of an older time. Pound then goes into his second stanza talking about various jobs, such as a singer, poet, and painter, and then throws in wizards to bring a more science-fiction/fantasy element to the poem. And he ends his poem with a rather odd question, of wondering if they (the singer/painter/poet/wizard) ponder about the disposal of the earth’s old-fashioned charm. Over all the poem was hard to try and see what Pound was saying but I think I got a pretty good grasp of what Pound meant, as I did with A Virginal.
4.) I don’t believe there is anything about distinctly American about his writing, or if you can even consider Ezra Pound an American poet as he spent most of his life living in Europe. Though I believe that Pound was an American citizen as he was charged with treason for spreading his Fascist views through radio to the US. In any way, I cannot find anything in Pound’s poetry that makes his poetry distinctly American, or distinctly anything but poetry to be honest.
Sites I used for information:
Poets.org
American Poems
Wikipedia for background checks
3.6.09
Ezra Pound and His Oh-So-Interesting Life (And Poetry)
A Virginal by Ezra Pound
No, no! Go from me. I have left her lately.
I will not spoil my sheath with lesser brightness,
For my surrounding air hath a new lightness;
Slight are her arms, yet they have bound me straitly
And left me cloaked as with a gauze of aether;
As with sweet leaves; as with subtle clearness.
Oh, I have picked up magic in her nearness
To sheathe me half in half the things that sheathe her.
No, no! Go from me. I have still the flavour,
Soft as spring wind that's come from birchen bowers.
Green come the shoots, aye April in the branches,
As winter's wound with her sleight hand she staunches,
Hath of the trees a likeness of the savour:
As white their bark, so white this lady's hours.
1.) I found out much about Ezra Pound and his life. He was American born but more based in Europe for living, and liked the Chinese and Japanese aspects of poetry, such as the clarity and precision of the poetry. The time in which he lived covered a wide range in times. He was born in 1885, and wrote mostly in the 1900s to the 1950s and 1960s. He was influenced by many things of the time, including politics and materialism, as slightly seem in his poem A Virginal. At least, as it is read by me I see the poem as a reference to materialism. This is shown in the line “I will not spoil my sheath with lesser brightness,/For my surrounding air hath a new lightness.” It isn’t much materialism as it is devotion to his love, I want to say. But it seems to me materialism as he doesn’t want to soil himself with anything (anyone?) less than what he already has.
2.) Through a very close reading of the poem, I see that the how poem itself is a metaphor. Ezra Pound can be talking about many things. He can be talking about the change that politics made on his life, going from London to Italy and becoming a Fascist follower in the time he lived in Italy, saying about how the politic life of the Fascists couldn’t compare to any other government. Or he could be talking about the different movements of the time, such as the Imagism and Vorticism movements in Britain, where he lived for a time. Or you could simply take the poem at face value and see that Pound found a woman that he loved so much that he didn’t want anyone else.
Pound uses a rhyme scheme of ABBA CDDC in the first stanza, and EFGGEF in the second stanza. The GG rhyme in the second stanza is slant rhyme, so I included it as the same rhyme. The meter of the poem is very much the same, and Pound doesn’t use much flowery language to convey his thoughts, which is the Asian poetry styles coming through in his own poetry. The tone is that of a struggling man who is trying to keep himself in line so that way he doesn’t soil himself, as he believes he has the best thing that the world could give to him.
Masks by Ezra Pound
These tales of old disguisings, are they not
Strange myths of souls that found themselves among
Unwonted folk that spake an hostile tongue,
Some soul from all the rest who'd not forgot
The star-span acres of a former lot
Where boundless mid the clouds his course he swung,
Or carnate with his elder brothers sung
Ere ballad-makers lisped of Camelot?
Old singers half-forgetful of their tunes,
Old painters color-blind come back once more,
Old poets skill-less in the wind-heart runes,
Old wizards lacking in their wonder-lore:
All they that with strange sadness in their eyes
Ponder in silence o'er earth's queynt devyse?
3.) For the second poem by Pound I chose to read Masks, and I’m very glad I did. The poem is very good and I love it. There is a rhyme scheme of ABBAABBA for the first stanza, CDCD for the second stanza, and EE for the third stanza, kind of reminding me of a Shakespearean sonnet though not in couplet form and not nearly as long. The poem, despite the title, doesn’t quite talk about masks per se, but rather starts off talking about masks not being a strange myth of an older time. Pound then goes into his second stanza talking about various jobs, such as a singer, poet, and painter, and then throws in wizards to bring a more science-fiction/fantasy element to the poem. And he ends his poem with a rather odd question, of wondering if they (the singer/painter/poet/wizard) ponder about the disposal of the earth’s old-fashioned charm. Over all the poem was hard to try and see what Pound was saying but I think I got a pretty good grasp of what Pound meant, as I did with A Virginal.
4.) I don’t believe there is anything about distinctly American about his writing, or if you can even consider Ezra Pound an American poet as he spent most of his life living in Europe. Though I believe that Pound was an American citizen as he was charged with treason for spreading his Fascist views through radio to the US. In any way, I cannot find anything in Pound’s poetry that makes his poetry distinctly American, or distinctly anything but poetry to be honest.
Sites I used for information:
Poets.org
American Poems
Wikipedia for background checks
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