Taylei's Blog

 "One Plus One Equals a Mercedes-Benz"

When writing, you should always keep your mind open to strange possibilities. Don't use the part of your brain that tells you that 1+1=2. Use the imaginative part that tells you that 1+1 could equal something ridiculous like an elephant or a Mercedes-Benz. Think outside of the box, but stick to evidence grounded in the text. Don't just restate what is already obvious to conversant readers. You have to delve deeper. Don't just consider passages or paragraphs; you have to go even deeper. You have to consider sentences, phrases, even specific individual words. In the very beginning of the quarter, in ENL3, we were asked to describe an apple. The people who were thinking with their logical, descriptive brain said things like, "the apple is red; it's a fruit;" etc. But students who were thinking with their creative, analytical brain said things like, "it looks like its been to a lot of places." Similarly, if you are writing about yourself, don't state what anyone who knows you would know. Think of yourself in an entirely different mindset. As Natalie Goldberg said, "Tell me who you really are: 'I am the frost on the window, the cry of a young wolf, the thin blade of grass'." (pg. 82) If you are writing with that descriptive mindset, you'll only be able to get so far before you run out of facts to state. You must write with an analytical mindset. Think of every piece of evidence in strange, new ways that you never thought possible. This will allow you to recognize new perspectives and will provide new insight on the same information. Recognizing different perspectives than your own is a great way to strengthen your argument when writing analytically. 

Another good practice when writing is to completely forget about yourself. Melt into the background. Immerse yourself into your writing entirely. Or as Goldberg said, "Disappear into everything you look at—a street, a glass of water, a cornfield." (pg. 82) If you are able to completely remove your logical self from your writing, you are able to avoid such pitfalls as letting your opinion cloud the actual evidence presented by the text. But, when forgetting about one's self, that doesn't mean you should be any less invested in your writing. In this aspect, put everything into your writing. Once you are immersed and invested in your writing, you could end up making a masterpiece. If you ever find it hard to immerse yourself in your writing, then go back and read the passage of the text that you are analyzing. Get your inspiration back so you can continue writing. Once you are able to get back in the groove, so to say, and let your thoughts and ideas flow freely, it'll be much easier to make good analytical writing. Never be afraid to go with the ideas you're coming up with, even if they sound crazy. As long as you can support it through textual evidence, then it's fine. You never know when one of these crazy ideas could change the way other people see the text entirely. Goldberg said, "Everything you feel, become totally that feeling, burn all of yourself with it." (pg. 82) If your writing makes you feel a certain way, then use that feeling to drive your writing to even further depths. But again, don't let your opinions cloud the evidence. Once you come down from this completely becoming your writing and the way it makes you feel, only your writing stays. But that writing is probably an incredible piece of analytical work. But you don't just have to think of this for analytical writing. These practices are good practices for any kind of writing. They are even helpful sometimes outside of writing. Immersing yourself in something you are passionate about, whether that be a certain sport, hobby, or even politics, will help you progress so much further in that realm.

Bibliography

The first target area that I am focusing on is C3- A confusing idea, whether due to syntax, logic, or underdevelopment. My original excerpt is from my Analysis 2 on the Tempest, "Because of these implications, I better understand that: while humans may often be thought of as the smarter, stronger, and better race of animal, we wouldn’t be able to survive if it weren’t for the lesser animals around us." My revision of this excerpt is: "Because of these implications, I better understand that: while humans think of themselves as the smarter, stronger, and over-all better race of animal, they would not be able to survive without the creatures that they believe to be "lesser"; Also, these "lesser" animals are, in fact, not lesser, but equally as important as humans are." During the Paragraph Workshops that we held, it was brought up by several other students that this sentence in my original analytical paragraph needed some work because the way I had worded it was confusing. It seemed to be contradictory that I had just talked about these other creatures being superior, but then immediately called them lesser. I changed this to "lesser" to show that it's more of an implication by humans, themselves, that the other creatures are lesser than them.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is the story of Victor Frankenstein’s life. It started out as any other normal person’s life. He lived happily with his family. At a young age, his interest in the sciences was sparked, but he was quickly scolded by his father for admiring such outdated theories. From this moment on, things changed for Victor. When he went off to the university at Ingolstadt, he was able to nurture his love for science. But this love grew into an unhealthy obsession, and soon he theorized that he could create a living being. He gathered all of the parts and created his creature. And when the being came to life, it was the most handsome person Victor had ever seen. As months went by, Victor educated his creature and helped him learn the ways of society. Once he felt confident, Victor took the creature back home to meet his family. Everyone accepted the creature with open arms just as if he had always been part of their family, and everything was wonderful at first. But soon, the woman who was practically betrothed to Victor, Elizabeth, started to fall for the handsome, mystery man. Their affections grew for each other until it surmounted and they ran off together, never to be heard from again. This tormented Victor so greatly that he went into a downwards spiral; this spiral grew into a delirium so bad that he was eventually committed into an institution for the mentally ill. He lived there until he died of old age.

           “It was on a dreary night of November, that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils. With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet. It was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the soulful brown eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs.

           How can I describe my emotions at this wondrous creation that I had taken such infinite pains and care to form? His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful!― Great God! His smooth, tan skin was stretched taught over his perfect muscular form; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness. He was the most perfect, handsome being that I had ever set my eyes on.

The article I read was This. In it is discussed New Jersey governor and presidential candidate, Chris Christie, and his beliefs on vaccination policies. The author of the article seemed to take an almost sarcastic approach towards Governor Christie's beliefs. She criticized him for his actions in October during the Ebola outbreak when he quarantined a nurse that had just returned from West Africa for 3 days. But as far as his opinions go, he believes parents should be able to choose whether or not to vaccinate their children. His words exactly were, "It's more important what you think as a parent than what you think as a public official. I also understand that parents need to have some measure of choice in things as well. So that's the balance that the government has to decide... Not every vaccine is created equal, and not every disease type is as great a public-health threat as others." He acknowledged a theory that there is a link between vaccines and autism. This theory has no scientific evidence whatsoever. In fact there was a study done by the CDC and published in the Journal of Pediatrics in 2013 that proved there was no link between the two. I disagree with his position completely. I believe that parents should be required to vaccinate their children unless the child has a health reason that prevents them from getting the vaccine. The parents might not want to get their children vaccinated because they're afraid their child will contract the actual disease from the vaccine, but the chances of that really happening are very slim. They also might say they want their child to live an "all-natural" lifestyle, but the use of harmful chemicals in vaccines was put to an end a long time ago. Parents should get their children vaccinated because of situations like the one that occurred at Disneyland recently. The child had the measles and gave it to numerous other people in the park. Now there are almost 100 confirmed cases of the measles just due to that one child not having been vaccinated. When you don't vaccinate your child, you are not only putting your own child's health at risk, but possibly the health of anyone your child comes in to contact with. 

Tempest

Pre-writing:

Binary/Division: Man vs Creature; The reader might initially believe that Prospero is the only "man" on the island, as Caliban is sub-human and Ariel is a spirit of some sort, therefore making him superior.

Complication: An element that complicates this binary is the fact that without Caliban and Ariel, Prospero would be nothing. He hardly ever did anything for himself; he would always have them do it instead.

Evidence: 1.) Act I Scene II " 'And then I loved thee

And showed thee all the qualities o'th'isle: The fresh springs, brine-pits, barren place and fertile.' -Caliban" Implications: -Prospero couldn't have survived on the island if it weren't for Caliban showing him everything he knew. -Caliban is in fact the superior one because he is more knowledgeable and better equipped to live on the island than Prospero is. 2.) Act V Scene I " 'Now does my project gather to a head: My charms crack not, my spirits obey and time goes upright with his carriage.' -Prospero" Implications: - This quote may seem to show Prospero's power over Ariel and the other spirits, but it really shows Prospero acknowledging that he is practically powerless without the spirits there to do his bidding. -This quote also implies that Prospero owes a deal of gratitude towards the spirits for their crucial role in making his project such a success. This is shown by "and time goes upright with his carriage", which is saying that time goes forward in a positive manner.

Claim: The deeper understanding of the text provided by the implications is that although mankind (Prospero) is portrayed to be the superior being, it couldn't survive without the existence of and help from lesser beings (Caliban and Ariel). 

Analytical Paragraph:

A constantly recurring idea in The Tempest is the struggle for power. In the beginning, Antonio usurps Prospero. When Prospero lands on the island, he defeats the witch Sycorax. He then assumes command over Caliban and Ariel. Later in the play, Caliban encounters Stephano and Trinculo. Stephano makes Caliban his servant and Caliban encourages him to kill Prospero and take all of his power and land. Throughout the entire play, Prospero is weilding his power over spirits and magic to manipulate the passengers of the shipwreck. He leads them all back to his home, eventually, where he convinces Alonso (king of Naples) to grant him his dukedom back. 

The excerpt I used from SparkNotes was from the Themes, Motifs, and Symbols section. More specifically, it's from the Motifs portion. It explains that in almost every scene in the play there is a dynamic between someone portraying "the master" and someone portraying "the servant". It goes on to list several examples: Noblemen/Boatswain, Prospero/Caliban&Ariel, Alonso/Noblemen, etc. It also touched on the fact that even though there are all of these relationships, they are all different (e.g.- some are positive, some are negative, etc.). http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/tempest/themes.html

Pre-writing:

Quotation: " 'I am blind, and cannot judge of your countenance, but there is something in your words which persuades me that you are sincere.' " (Frankenstein Volume II, Ch. VII)

Mini-summary of immediate context: De Lacy is speaking to the creature after it finally reveals itself to him. He is judging the creature only based on his words rather than his appearance, something that has never happened before.

Mini-summary of broader context: The creature had been living in a little hovel attached to the back of a cottage. He had been watching the cottagers every day and learned many things from them. He longed to be a part of their family, so he decided to reveal himself to De Lacy, the blind, older man.

Focal word/phrase: "cannot judge of your countenance"

Strain of evidence: "countenance" "human creature" "cursed" "horror" 

Binaries/divisions/concepts/themes: Appearance/Personality, Good/Evil

2 Possible Implications of Quotation: 

The quote implies that the creature isn't inherently evil as everyone in the novel seems to think based on his appearance.

The quote also implies that the creature could possibly even have good intentions in his actions by the use of the word "sincere".

2 Possible Implications of Focal Word/Phrase:

The word "countenance" in itself implies that in the novel everything is based on your appearance and how other people see you.

The entire phrase implies that De Lacy is seeing the creature for who he really is rather than what his appearance makes him seem to be.

Reference from Text: Literally everyone who the creature ever encountered judged him based solely on his appearance, Victor "Oh! no mortal could support the horror of that countenance." (Volume I, Ch IV), William, even Felix and the other cottagers. But De Lacy didn't.

Analytical Paragraph:

The quote " 'I am blind, and cannot judge of your countenance, but there is something in your words which persuades me that you are sincere.' " implies many things. One of which being that the creature has a sincere nature even though its appearance would lead you to believe otherwise. De Lacy is able to see this in the creature because he is blind and doesn't know what it looks like. This changes our understanding of the creature that we've had up until this point. Before, we had only known what a monster and wretch it was; but in this new light shed by De Lacy, we can see that it might not be as evil as previously expressed. Another thing the quote implies is that the creature could even be good rather than evil. Lastly, this quote implies that you must be blind to someone's appearance to see them for who they truly are. This is shown by De Lacy being the only person to actually take the time to talk to the creature.

Reflection:

The editorial material I chose to read was the piece by John Croker from the Quarterly Review (January 1818). In this piece, the majority of the writing was of the summary of the book. After the summary, the first words from the author, pretty much, were "horrible and disgusting absurdity". This is the main tone of the rest of the review. Croker believes Frankenstein to be a work of pure insanity. He claims Victor was a mad man and that Mary Shelley could even be as mad as he was. Also discussed in this piece is how such eloquent language was used to describe nonsense, like something as abhorrent as the creature. Specific example of this were sited by Croker. Frankenstein was claimed to be immoral and to cause painful sensations to the reader. The author even suggests Shelley leaves the reader in doubt of whether her head or heart is the most diseased.

The chapter I chose from Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones was "One Plus One Equals a Mercedes-Benz". In this chapter, Goldberg discussed keeping your mind open. When you are writing, turn off the part of your brain that says 1+1=2. Let yourself believe in the possibility that 1+1 could equal a dog, 79, or even a Mercedes-Benz. Get in the mindset where dragons and elves and fairies really exist if that's what it takes for you to write openly. Don't just state the obvious or use cliches. Think outside of the box. In ENL 3, we were asked to write about an apple. It's quite difficult at first not to immediately go for the obvious facts like, "The apple is red. It is a fruit. You can eat it." You must think on a deeper level than that. For instance, one fellow student of ours suggested that the apple looked like it had been to a lot of places. When you are writing, you need to completely forget about yourself. Melt into the background. As Goldberg said, "Disappear into everything you look at--a street, a glass of water, a cornfield." Put all of yourself into your writing, even if just for a moment. Because in that moment, you'll probably make a wonderful piece of literature. And if you are ever unable to completely delve into what you are working on, remind yourself what it's like to do that. Go back and read the books, poems, etc. that have inspired you to write in the past. Refresh your memory and get yourself back into the writing groove. Once you are again able to just let your thoughts and ideas flow completely freely, your writing will benefit greatly. Never be afraid to just go with it, even if what you write down sounds crazy or ridiculous. You never know when something crazy could be something that will have a permanent impact on the world. Another wise thing Goldberg said was, "Everything you feel, become totally that feeling, burn all of yourself with it." You could interpret this statement many ways. In writing, it means immersing yourself entirely into the way your writing makes you feel. But you could also look at this as a statement about life in general. When you are passionate about something then you should be as passionate as possible about it, whether that be a sport, a hobby, or even a tv show. 

 One division I noticed whilst reading Volume I was how Victor consistently would say something positive and then immediately follow up with a negative statement that almost contradicts what he said before. He does this numerous times, for example when he was describing his childhood in the first chapter. He said things like "No youth could have passed more happily than mine."; and "I feel pleasure in dwelling on the recollections of my childhood". But shortly after he says, "before misfortune has tainted my mind and changed its bright visions...into gloomy and narrow reflections upon self." There is also a very similar situation when he goes on to first describe his creature later on in the book. I feel that when Victor is saying these things, it's almost like he wants you to think everything is perfect and good in life then he takes that glimmer of hope away by dashing it with some negative statement.