Green Architecture

I quite enjoyed class on Monday when we talked about how the architecture of a building told stories about it and of the school.

When we split into groups to discuss a certain building on campus, our small group took Regents, and we focused a lot on Green Architecture. When we were done with this, we compared Regents Hall to the science building at Oberlin.
This isn't entirely related to architecture, but the fact that we are so awed by solar panels is kind of interesting. They give off the appearance of being very earth friendly and conscientious of the environment. It actually takes a lot of energy to manufacture and maintain solar panels, and a lot of the chemicals they have to use in solar panels is very harmful.
There are a lot of energy resources that we think are sustainable, such as ethanol, that are really not so sustainable. I suppose at the time when the Oberlin building was built, they were more excited about the alternative-ness of the energy, and they might have even believed that they were greener. It is true that solar panels are better for the environment than fossil fuels, but there are much better ways to be green conscious.

While that doesn't have much to do about architecture, I thought it was interesting.

NaNoWriMo! ...And other stuff.

And, as Day 13 of NaNoWriMo draws to an end, I achieved 50,029 words. Oh yeah.
I finished less than half way through the month. And, I think I may just write a second novel, because... I'm not entirely sure.

And, the other stuff.
I guess I'm a little confused as to why we didn't discuss architecture when we discussed landscape. They go together, and most of the time, the architecture of a place reflects the landscape and values of a people inhabiting the land. I thought class discussion on Friday was very interesting when we talked about Thomas Jefferson's architecture, and what that reflected about his personality.
I like how an architect's work can really display their personality and what they value - especially in present times. If a building's architect likes conserving energy, there are a lot of tricks they can do that will optimize this. And how one modern building, such as the University of Virginia's Rotunda, reflects the history of centuries before with its similarities to the Roman Pantheon.

It's kind of late, so I just want to end by saying that I'm excited about talking more about architecture next week, and that I finished NaNoWriMo.

Harmonic Dreams.

Spring Awakening and AmCon

So, after a lot of waiting, memorizing the words to most of the songs, and parking my butt in Barnes & Noble for a day and reading the script, I finally got to see Spring Awakening. It was amazing.


The rock-musical musical is based off of a controversial German play written by Frank Wedekind in 1891. The music was done by Steven Slater and Duncan Sheik, and the Broadway Original Cast featured Lea Michelle and Jonathan Groff as the leads, who are both characters on Glee (Rachel Berry and Jesse St. James). While slightly inappropriate, the music and story conveys a very strong point - which I'll get to.
While seeing this, and even before, I was struck by how much the plot resembled what would have happened if the debate of the Textbook Wars would have gone the other way. The story is focused on teenagers who are discovering their sexuality, a subject which is extremely suppressed by all adults.
 
Their education is so incomplete on this subject that the opening song and its reprise (Mama Who Bore Me) depicts the lead female, Wendla (Michelle), followed by the rest of the girls, expressing their desire to know where babies come from. The boys aren't doing so well either with their sexual identity (The B**** of Living). Melchior (Groff) seems to be the leader of the boys, and helps another boy, Moritz... well... discover himself. Both groups struggle to express their feelings towards the opposite gender (My Junk).
As the play continues, the two lead characters, Wendla and Melchior, have sex together (I Believe, The Guilty Ones), and unknowing of the consequences, Wendla becomes pregnant. Later, she dies in an abortion attempt, done very shadily and forced by her mother (Whispering). Wendla appeals to reason, explaining how she loves Melchior and didn't know how pregnancy happened because she was never told.
Another recurring theme in Spring Awakening is the idea of questioning authority. The adults in this play are all very strict. They discourage individualism, and try to beat them back into the pack (All That's Known, Totally F*****). They're all almost the same character themselves and they're even played by the same three actors. The adults are even oppressive, leading to the sexual abuse of two characters by their fathers (The Dark I Know Well). Moritz fails an exam, and his father kicks him out of his house. When failing to get money to travel to America (And Then There Were None), he eventually commits suicide (Don't Do Sadness).

Well. That's depressing. Despite the very helplessness of the story, the characters still find hope in each other (Those You've Known). It ends on a bittersweet note with a very hopeful song (The Song of Purple Summer).


The themes of this play shows the opposite of the American ideal of Freedom of Speech. It presents an example of a society that is very distorted by the lack of this freedom. I'd also like to note that it was banned in Germany for quite a while because of its controversial material, such as the portrayal of suicide, sex, child abuse, homosexuality, and masturbation. It presents an image of the Great Textbook War Debate gone the wrong way. Though it's a very extreme case, it is still very frightening.

Here are the songs I recommend listening to - don't worry, these ones are appropriate:
Mama Who Bore Me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSOsz4-J-_8
     Same song, with the reprise and video, not as great quality or performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvS3POd1YYI
All That's Known: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9v9Ut1IcEqg
The Latin in the beginning is a passage from Virgil's Aeneid. This is the only video I could find with good sound quality.
The Guilty Ones: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V68D-NeeJIw
Whispering: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QF6qVrcpL4
Those You've Known: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jj7zI8uZ1EU
The Song of Purple Summer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nrw1p6OdcSs

If your okay with a few swear words, I highly recommend listening to "Totally F*****": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIx7yW9FMfw
I think it best represents the argument between the teenagers needing freedom of speech and their suppression.

Post Secret

If you've never been to PostSecret, you should someday. (http://www.postsecret.com/) It updates every Sunday.

The idea is that anyone can send in any secret on their own postcard, anonymously. Then, the world can see it. St. Olaf had a similar thing earlier this year with all of the secrets on the walls of the Boe Tunnel. Though I've never sent one in, I can imagine the experience being very freeing. Some of them are sad, some are thoughtful, some of them are cheerful, and some of them are just plain weird. I think the most meaningful thing about PostSecret is reading others secrets, and realizing that other people might be suffering and feeling the same things you are. That you are not alone.
I can barely explain how much this means to me, and this freedom is very rooted in the American Dream. It's the ultimate form of freedom of speech - the whole country will sympathize and share your feelings, even if they're anonymous.

The All American Rejects used PostSecret in their music video for "Dirty Little Secret" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPDcwjJ8pLg&ob=av3e) It shows a good variety.

That said, here are a few of my favorite secrets that I've collected over the past year or so. Click on them to make them bigger.

  

Current Word Count : 12,853. Think I'm shooting for 100,000 this year.

Stewart - Colbert Rally

This weekend, on Saturday the 30th, there was a Colbert/Stewart rally on the National Mall to restore sanity. One of the focuses of many people was against the Tea Party extremists. There was an estimated attendance of about 215,000 people. Though a lot of people went to demonstrate their political beliefs, there were also many people who claimed there was no political focus for the rally.

I have a few friends that went and said they had a lot of fun, and I just felt like sharing some of their pictures.

Two of my friends, their costumes, and their signs.

The Stage

Some other people and their signs

Also, NaNoWriMo has begun. Word count - 4015.

30 days to go.

"Milk" and the Tea Party

One of Karin's posts on the Tea Party concerned the suicide of Tyler Clementi and the bullying of homosexuals. This made me think of the movie, Milk, which follows the story of the politician, Harvey Milk, and being elected as California's first openly gay elected official.
The bullying that Harvey Milk must have gone through in the 70's must have been much similar to what the Tea Party wants to put homosexuals through today. While Tyler Clementi committed suicide and Harvey Milk was murdered, I would think that the struggles they both endured would have been very similar.
It's appalling how little we've come in forty years.

Mike Stralka's Moment of Genius

Not that he isn't brilliant as he is already, but, he had a moment of particularly genius-ness.

"The Tea-Party is founded on fear." - Mike Stralka

During our small group discussion in class on Friday, we talked about dense facts and the Tea Party. We were looking at the article "Climate Change Doubt is Tea Party Article of Faith". As you can guess by the article title, one of the key beliefs of the Tea Party is that the argument of anthropogenic climate change is a lie, and that what is happening to the earth is the work of God.

Personally, I think this is just silly.

The Tea-Party sees only what they wish to see. They are conformist - afraid of differences. They take a strong stand against immigrants, homosexuals, and anyone that doesn't belong to their faith. Differences are the unknown - and are a bit scary. 

As Dumbledore said, "It is the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more." I'm not saying differences mean death or darkness, but that the unknown is what we really fear above all.

They do not respect the differences of the human race. They are afraid of fear.

I'd like to end with the famous quote from FDR's inaugural address: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

I think this quote sums up my ideas about the Tea Party. They are pretty scary.

No Creo en el Jamas

This doesn't really have to do with American freedom, exactly, but it's still pretty cool.

So, I love music. Recently, I've had a more of a taste for Latin music (besides the constant soundtracks). Last year, my Spanish teacher introduced me to a Colombian musician, Juanes. And, other than writing great music and winning three Latin Grammy Awards, he is also a humanitarian and a peace activist.

He established a foundation to help victims of anti-personnel mines, called Mi Sangre (Also the name of one of his albums, which means my blood). He is involved in Paul McCartney's Adopt-A-Minefield organization, which focuses on the awareness of the land mines within Cuba. He also held a concert for peace in Cuba, despite threats from some extremists, which shows real dedication to his cause, and that he is using Freedom of Speech to express a noble cause.

Anyway, I was just listening to one of his songs - No Creo en el Jamas (I Don't Believe in 'Never') - and thought about AmCon. It's about facing your fears, not giving up, and being a better person today than you were yesterday.
Here's a link to the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJ8q5QsYuj4
And here's a link to the translation of the lyrics: http://lyricstranslate.com/en/No-Creo-En-El-Jamas-I-dont-believe-never.html

Also - La Vida...  es un Ratico (Life is a moment)
Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC42aqr7KW8
Lyrics: http://lyricstranslate.com/en/La-Vida-es-un-Ratico-La-Vida-es-un-Ratico.html

Inventory and Photography

A while ago in high school, we did a small project on a photographer.
Well, anyway, what he did was he would travel all over the world and find families in all sorts of different social positions and ask them to place all of their belongings together in one place, and he would take a picture with the family. Some of them were really astonishing - they ranged from an extremely poor family with barely anything to royalty somewhere in the world, and the sheer amount of belongings was just incredible.
Then, we chose two students, one male and one female, and did the same thing - we emptied out all of their possessions in their dorm room and laid them out on the grass. Even for a small dorm room, it was a lot of stuff.

It really made me think twice about all of the material possessions we have, especially in our culture, when there are so many people who don't have anything.

Thank you DeAne for helping me find a link! http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/worldbalance/material.html


Also: 11 days left until November

Room Inventory

Oh dear... I have a lot of stuff.

 

1 Refrigerator

3 Blankets

2 Sets of sheets

1 Guitar

1 Helmet

Laundry Detergent

Granola Bars

Fruit Leather

Annie’s Mac and Cheese

Strawberry Frosted Mini Wheats

Saltine Crackers

Invisible Tape

Alarm Clock

Clothing

Shoes

2 Laundry Baskets

18 Piano Books

Shower Caddy

Toiletries

Scarves

Hats

Winter Coat

Rain Coat

Jewelry

2 Tissues

2 Power Strips

Laptop

Cell Phone

Cell Phone Charger

Laptop charger

Movies

4 Strands Decorative Lights

Backpack

Tote

3 Chapstick

Pens

Pencils

Markers

Crayons

Notebooks

Folders

Assorted Papers

Giant Clothes Pin

Mini Fan

Bigger Fan

5 Cups

4 Plates

2 Bamboo Plants

Halloween Candy

Storage box

Storage drawers

Garbage Bin

Books

Bed

Hangers

Chocolate

Textbooks

Rug

Desk Chair

Other Chair

Stool

Notecards

Desk Lamp

Pushpins

2 Stuffed Animals

External Harddrive

Permanent Markers

Erasers

Padlock

Passport

Ribbon

Glue

Duct Tape

Calculator

Towels

Step Ladder

Desk

Curtains

1 Phone

Canvas Print

Other Wall Décor

Dresser

Closet

Post-It Notes

2 Cushions

Stephen Schwartz! (Again)

So, I think Stephen Schwartz is kind of amazing. He's my favorite modern Theatre composer. I've already blogged about him - see "The Great Textbook Wars and Musical Theatre."

Anyway, he wrote the music for Wicked, and the lyrics for Pocahontas.
I'd like to take a closer look at the song, "Savages." 
Here's a link to it, in case you haven't seen the movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSu4hOLYrXk. Unfortunately, the lyrics aren't in their original form, but that's only on one line. Near the beginning, Ratcliff says "Here's what you get when races are diverse," but the original words for that line were "There whole disgusting race is like a curse."

Anyway - I think the lines below sum up the prejudices many settlers and Native Americans might have had about each other.
"They're not like you an me, which means they must be evil!"
and later:
"They're different from us, which means they can't be trusted!"
They were afraid of each other because they didn't know anything about the other race. They weren't used to their customs or language or anything. I think that a lot of the problems between the English settlers and Native Americans stemmed from fear.

Also, 15 days left until NaNoWriMo.

Prospies and St. Olaf

Oh noes! I wasn't able to blog last week! Ahhh!

So, my friend Kevin had a prospie earlier this week (Tuesday). He was at Viking Choir when he was supposed to pick him up, though, so Mike Stralka and I helped him out. We gave him a quick ~half hour tour, and took him to see the building around the center of campus.

When giving him a really quick tour, I realized that what I was saying would be perfect for my St. Olaf project. Later that night I went back to the drawing board and redid my entire essay, using the things I said and things he asked. It was a very helpful experience for this project.

Primary Sources

"But knowing my owne innocency and godly fervor, in the whole prosecution hereof, I doubt not of your benigne acceptance, and clement construction" 
Rolfe, "The Letter of John Rolfe." pp240

It's probably not important, but I think it's a little odd that in all of the documents, the authors think so highly of themselves. They are right. What they're doing is the only way to do things, and they are following God's way better than anyone else. They all seem very pompous.
That, and the horrendous spelling. Which is really distracting.

Conflicting Images

"To be sure, gawky, volatile Uncle Sam and serenely regal Columbia appear both aligned and mismatched."

Groseclose, The Early Nineteenth Century: Democratic Models. p. 61

America is complex. The American Dream cannot be pinned to one specific thing. For example, our readings for Monday's class depict the fact that the Pueblo's dream was to be connected to nature in their own way, and the Puritan's dream was for order. Almost all visions, however, generally included peace between the citizens of America.

I think the two symbols of Uncle Sam and Columbia are perfect for America precisely because they conflict with each other.  
The reading asks on page 62, "Why these particular symbols?" It then goes on to mention two versions of one particular symbol: the princess. The original image was of a "hefty Indian Queen" (63), but then evolved into a "slender white princess" (63).
I think these two, in particular, show the conflict of different societies within their own vision of the American Dream. This is why peace between societies is never entirely possible. This society thinks their better than another because they're orderly, that society thinks it's better because of their connection with nature. No two dreams are ever alike. These symbols embody this fact.

NaNoWriMo

So, I know there are still 27 days left until November, but... I'm excited.

For two years now, I have participated in an event called NaNoWriMo, which stands for National Novel Writing Month. The idea is that you write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. It's kind of crazy. And by kind of, I mean very.
1,667 words a day is daunting, but rewarding. There are no real prizes (except a pdf of a certificate that you can print out), but at the end, if you finish, you get to say that you wrote a novel in a month. (By the way guys, I wrote a novel in 19 days last year)

Needless to say, I'm definitely excited about this year.
I'm not sure how I'm going to manage what with being in college and keeping up with homework, and choir, and everything else that I'm involved in. I'll figure it out, though.

A little history about NaNoWriMo:
NaNoWriMo was founded by Chris Baty in 1999. There were only 21 participants - all in the San Francisco Bay area. By 2008, there were more than 170,000 participants all over the world, and the collective word count was... wait for it. Almost 2.5 billion.

As a two year veteran, I was excited to hear that a few of my friends are attempting insanity for the first time this year.



I think NaNoWriMo embodies the American Dream. It's a positive freedom - Anyone can write a novel. About anything they want. Everyone can do the (nearly) impossible.
27 days left!

Pueblo Native Americans -

 This is going to be a short post - It's late and I want to sleep.

"Pueblo people believe that the primary and most important relationship for humans is with the land."
Rina Swentzell, "Conflicting Landscape Values: The Santa Clara Pueblo and Day School."

The Pueblo people had similar ideas about landscape as the view I expressed in my post titled "Home". I'm really just reiterating my point. I feel like humans have the most connection to who they are when they're among nature.
It's really unfortunate that the schools they had to go to were so rigid and intent on changing them. I do not agree with this idea at all.

That's all I really have time for now. Sorry it's so short.
Goodnight and harmonic dreams.

"Home"

"American people, throughout the modern period have been ambivalent in their attachment to place... ...Americans have felt little awareness of being rooted to place or region, little sense of love for the land."
Lane, Belden. The Ephemeral Character of Place: Problems in Articulating an American Sense of Sacred Space. pp. 219

 I'm not sure I agree with this point.
At my high school, a boarding school called The Conserve School (which no longer has a four-year program), I felt an extreme love for the land. It was located in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, in a very small town called Land O' Lakes - not where they make the cheese and butter. Conserve is situated on 1200 acres, most of which is heavily forested with a few hiking/biking/ski trails and seven lakes. As the school had an environmental focus, we spent a lot of time outside the classroom and bonding with nature. Outside of class, we were encouraged (and sometimes forced) to explore the woods and our boundaries withing the wilderness. The trails, when no one was around, were a home for me - especially after a light rain in the sunset.

This leads me back to the very beginning of the article where the author quotes Aldo Leopold:
 "I am glad I shall never be young without wild country to be young in. Of what avail are forty freedoms without a blank spot on the map?"
 Aldo Leopold. Sand Country Almanac. 

Aldo Leopold himself enjoyed the wilderness of Wisconsin - granted, he did spend more time in the southern portion where it's dominantly prairie lands. I think the point is, though, is that through nature, it is much easier to connect and find a a real home.
 

Unfortunately, respect for nature is not as high anymore. Natural habitats are being destroyed for resources and space for growing urban centers. This, I believe is hurting many people's chances of finding a real home.
For example, another environmentalist, John Muir.

Muir agrees with Leopold that the wilderness is essential to developing a place to call home.
"It is impossible to overestimate the value of wild mountains and mountain temples as places for people to grow in, recreation grounds for soul and body."
John Muir. The Hetch Hetchy Valley

John Muir found a home in Hetch Hetchy Valley, which is located in the Yosemite National Park. He praised this valley as one of the last untouched places on the map. It wasn't long, though, before the head of the National Forest Service, Gifford Pinchot, decided to dam the valley. Since then, it has been completely flooded, creating all sorts of environmental problems - but that's beside the point. The point is, that one of the most beautiful places in our country was destroyed.


I think what I'm trying to say is that without the wilderness, it's impossible to find a real home. In an urban setting, there's no space for silence, contemplation, and growth. In order to find a real home, one must return to nature.

"Lawn Vigilantes" and Anne Hutchinson

This'll be a short post. Also, if you haven't read it, please refer to the previous post-

Maybe, these lawn vigilantes are not unlike John Winthrop in regards to Anne Hutchinson.
Perhaps he would have been one such to keep everything neat, pristine, and entirely symmetrical in order to keep up the appearance of the block.

Hurray for metaphors!

Lawnmowing and Freedom

"Lawns and yards may indeed exist to fulfill some innate human love and need for beauty but more likely they still announce the dignity and responsibility of their owners. Proper householders keep their livestock from their neighbor's land and eradicate crabgrass before it overruns abutting lawns."

Stilgoe, John. Conclusion, pp. 542-543

This point of this reading isn't necessarily about lawns or the way that people should keep them, but I think the freedom to keep ones own grass the way they want it is very important too.

In suburbia, there are generally certain "guidelines" for a person's lawn - official or not. Most members of a neighborhood usually frown at an unkempt lawn; one that hasn't been mowed in a few weeks, one with dandelions blooming, the crabgrass beginning to creep in. 

There are even what I like to call "grass vigilantes" when it comes to the appearance of a lawn - for instance, my mother hurt her leg a few years ago and wasn't able to move around, and I was away at boarding school. She had recently moved to a new town and didn't know her neighbors. Obviously, as she wasn't able to move around very well, the lawn went unmowed for about a week. One morning, as if by magic, the grass was cut. While this was a nice gesture, it could have easily be done as an insult.

In AP Environmental Science (or APES), our class, in addition to the AP syllabus, read the book Second Nature by Michael Pollan. I believe it's the first chapter that deals with this kind of censorship on the freedom of speech (or freedom of grass).

I think that people should be able to keep their lawns however they feel like keeping, and if that happens to be the (rather lazy, but admirable) idea of restoring it to natural prairie, they should be able to without their neighbors "vigilante-ing" all over their property.
They're creating their own landscape. Everyone's personal tastes differ, and lawn vigilantes shouldn't impose on those who like things a little chaotic.

Just sayin.

Anne Hutchinson - Threat to Male Superiority?

I think so.


Anne Hutchinson seems to be a foil in character for the Pastor John Winthrop. She seems to threaten everything he wants in his Puritan society, especially order.  It is for this reason that I think Anne Hutchinson was persecuted so harshly and excommunicated from the Church.

The two main things Anne seemed to threaten:

-Chaos
"[John Winthrop,] committed to one model of religious social order struggled against [Anne,] who professed commitment to no order but that order revealed directly by God and thus one beyond the control of any individual or community." (Westerkamp, 493)
By holding this belief, she takes away any of his power over her female followers.

-Male Power
John Winthrop also had a personal vendetta over Hutchinson's power over her husband - he felt that his masculinity was being threatened by her success.


Historians debate whether or not she believed in everything she herself preached, but I think she did. Would she really be willing to lose her whole home and community for something she didn't? She was obviously educated enough to form her own opinions, evidenced by the fact that she "ran intellectual circles around her opponents [during her trial]. They quoted the Scripture, she quoted back". (Westerkamp, 489)

Glee! and the American Dream.

So, I have a not-so-secret confession to make - I love Glee. I love the characters, the over-the-top melodrama, but most of all, the music.

Several of us, me included, all gathered in the Hoyme lounge to watch the season premiere on Tuesday. We joked about how we should all post about Glee in our commonplace blogs, and had a semi-serious discussion about how all  the characters in the show embody the "American Dream."
This got me thinking.
If you're not familiar with Glee, almost all stereotypes are portrayed in their small club - Two Asians, one Goth, one handicapped student, one homosexual, two.five cheerleaders, three football players, and one African American. For participating in Glee Club, they chose to be outcast from the rest of the crowd, being dubbed "Lima Losers" (Lima is the name of the city they are from - possibly stands for "Lost in the Middle of America").
Despite what others think, most of them feel free to express themselves the way they choose. The cheerleaders and football players, however, conform as best they can.

I spent some time thinking about how this might relate to what we were talking about to be talking about in class - the Puritans. Someone (Enich, I believe), mentioned how the Puritans and the members of the Glee Club were similar in that they abandoned the rest of society, whether it be the Anglican church or the stereotypes, in order to be free to exercise their own beliefs to religion/singing.
In this act, they isolate themselves, completely in the Puritan's case, from the rest. The Glee-clubbers are ridiculed publicly for their decision. In the beginning, this affects many of them; some of them even quit for a period of time. Eventually, they realize that together, they have a distinctly unique community where they genuinely appreciate each other. They aren't afraid to be themselves when they're with each other.

That said, I cannot wait for next Tuesdays episode :)

"Landscape is a Point of View"

"Inevitably, though, the paths we choose to approach [landscape] - words, pictures, music, dance, gardens, sports - lead us only to points of view which are full of vision, but short of whole sight."
"Landscape is a Point of View", Gregory Conniff

I believe this quotation shows why each person, community, or religious sector has their own image of freedom. Our own histories, or landscapes, provide each and everyone of us with unique experiences which give us our own independent views. No two visions of freedom can be exactly the same, and that can make us uneasy with ourselves - which the article goes on to mention.
I think this article is very important when studying about different settlements, especially the Puritans. Their idea of freedom is much different (and what I think is very skewed), but given their surroundings, it makes perfect sense to them.

...I hope this made sense.

Shakespeare!

After reading the second chapter of Takaki's "A Different Mirror; A History of Multicultural America", I was pleasantly surprised of the reference of Shakespeare's Tempest.

While I have not read the Tempest, I do appreciate the work of William Shakespeare quite a bit.
I do have to confess that I'm not huge on history, and that... well, I'm not the most excited about it. I am, however, very interested in literature, especially that of Shakespeare. I was really glad to read about how great literature, especially that of Shakespeare, was influenced by the discovery and settling of the New World. The references kept me awake through the chapter.

Poetry - Oh Noetry!

After reading the poetry for Monday's class, I was a bit surprised. I think I was expecting the poems to be pretty similar, but they were all vastly different from each other. They only thing I could find in common about them was that they were all in free verse. Each poem had a very distinct tone, view of America, and imagery. Some of the authors viewed America as free while the others were disillusioned.

The last poem, Sailing to America by Gregory Djanikian, was my favorite. It was more of a story than reflections of America - and I like stories. The imagery was imaginative, and it came from a child's tone of voice, rather than an adult. The way I interpret it is that they have not yet made it to America, but it is their final destination after seeing the rest of the world.

The Great Textbook Wars and Musical Theatre

Thursday evening, I had the absolutely wonderful opportunity to see Wicked at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis. The musical takes place in the mythic land of Oz, where Dorothy finds herself in the popular book "The Wizard of Oz", by L. Frank Baum. The story is about the life and times of the Wicked Witch of the West, and how she came to be so "Wicked".

A few of the lyrics to one song in the second act, "Wonderful", stood out to me, and I thought they related quite a bit to the reading "The Great Textbook Wars."

"A man's called a traitor - or liberator
A rich man's a thief - or philanthropist
Is one a crusader - or ruthless invader?
It's all in which label is able to persist.

There are precious few at ease
With moral ambiguities
So we act as though they don't exist!"

In this song, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz is explaining to Elphaba how history is greatly influenced by those who write it. The Wizard is trying to silence the Animals, animals that can speak and function in society. He tries to make them out as evil and the one enemy the public needs to fear.
If the textbooks had indeed been rewritten by one party to show a much less diverse view of the American culture, many ideas and facts could be skewed just like this.

The American Dream

"At a time like this, the American Dream becomes kind of a lingua franca, an idiom that everyone - from corporate executives to hip-hop artists - can presumably understand."
The American Dream, Cullen, pg. 6

I think this passage depicts the fact that, despite all backgrounds, the "American Dream" is rooted deeply in all of its citizens. Even though there are many versions, and the ideals of a corporate executive might be drastically different those of a from a hip-hop artist, they will all still hold the basic principles of freedom.
The concept of the "American Dream" is so strong that even other countries recognize it. Especially in the late 1800's and early 1900's, there were thousands of immigrants who came, seeking their own version of the "American Dream".

Reflections on Terry Tempest William's "Commencement"

Last year, in high school, we were asked to read this same passage for my public speaking class. We spent a lot of time talking about the letter that Senator Bennett sent in response, particularly when he asks her: "What would [you] be willing to die for?"

Her response is, of course, the freedom of speech.

In class, we reflected on what we believed in, and what we would be willing to give our life to.
My response: Imagination.
Without imagination, we wouldn't be able to evolve in a way where freedom of speech would be even possible. But, that's just my two cents on the subject.

I'm not entirely sure if this is what you're looking for, but I was excited about reading this. I really enjoy this reading.

Post #1

This is my first post. Just making sure everything works.
Have a wonderful day!