alice's blog
(SILENT) art nouveau cinema! (the aeneid by virgil, jane eyre by charlotte bronte, and under the volcano by malcolm lowry)
Submitted by alice on Fri, 2007-04-27 06:51.with a kick-ass soundtrack!
firmin wanders through the brush
poor yvonne (yay for el rodeo!)
and a pariah dog (too cute to be pariah, though)
jane and edward get .... closer (poor timothy dalton)
aeneas and dido
i don't see rome on there, chris
odyssia! (more gender-swapping in the odyssey by homer)
Submitted by alice on Fri, 2007-04-27 06:29.
by the power of greyskull, hector and achilles fall off the wagon
ice cream, toilet paper, and penelo-pete
releasing the bag of winds and circe lounging (yes, that's circe)
odysseus loses a crew member
bad snl spoof (guys, your heads were moving too fast. i couldn't stay in focus)
preparing for the 75hr dance-off to win penelo-pete from the suitors
i hear the wwe is hiring, guys
gender-swapping and academic probation (under the volcano by malcolm lowry)
Submitted by alice on Fri, 2007-04-27 06:13.
a female geoffrey firmin!
more...scholarly....sources
buy that fishy a bigger bowl!
the consul goes to harry's (under the volcano by malcolm lowry)
Submitted by alice on Fri, 2007-04-27 06:04.
scholarly sources!
a drinking frenzy
albert finney would be proud!
don't ask.
an ohhhhh-dissey (with bad bob rohrman commercials) (the odyssey by homer)
Submitted by alice on Fri, 2007-04-27 05:53.
leppanen, saving the day
wheeler, hitting on the smart chicks
not bald enough, not pompous enough...method acting, cracknell. method acting.
Welcome to ENGL 230: Great Narrative Works!
Submitted by alice on Sat, 2007-02-17 20:04.Welcome to ENGL 230: Great Narrative Works! This site will be our "classroom outside of the classroom," so to speak, where we will converse on the texts we're reading in class. Here, you will be responsible for responding to the posts that I create on the blog as well as responding to your fellow students' posts. You will also occasionally be asked to create your own posts using the "story" function. Each week you should respond to the class posts as well as two other students' posts. Your responses should be thoughtful and should reveal a growing consciousness of the critical evaluation of a literary text. You are also welcome to post on texts that you are currently reading that you wish to share with the class. The posts and responses will count as a significant portion of your participation grade.
Exam 2 Potential Questions
Submitted by alice on Mon, 2007-04-16 02:49.ENGL 230 Great Narrative Works
Potential Questions – Exam 2
April 19, 2007
Past texts
Odyssey by Homer
Aeneid by Virgil
Inferno by Dante
“Ulysses” by Tennyson
Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Most recent texts
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
“My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Each of the following questions is a potential for the exam. On exam day you will be given one of the following questions at random, and you will be expected to make a direct, concise answer.
YOU SHOULD CREATE ANSWERS FOR EACH QUESTION BEFORE THE EXAM AND THOROUGHLY PREPARE FOR ANSWERING THE QUESTIONS IN ESSAY FORMAT IN CLASS BY CREATING OUTLINES/CLUSTERS/ETC. You will not be able to use your notes/books/exam preparations during the exam, but these pre-generating answers will make your answer much more accurate (and your brief exam time less stressful). In your preparation (and on the exam) you should focus on generating a thesis statement based on the potential question; you will then be expected to support your argument with descriptive evidence. ***I REEMPHASIZE, IF YOU WANT A DECENT GRADE ON THIS EXAM, BE PREPARED TO USE TEXTUAL EVIDENCE AND MULTIPLE EXAMPLES FROM THE TEXTS TO SUPPORT YOUR ANSWER TO THE QUESTION.
1. In many of the texts we have read, “manhood” and masculinity have been frequent themes. Choose two of the three most recent texts and one of our past texts to tie ideas on the formation, maintenance, and/or fall of one’s manhood. Stress the symbols, metaphors, etc. that the author uses to show the characters’ transition through this phase. You must create a solid thesis, engaging all three texts, that makes a common central argument regarding the topic.
2. Choose two of the three most recent texts and one of your past texts to demonstrate how man’s idea of the good wife/bad wife is portrayed. How are these representations of women historically contextualized? Stress the symbols, metaphors, etc. that the author uses to show how this idea is embodied in characters in the texts. You must create a solid thesis, engaging all three texts, that makes a common central argument regarding the topic.
3. Choose two of the three most recent texts and one of your past texts to demonstrate how historic prejudice influences a character in each text. Stress the symbols, metaphors, etc. that the author uses to show how prejudice affects the character. You must create a solid thesis, engaging all three texts, that makes a common central argument regarding the topic.
**Attendance reminder/warning**
Submitted by alice on Sun, 2007-02-25 16:02.Another reminder:
As the syllabus suggests, if you earn more than three absences in our class, you also earn a letter grade drop. Several of you already have three-four absences. See the class attendance policy for more information: Attendance Policy.
Four absences = two weeks of missed class. For some of you, I have excused absences, but not many. Don't throw your grade away by missing classes.
Wade Steffey Missing - If you have any information, please call Purdue Police
Submitted by alice on Sat, 2007-02-17 05:11.Missing Person Purdue University police are looking for Wade S. Steffey, 19, a Purdue freshman from Bloomington, Ind., who was last seen during the early morning hours of January 13. At that time he was wearing a white long-sleeved shirt with light blue stripes and light-colored jeans. Steffey is white with short brown hair and brown eyes, is 5 feet, 10 inches tall and weighs about 150 pounds. Persons with information about Steffey should contact Purdue Police 765-494-8221 or 765-496-3784 (anonymous tip line) http://www.purdue.edu/police
Exam I Questions
Submitted by alice on Fri, 2007-02-16 20:04.ENGL 230
Great Narrative Works
Potential Questions – Exam 1
March 8, 2007
Odyssey by Homer (O)
Aeneid by Virgil (A)
Inferno by Dante (I)
“Ulysses” by Tennyson (U)
Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry (UtV)
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (HoD)
Each of the following questions is a potential for the exam. On exam day you will be given one of the following questions at random, and you will be expected to make a direct, concise yet detailed answer. YOU SHOULD CREATE ANSWERS FOR EACH QUESTION BEFORE THE EXAM AND THOROUGHLY PREPARE FOR ANSWERING THE QUESTIONS IN ESSAY FORMAT IN CLASS BY CREATING OUTLINES/CLUSTERS/ETC. You will not be able to use your notes/books/exam preparations during the exam, but these pre-generating answers will make your answer much more accurate (and your brief exam time less stressful). In your preparation (and on the exam) you should focus on generating a thesis statement based on the potential question; you will then be expected to support your argument with descriptive evidence.
1. Throughout our readings, we have seen multiple interpretations of Odysseus/Ulysses. Citing specific examples in each of the texts, discuss how Odysseus/Ulysses is conveyed in these texts. Be sure to discuss how and why Odysseus/Ulysses changes in relation to the historical and cultural context and narrative structure of each text. Use O, A, I, and U.
2. Find a commonality among perceptions of and discuss the role of women in the chosen texts. Focus specifically on gender as a social construct and how it affects power structures in the texts. Cite specific examples from each of the texts to support your argument. Use O, A, I, HoD, and UtV.
3. Analyze and draw common connections between the uses of material, natural, and/or abstract symbols in the chosen texts (i.e. find a common symbol between the texts and discuss how it is employed in and between the texts and for what purpose). Determine how they are employed to build and resolve/enhance conflict and characterization, citing specific examples from the texts. Use O, A, I, UtV, and HoD.
4. Analyze and draw connections between the uses of sensory imagery (e.g. in setting, props, memory, characters, etc.) in the chosen texts (smells, tastes, touches, sounds, sights of the characters). Determine how they are employed to build and resolve/enhance conflict and characterization, citing specific examples from the texts. Use O, A, I, UtV, HoD.
5. Discuss in detail, citing examples from the texts, how punishment of the soul is interpreted and how it changes over time. Cite specific examples from each of the texts to create a critical evaluation of the historical progression of punishment and its historical context. Use O, A, I, and UtV.
some Lowry images
Submitted by alice on Fri, 2007-02-16 03:11.
“There was an old Consul called FirminWho alas was infested with verminBut for this man obsceneWas prepared a ravineTo spend all the rest of his term in.”
Malcolm Lowry (1942-44)
I found a man strung from a tree,
and though he swung hung heel-to-sky,
his legs were crossed, and he was calm.
This seemed unnatural to me.
I asked if I should cut him down.
He said, "No need. My hands are free.
I'll be just fine; I'm going home.
Look me up, when you arrive;
we can chat and drink fine tea."
I left that man strung from his tree.
I found it odd he trusts his god
with such foolish, fatal diligence.
Classes Cancelled
Submitted by alice on Tue, 2007-02-13 16:22.Hi guys,
Purdue has cancelled classes from noon on Tues. Feb. 13 through 6am on Thurs. Feb. 15. Please keep up with the assigned readings, as we are now significantly behind. Also, remember that we are watching Pan's Labyrinth on Thurs. Feb. 15 after our class in our regular classroom (bring pillows for your butts!).
Alice
Wikipedia: a bunch of dummies
Submitted by alice on Tue, 2007-02-13 12:22.Wikipedia hit by identity crisis as student admits posing as professor
By Stephen Foley in New York
Published: 06 March 2007
Wikipedia is facing one of its biggest crises after a twentysomething student from Kentucky posed as a professor of religious studies and made more than 20,000 alterations to controversial topics on the online encyclopedia.
Using the pseudonym "Essjay", the bogus professor had become one of Wikipedia's most prolific "editors", trusted to adjudicate on factual disputes and keep the site free from vandalism. He had even featured in an article in the New Yorker, which took his claims to be an expert in canon law at face value.
Now he has been unmasked as Ryan Jordan, a 24-year-old who had created an entirely false identity, claiming to be a tenured professor at a private university, but who relied on books such as Catholicism for Dummies when correcting articles on dogma.
"He holds no advanced degrees," the New Yorker admitted in an editor's note. "He has never taught."
Anyone can alter the site's 5.3 million articles, but some 75,000 people are regular contributors. This loose affiliation of 75,000 obsessives and techno-nerds has now been thrown into turmoil. While many users defended Mr Jordan, others expressed a sense of betrayal. At the weekend, Wikipedia's founder, Jimmy Wales, asked Essjay to resign his voluntary position, and now wants senior editors to reveal their identities and prove their credentials. "I have an MA in finance," Mr Wales said. "I could fax a copy of the degree to the office."
Mr Jordan made a final posting late on Saturday. "I hope others will refocus the energy they have spent the past few days in defending and denouncing me to make something here at Wikipedia better."
Pick a Movie Night
Submitted by alice on Sun, 2006-12-31 15:41.Hi all,
If everyone could post to let me know if you're interested in an extra credit movie night (or not) and what nights you're available, that'd be great. Yeah. Um-yeah.
Alice
UPDATE: The date for the movie night is Thursday February 15th at 6:00PM (right after class). Let me know if you have any conflicts with this, as I'm delving into my bank account to buy the pizza.
Finding Odysseus
Submitted by alice on Wed, 2006-11-01 23:56.
LONDON, England (Reuters) -- British history sleuths say they have uncovered new geological evidence to solve one of the great riddles of ancient Greece -- pinpointing the ancient island of Ithaca, home of Homer's legendary hero Odysseus.
"We are one step closer to solving the age-old mystery," said management consultant Robert Bittlestone who has worked with professors of classics and geology to piece together an intriguing archaeological jigsaw puzzle.
Finding Ithaca could rival the discovery of ancient Troy on the Turkish coast in the 1870s.
No one can be certain whether Odysseus or his city really existed. But the discovery of the ruins of Troy, where Odysseus and other legendary Greek heroes did battle, has led scholars to believe there is more to Homer's tales than just legend.
Until now, the kingdom of Ithaca was thought to have been on the Ionian island of Ithaki.
But Bittlestone's team say they believe it is on Paliki, a peninsula on the island of Kefalonia, west of Ithaki.
Bittlestone, who became intrigued by the riddle while on holiday in Greece, enlisted the help of Cambridge classicist James Diggle and Edinburgh geologist John Underhill to drill a 122 meter (400 ft) bore hole on the isthmus joining Paliki to the rest of Kefalonia.
It met with no solid limestone bedrock, suggesting Paliki could once have been an island in itself.
The team say rockfalls and landslides triggered by earthquakes may have filled in an ancient sea channel.
Bittlestone said further tests would have to be made along the length of the isthmus to prove their island theory.
"There is every evidence we are on the right track," he said. "For thousands of years people thought Homer was wrong in how he described the location of Ithaca. I believe Homer was right but we didn't see it because the landscape has changed."
Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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