Justin's Blog

Hello new Juniors and welcome to blogging! You’re in for a year of pain and suffering, but there is a small light at the end of this tunnel: 1. You have a lot of liberties with this blog, try to make the best of it. 2. Mrs. Duke is a really good teacher. Sure, there’s a lot of work involved but try to explore literature to the best of your ability while you have this class. Right now you have an opportunity to basically learn all aspects of writing in this class. So, you’re going to have a lot of work, but you’re going to learn a good bit. My advice to you (which undoubtedly NOBODY will follow; even I wouldn’t do this) is to start your work early. It will help reduce the long nights. As for blogging, there is a good chance you will get the same treatment as us and have to have at least one blog in before the weekend. Personally I liked blogging and commenting on Sunday but not all of us are procrastinators (contradictory to what I said earlier, I know). I’d say just do a free post or something because I think more people comment on those than the more rigid blogs; commenting for the most part is the reason you have to blog before the weekend. Free posts are also really easy to write. Also in class it’s alright to act stupid and stuff just don’t take it too far, you’re only going to make things worse for yourselves. Mrs. Duke doesn’t mind it to a certain degree, just don’t go too far.

Okay, so here’s what you can expect from this class:
-Homework. A lot of work. Yes, I’m sure everybody is ranting about this one. I can’t really vouch for many people because my life wasn’t so busy that I couldn’t do the work, but I didn’t think it was that bad. I had a lot of late nights and stuff, but it could be worse for people who play sports all throughout the year and things like that. Especially with the new schedule and sports lasting longer than before. Looking at the actual homework though, you can expect some just about every night. Reading/annotating assignments I think are the more prominent ones, followed by the vocabulary (which takes a really long time so start it soon). And of course you have blogs every week. But seriously, start the vocabulary homework early; vocabulary takes about 4 hours to do usually.
-Projects. We had a few projects this year. They are usually entertaining and not that hard to do. My favorite was probably the Canterbury Tales project which is very flexible.
-Papers. Not too many essays, maybe two or three. I don’t even remember if there is a research paper or not. The papers weren’t too bad, really, just be sure to do them!
-Tests. We had two this year. There really isn’t much of a way to study for them, just be sure to know the authors of books and basic information like that. Like most English tests, there is a lot of writing involved.
-Quizzes. You’ll have a good chunk of reading quizzes scattered throughout the year. These are usually going to happen when you don’t have any homework pertaining to the reading that night (like blogging or journals, things like that). The quizzes usually check for all parts of the reading, so do read it all and make sure you understand it, too.
-Exam. It’s basically like the tests, just on more content, obviously.

And that’s about it. I hope you all have a good year and remember: Junior year is going to be your toughest. What doesn’t kill us only makes us stronger, unless it’s something that disables you for the rest of your life, like losing a leg or becoming paralyzed or something.

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Well, the ending certainly was weird. I’m having a hard time picturing that part– everything just changing like that. What’s it supposed to mean? I’m having an even harder time with analyzing this than the last blog. The part at the beginning of the act where they’re wondering whether or not they are alive is very similar to what they were talking about in the last act with being dead in a box. I don’t understand why Guildenstern keeps making these random variations of part of the lord’s prayer. And why are the players here? This all just random and weird. They have a really nice analysis of Hamlet’s character, though.

Alright, so questions:
1: Why did Rosencrantz keep coins in each of his hands? I might be over-analyzing, but I think it’s representative of choice and fate. Because there are coins in each hand, the outcome will always be the same, even if the choices Guildenstern makes are different

2: Is the whole barrel thing just humor? They all come out of baskets different from the ones they enter. Is there a logical explanation or is it just something supposed to be silly, like how in Scooby Doo the people always run in out and of different doors?

3: How does that whole last scene really play out? Do all of the actors just disappear and the scene in Hamlet is basically remade for a brief moment before it cuts to the real thing?

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I’m having a hard time pointing out anything in the rest of Act II that exemplifies Postmodernism or fits with any of the themes we listed. I noticed the Player leader said: “over your dead body” to Guildenstern, probably foreshadowing his fate. The Player also says that they decide nothing; it is written. I assume that it once again is referring to their lack of control in the whole scheme of things. Also the play that the tragedians are acting spell out the rest of the story for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern before it happens. It’s kind of humorous that Rosencrantz and Guildernstern are watching this performance and it really is the rest of their lives. I think the two pick up on this, seeing as how they approach the spies who are wearing the exact same coats as Ros and Guil. It’s funny that when Ros and Guil wake up Guil remarks that as soon as they start to move everything will begin, like how a play would start. Ros and Guil foreshadow their death once again while they’re discussing going to England. It’s entertaining to see Hamlet and the soldier discussing and Ros and Guil complaining in the background about how they don’t want to go. I think Guildenstern makes an interesting remark that they wouldn’t really be free even if they went to England and “it’s the same sky”.

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The play is still entertaining. I’m a bit worried, though; I thought Ros and Guil were sharp and analytic. However, in the scene where Hamlet tells them he’s faking insanity, the two seem to miss the mark. While they were analyzing their whole encounter, which I think is really funny because they’re so precise with it, they say that Hamlet is at the mercy of the elements. I sort of think it’s a joke because they’re too sharp to not understand his symbolism. Plus, it sort of sounds like it would be one. It seems like it would be postmodern humor; understanding what he said, and continuing to play off of it. Ros and Guil try to determine the wind, presumably trying to see if Hamlet was sane while they were talking. Of course the actual course of the wind wouldn’t affect Hamlet, but it’s humorous playing into it like that. I also think it’s downright hilarious how Ros and Guil are analyzing their speech with Hamlet. It’s like they were trying to rhetorically fight Hamlet, and they lost horribly. It also seems to me that Ros and Guil would rather observe and solve problems using wit rather than taking action. Guildenstern gets mad at Rosencrantz for suggesting they look outside to see what direction it is, bringing up the philosophical idea of pragmatism. It’s entertaining just to see the two go to such great lengths just to find the direction of the wind. I’m guessing things like this are why the play is considered Absurd.

After that little bit, Ros and Guil I guess are expecting somebody to come in. Guildernstern gets all philosophical and tells us basically that we can’t be sure of our surroundings for sure. The only thing you can be sure of is that you exist. And, as he states with the Chinese philosopher, that we don’t know what form, really. I think Ros and Guil are playing into the whole we’re-in-a-play thing here when they wait for somebody to show up and are sorely disappointed when nobody does. It’s really ironic that the players talk about being actors. I’m guessing Stoppard did that on purpose. There is another level to what they’re saying. They’re not speaking for themselves, but for the actual play that’s going on… I’m actually reading the play as I blog and I just got to a part where Guildernstern says: “Operating on two levels, are we?! How clever!”. It definitely solidifies the idea that I just stated a few sentences ago.

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I’m still liking the book a lot. I like how right after the king and queen leave Ros and Guil, Ros says: “I want to go home”. I just thought it was funny that how he doesn’t want to be there. I also liked the question game that they play, In fact I’ve played it a few times myself. It seems like that would be a postmodern thing to do. It’s hard to explain, but the question and answer thing is also postmodernist; they try to analyze Hamlet’s dilemma by hypothetically speaking as him. Also I noticed that everybody gets Ros and Guil mixed up, even Hamlet.

Postmodernism is all about unexpectedness. You wouldn’t suspect these two Middle Englishmen to be probing so deeply into Hamlet’s mind, but the two go so far as to hypothetically examine him by one pretending to be Hamlet and the other asking questions. They use a simple game to assess their knowledge of the prince, and possibly gain insight to what’s troubling him. I didn’t really see anything questioning their existence in this reading; the closest things that came to being existential was the question game. I think maybe the fact that most people mix the two up is reminding us that these two are minor characters in Hamlet.

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Hmm… I’m not entirely sure what to be doing for this blog, so I’m just going to talk about the reading. First off, I can already tell this is going to be a book I like. Right off the bat it’s easy to tell it’s Postmodern; the language, existentialism, the incorporation of another text and taking on the perspective of a minor character’s POV (much like what we did with HOD). So anyway, the book starts off with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern flipping coins. The coins that are heads go to Ros and the coins that are tails go to Guil. Every coin toss that’s been made has gone to heads, which is nearly impossible; probability dictates that the ratio a coin will land head to tails is ~1:1. This phenomenon leads Guil to start questioning the coin toss. He goes over several options, including divine retribution, when the two become side-tracked. Some traveling actors arrive at the scene and offer to put on a show for the two. Ros and Guil argue with the tragedians for a bit, stopping them from leaving at the last moment. Eventually they get into the same coin toss Ros and Guil were doing earlier. Guil wins all of the troop’s money, and they offer Alfred as payment for their debt. Hamlet and Ophelia arrive, Ophelia running from Hamlet holding her skirt, Hamlet is very messily dressed. Cladius and Gertrude also arrive, and greet Ros and Guil. The scene ends there.

This certainly seems like it is from the perspective of comic relief. The two stereotypical average-looking guys. I could just see one of them as being fat and the other skinny. The skinny one is probably Guildenstern. An example of this would be Pintel and Ragetti from Pirates of the Caribbean. And I’m digressing… Rosencrants and Guildenstern probably add insight into the characters of Hamlet, though they go unnoticed. On a final digressed note, would the title be an example of Synchysis?

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Drama is dramatic. Greek dramas (and perhaps today’s too, I’m not really sure) were either comedic or tragic. Dramas have to be very emotional because you have to portray your character’s emotions. There are elements to drama which we learned and I can’t think of them off the top of my head. Well, I remember voice and plot but that’s it. I don’t know much about hamlet at all besides it was written by Shakespeare and it was a tragedy. I only know the “To be or not to be” soliloquy somewhere in the book. As for Shakespeare, I know he wrote several playwrights and created the Globe Theatre. He also had pants shaped like onions.

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This weekend is going to be fun. I’m going to the rock club concert on Saturday and after that I’m supposed to be making a film with some friends. I really enjoy making the films; everybody just goes crazy when making it. I promised to help with the sound at the show, but I have no idea what to do so it will be interesting.

I was talking to a friend about how we were becoming a laptop school and they brought up something interesting: a laptop school in Philadelphia was spying on the students at home with the webcams installed on the laptops. They took pictures of thousands of photos of the kids at their homes. It kind of makes me worried about what we may be doing by becoming a laptop school, though I’m sure it won’t happen.

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My paper is going alright. I’m still trying to narrow down my topic so I don’t spend years writing it or have to type a massive essay to get my point across. I don’t have any plans on how this paper is going to be different. I expect my paper to be different because this sort of writing is very flexible; one can write about anything really. My essay will be different not by choice but by default. When a student is told to write however they want, they will. Take blogging, for example: We weren’t given any direction on how to write our blogs at the beginning of this year, save for the 2-paragraph format (which I broke, even in this week’s blog). The students just have at it; we blog about anything. There may be a system that people might follow every now and again, like talking about weekends and things like that, but a lot of things do happen during the weekend.

All in all, the paper is going to be different just because that’s how people are when given freedom with writing.

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I had a pretty good weekend. I got to go to Texas de Brazil for the first time on Saturday. They had some of the best steaks that I’ve ever tasted there. My favorite was either top sirloin or filet mignon. Everything there was good, though, save for the lamb; the lamb was not good. The bread was delicious and the fried bananas were absolutely amazing. I also found the way they carried out their business to be interesting. I like how you flip a card to have them bring out meat to you. Next chance I get to eat there I’m taking the offer. My only qualm, though, was the cost. Texas de Brazil is NOT cheap! I’m actually in debt after eating there. But it’s completely worth the money.

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