Reach Your True Potential...

Dearest lovelies,

Needless to say, the fires in San Diego are wreaking havoc on many lives. No matter how badly some of us may have it, there are always others less fortunate than ourselves. In the larger scheme of things, our families and loved ones are safe...and a house is just a house; it can, and will, be rebuilt.

On that note...let's help rebuild San Diego and the lives within it.

Since school will not be in session this week, I wanted to see who would be interested in coming to an evacuation site with me and volunteering on Thursday morning at 9:30 am. Please reply and let me know if you can come.

Hope you are all keeping safe - please try to give me an update on how you are doing, if you can!

Thank you!

Elika

Huck Reflection

It is impossible to read Huck Finn intelligently without understanding that Mark Twain's consciousness and awareness is larger than that of any of the characters in the novel, including Huck. Indeed, part of what makes the book so effective is the fact that Huck is too innocent and ignorant to understand what's wrong with his society and what's right about his own transgressive behavior. Twain, on the other hand, knows the score. One must be skeptical about most of what Huck says in order to hear what Twain is saying. In a 1991 interview, Ralph Ellison suggested that critics who condemn Twain for the portrait of Jim forget that "one also has to look at the teller of the tale, and realize that you are getting a black man, an adult, seen through the condescending eyes -- partially -- of a young white boy." Are you saying, I asked Ellison, "that those critics are making the same old mistake of confusing the narrator with the author? That they're saying that Twain saw him that way rather than that Huck did?" "Yes," was Ellison's answer.

In a five-paragraph essay, please choose one of the following two prompts, and back up with proof from book.

• Is Mark Twain speaking through Huck, or do you think Huck's point of view is different from Twain's? Explain.
• Is Twain speaking through Jim, or is Jim's point of view different from Twain's? Explain.

Have a great college weekend!!!

DUE Thursday.

vocabulary.week.9.

The above picture was chosen to illustrate the idea of “accord,” one of our vocabulary words this week. A simple definition of accord would be agreement, but what I love about the word is the sense of harmony that comes with it. Indeed, the resolutions of peace following periods of violence and conflict are often called accords (Paris Peace Accords of the Vietnam War, for instance), so the word carries with it that sense of history also. Which is why I chose this picture to illustrate my idea of the word:

In this photo the grenade, at once a symbol of war and conflict, is gutted and repurposed into something harmless and beautiful. A vase for roses. Someone sits on either side of the flowers too, suggesting at least a degree of copacetic negotiation or harmony.

By Thursday morning, please have a suitably well chosen photo-response to at least three of this week’s vocabulary words. You’ll be posting each picture with the vocabulary word it represents and an explanation of why you chose the illustration, as I did above (and as you did last week). I’m only requiring three because I want you to take your time, be creative, and find meaningful connections. If you’re feeling artistic you could, of course, draw any number of the pictures yourself! Either way, be mindful of the meaning and do your best to capture it.

Without further adieu, here are your words for the week - sans definitions, as always.

1. accord
2. bias
3. incognito
4. deduct
5. paradigm
6. plagiarize
7. objectivity
8. precipitous
9. recapitulate
10. reciprocate
11. empathy

“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”

~Albert Einstein

Writing in Reverse

Pivotal moments of a stranger’s life.

Pictured above is an excerpt from Bill Sullivan’s Turnstile Photography Project. Sullivan took pictures of stranger’s in New York City the moment they pushed through the turnstiles to ride the subway. The results are surprisingly intriguing - The faces are so expressive; the props and things we carry, reavealing. You will be following the preceding link to Bill Sullivan’s project website and choosing a character (or two) to base your story around.

You will be writing a narrative fiction surrounding this pivotal(?) moment of your character(s) day. Is the gentlemen on the left, above, on his way to a bank heist? Is the woman to his right the lifeline for a friend appearing on tonight’s episode of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, and is she fretting because she’s unsure of a question she should know the answer to? Or is thinking too hard about it going to put her on the wrong train, which starts a whole domino of bad (or brilliant) things to happen to her that day?

Whatever story angle you choose, make sure to use facial expressions and props captured in the photo as cues. This story is not to be told in the first person. Altough that doesn’t mean you can’t be creative in the telling. You could have an omnipresent narrator who, for one reason or another, has a particular dislike for your protagonist and is continually antagonistic. The story could be told by an eventual son, recalling the cute (or hilarious, or unlikely) story of how his parents met and fell in love.

As an additional challenge you’ll need to post a picture of the character(s) you choose to your blog along with your story. You may need to do this in photoshop. It would be polite to provide a link to Bill Sullivan’s website, since you’ll be posting segments from his photographic work. And, as always, it’s a good idea to lead your post with some introduction. Your readers (from all over the world!) don’t know that your teacher is asking you to write a story. The things you post will seem rather random sans context.

Due Monday night.

vocabulary.week 8

repose - a state of peace, a temporary rest in order to regain composure. The image suggests with .html syntax that we ‘end war.’ I’ve never been a fan of bullies on the playground. As there is talk of mobilizing our military towards a new war in Iran I thought it might be nice to take a small break and have some rest before we do. Not that I hope we do. It’s sad that in the brief history of men peace has never been anything but temporary. A brief reprieve from the tensing storm, a quick repose before the coming war.

This weeks vocabulary will be posted on your blogs. You will also be posting three photo vocabulary words. Here we go:

flourish -
guerilla -
renegade -
repose -
stereotype -
symbiosis -
tariff -
tempo -
tranquility -
tumult -
tundra -
unanimous -