Miss Mckewn’s 1st Day Schpeel

Good afternoon class and welcome back! I'm sure you're all just as excited as I am to be back in school! Anyone? Anyone? No? Figures. Well hello Weston! So nice that you could find time in your busy schedule for us. Class, I know this is right after lunch and the last class of the day, but please be on time. If you come in late, you better have brought pizza for the whole class our you're getting marked down. I'm serious. Whole wheat crust. Black olives, spinach, and tomato. And some pesto on the side wouldn't hurt. Sarah, are you taking notes on my pizza preferences? Never mind.

Alright. I know you've been listening to introductory stuff and rules and things all day, so I'm going to try to do as little of that as possible and just cut to the chase. This is Honors Creative Inquiry and Analysis. What that means is it's a hybrid class. We'll be taking a look at some classic literature and analyzing it, but we will also doing some creative work.

How many of you like to write. Five? Seriously? Well the rest of you better change your minds because I'm serious about writing. Young people don't write enough these days and the job market is suffering because nobody knows how to write. So here's what we're going to do. You are all going to purchase a separate notebook. It's going to be your writing notebook. You can use it for other things if you want, but you need to be writing. Every day, at the beginning of class, everyone is going to write for 15 minutes. Sometimes I'll put a prompt up on the board and sometimes I'll just let you do free writing. On those days, you can write about whatever you want. You should think of this as your journal. You will be turning it in periodically so I know you're doing something and not just doodling all the time. But I want to give you privacy, so if there are certain pages that are personal or private, you can put a paperclip on them and I promise I won't read them.

Stop looking so sad! This is good! You're all going to be amazing writers by the end of the year!

Ok moving on. We're going to be reading quite a few classic pieces of literature this year, but for the first semester, our main focus will be on Romeo and Juliet. We're going to be put into groups and work on a project together. Now in the past, this project was always done in groups of four, but this year, I want to shake things up a bit, so we're going to do groups of all different sizes. Because the groups will be different sizes, there will be different workloads, so I'm not going to give you the entire assignment now. I'll just let you know who is in each group.

Group 1	Group 2	Group 3	Group 4	Group 5	Group 6	Group 7	Group 8	Group 9
Elise	Amanda Alex Rosalyn	Jason Kristin	Matt Sebastian Christina Angel Brianna Rob Gracie Julian	Weston Sarah	Lauren Alexis	Josh Sam Elizabeth Maddy	Hannah Maile Daniel David Zack	David Andrew Peter

 

Alright. So it is YOUR responsibility to get with your group and exchange contact information. I'll give you opportunities throughout the semester to work in-class, but this project will require a lot of out of class work as well. Later on this week I'll give each group more specific guidelines.

Ok. We're going to head over to the library so you can all pick out a copy of Romeo and Juliet and our Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction and Poetry. Make sure you have your ID cards.

When you get back, turn to page 54 in your anthology and start reading the first Billy Collins poem. I'll write the name and page number on the board. We'll use the remaining class time to discuss that poem.

Sara’s Diary, First Day of School

Dear Diary,

OH MY GOSH. I HATE MY LIFE.

Ok, let me back up. Today was the first day of school. I'm not the biggest fan on homework, but I'm really sick of scooping ice cream, so I was kind of excited. Classes weren't too bad. AP bio is gonna suck at 7:30. But I'll manage. And at least I have Warren for that class, and he's supposed to be really good. AP European History will be a snore, but whateve. French 3 is good. Vive La France! Just kidding. Madame Bazarely is crazy. Which is why we call her Mad Baz. It works. You know how you're supposed to not pronounce half the letters in French? Mad Baz. Yeah.

So the REAL kicker is Honors English. Miss Mckewn is my teacher again which is fine. I liked having her last year. She's kinda funny and almost like one of our friends, but a better dressed, more responsible version of our friends that we have to be nice to because our grade depends on it. Anyway, she said that not enough young people write, so we all need to buy a separate "writing" notebook and for the first 15 minutes of each class we're just going to write. Or journal. Or whatever. She said sometimes she'll give us a prompt, and sometimes she won't. The goal is just to get us writing. And we can also use it outside of school. So this is my first entry in my new notebook. We're supposed to turn them in periodically to show that we're actually doing work and not just doodling. And she said if we have pages we REALLY don't want her to read, we can put paper clip on them and she promised she won't read that page. I imagined a giant paperclip that would envelop the entire notebook. I don't like the idea that somebody will be reading everything I write, Miss Mckewn. But if I had to choose a teacher to know what's going on in my life, I guess it would be her. At least she remembers what it was like to be a teenager. And it wasn't the dark ages back then.

So here's the crappy part. I was sitting in class, early as always because I like to get the best seat which is in the exact middle of the room. I was leafing through my schedule and all the useless first day of school busywork they give you, and then Jason walked in and sat in front of me. After he put his stuff down he turned around and started talking to me. We're not best friends, but he's automatically not a complete idiot because he's on the soccer team. Both teams start practice about a week before school starts, so we'd gotten a chance to chat a little. We were talking about what classes we had and stuff when Miss McKewn walked up to the front of the room and got ready to start. And then who walks in but Weston, fashionably late as always, sipping on some frappawhippamochachino thing with way too much whipped cream. UGH! I HATE HIM! I almost considered switching schools because of him. And I hoped that I would never have another class with him. And where does he decide to sit, but RIGHT NEXT TO ME! I could smell his Old Spice and it was sickening. He sat down next to me and did the whole "hey" with the nod thing to Jason and then me, like I didn't want to kill him. Like it was no big deal that we were sitting next to each other. Apparently he didn't get the memo that I hate his freaking guts. I mean, there were like 5 other seats. He REALLY had to sit RIGHT next to me? I tried to stare daggers at him but apparently he took that as flirting and winked at me. How creepy is that?!

Ok but that's not the worst part. So in English, we're gonna be doing this semester-long project and she "randomly" put us into groups. Guess who I'm with. I'll give you one guess. Yeah. The douchebag.

Well Diary, I have to go and recontemplate the meaning of my life and figure out why God hates me this much. So that's all for now. Goodnight.

 

An Ecocritique of “Fireflies” by Owl City

Introduction

The band known as Owl City consists primarily of one person, Adam Young, and his laptop. The music could be described as electonica, techno, pop, or synthpop. Young started writing music in the basement of his parents' Minnesota home as a remedy to his insomnia. He started many different music projects, but when "Fireflies" became the itunes free song of the week in the summer of 2009, his music caught on and he was propelled into stardom. Although he sometimes has additional accompaniment at live shows, Young's music is primarily synthesized through electronic equipment, perfected, and then combined into a finished product, like "Fireflies." The music video for the song can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psuRGfAaju4&ob=av2e

or by simply typing "Fireflies" into the search bar on www.youtube.com.

The video brings up many interesting ideas. The storyline is reminiscent of the movie, Toy Story, in the sense that all of the toys come to life. Its namesake, fireflies, only show up in two very short shots, and the only other references to the more-than-human world are referring to the earth turning slowly, counting sheep, the globe sitting on top of the piano, and the breeze blowing the curtains towards the end of the video. For that very reason, this discussion will focus on the lack of nature. The lyrics refer to the narrator's "dreams bursting at the seams," indicating that the world Young has generated within the song is a fantasy world. Through the song, "Fireflies," Adam Young creates a postmodern ecological rhapsody in a world where nature, represented by fireflies, has become obsolete and unecessary.

Ecological Rhapsody

In order to understand ecological rhapsody, it is important to understand the definition of the word rhapsody, which is a performative epic poem of sorts, which is sometimes musical, and often highly emotional. One of the most prominent historical literary examples of rhapsody is the Iliad. Therefore, ecological rhapsody is a piece of literature that creates an experience for the reader that attempts to bring the experience of nature, or in this case, lack of nature directly to the reader.

Ecological rhapsody is a type of ecomimesis that as Timothy Morton says, is "reading the book of nature." It highlights details and brings to light those things which normally only exist in the background. It observes the tone of the environment. The role of ecomimesis itself is to convey the atmosphere through ambient poetics.

Breaking the Binaries

One of the biggest goals of ecomimesis, through ecological rhapsody is to undo traditional binaries of traditional nature writing (or reading, or music, etc.) such as:

Human-nonhuman

Culture-nature

Mind-body

Inside-outside

Civilized-primitive

Young breaks up many of these binaries during the music video. Obviously the human vs. nonhuman binary falls apart, seeing as he is the only human in the room, yet all the machines come to life. His fantasy world gets taken over by non-human, yet living objects.

All of the toys in young's room are products of culture. He purchased them all at a store, probably in the 1980s and they were in style at some point. However, the toys exist in their own harmonious ecosystem behind his back, while he sings and plays piano, seemingly unaware or unmoved by their presence.

Before even listening to the music video, just knowing that most of Adam Young's songs began as a result of insomnia brings about the assumption that the mind will be on overdrive, coming up with a fantasy world. If the whole music video is supposed to be a fantasy or dream in Young's head, he exists within it, yet it is contained within his mind. The mind cannot be in binary opposition to the body if it is both within and containing the body.

The only indication of an outside world is at the end of the song, when a breeze blows the curtains from the window. That breeze signifies the end of a dream or fantasy, and the return to the real world. But during the entire song, there is no outside world, therefore, no opposition between the inside and outside worlds. The only thing that exists is the singer in the room with the toys. The entire world is contained in this room, and the room is all that is necessary.

The civilized vs. primitive binary is more difficult because normally ecomimesis urges a return to nature and a simpler or more primitive way of life. However, Young is substituting the loss of nature with electronics. But, by today's technological standards, most of the toys in his room, circa 1980-1990 are in effect, primitive. Also, the so-called primitive or natural world is completely nonexistent in the video, which brings about the idea of a post-modern world where the more-than-human world is simply a concept that cannot be directly experienced. In this sort of world, the best way to experience the pastoral would be through electronics (video games, movies, digital photographs, etc.).

Movement to a Post-Nature or Postmodern World

    A rough translation of ecomimesis is simply "nature writing." Not only is it nature writing, but it is a rhetoric employed to generate a fantasy of nature and the atmosphere. It is easy enough to look at "Fireflies" as a fantasy, with all of the references to the dream world. However, using the concept of fireflies as a symbol for all nature sheds further light on the message of the song. In short, it describes the narrator's enjoyment of the fireflies, and his sadness when they leave. However, he keeps a few of them (though they will eventually die). Observe the following lyrics found from 2:15-2:34:

"to ten million fireflies/I'm weird cause I hate goodbyes/I got misty eyes as they said farewell/But I know where several are/if my dreams get real bizarre/cause I kept a few and I put them in a jar."

This passage is the most crucial turning point of the song. "I got misty eyes as they said farewell" illustrates the loss of the fireflies, which represents the gradual loss of the natural world, and perhaps the sadness that comes with the knowledge of that loss, or even the direct experience of observing that loss. Then the line "cause I kept a few and I put them in a jar" gives a perfect image of putting the natural world in a jar: remembering and celebrating it through digital photographs, movies, and video games. These lyrics together give the audience an image of a world that substitutes electronics for the sublime.

Conclusion

If Young is foreshadowing such a world, beyond nature, replaced by electronics, he puts it in a positive light. The song is lighthearted, upbeat, even inspiring at certain points. It is either a happy place, or an enjoyable reminisce to the time when fireflies danced around him. One of the goals of ecomimesis is to make the audience stop reading, or watching in this case, and get out and experience nature. This music video urges the audience to do the same thing. Figuratively, it calls the audience to enjoy the fireflies before they leave, but on a deeper level, the audience is called to go out and experience and enjoy the more-than-human world before we have destroyed it or no longer respect its value and needs. Or perhaps the audience is fully prepared to embrace electronics as all it needs to feel fulfilled. This song was extremely popular and made Owl City famous. It makes one wonder, are people ready for a world free of nature, or did they see the beauty of looking back on that world and take this song as a warning? Hopefully we can enjoy fireflies for many years to come.

Starbucks Scene

So this is a continuation of the Sarah/Weston Story. This is the first time they get together to work on the Romeo and Juliet project that they have to work on together. They did not choose to be partners. The teacher "randomly" grouped people, and they ended up together. I'm thinking about having the idea of "star-crossed lovers" as a running thread throughout the novel, but I feel like I don't know enough about Romeo and Juliet to do that successfully. This particular piece is written like a script. And on that note, it's purposely faded out at the end, like a scene in a play would, while the characters are still talking. If this is your first Sarah/Weston read, here's a quick rundown (which is impossible, so you'll just have to pick up on stuff)

I'm working on writing an experimental adolescent literature novel. Basically, I want to write a story about a boy and girl from opposite ends of the social spectrum falling in love. But I want to completely omit linear narration. Every piece is some sort of text. So far, I have an unapologetic note, a keyed response (keyed on a car), stream of consciousness, a diary entry, instant messaging (or facebook chat), texting, and here I have a script. Enjoy!

 

It's evening, about 7:15 pm. Sarah is already there wearing earbuds, hunched over a textbook and notebook, furiously scribbling notes, obviously engrossed in whatever she's studying. Her back is to the door/entrance. Weston is (fashionably) late, as usual. He quietly walks up behind her.

WESTON: (with his head over her shoulder) Whatcha listening to?

SARAH: (jumps a foot) God! You shouldn't scare people like that. (takes a deep breath, and goes back to writing) You're late.

WESTON: Sorry. I had some stuff to do.

SARAH: (without looking up) Yeah whatever. Let's get started.

WESTON: I'm gonna grab a coffee quick. (picks up her cup, shakes it, it's empty) You want a refill?

SARAH: (curtly) No I'm fine.

WESTON: Are you sure? It's no trouble, I mean your cup's empty and I—

SARAH: (annoyed) I said I'm fine! (Weston takes a step back) Anyway, I don't drink caffeine at night or I can't sleep. (keeps writing)

WESTON: Ok suit yourself. (goes up to the counter and orders from the barista he knows by name. Waits around with a happy-go-lucky cockyair, maybe whistles, then returns to the table with a gigantic sugary drink with so much whipped cream and syrup on top the lid doesn't even fit, possibly a doughnut or a cookie or something else sugary)

SARAH: (looks up for a second) Um, wow.

WESTON: Beautiful, isn't it?

SARAH: I was thinking more along the lines of death by coffee.

WESTON: So basically the best thing you've ever tasted. (takes a gulp)Amazing! Wanna try some?

SARAH: Nooo thank you

WESTON: Whatever you say. Ok (excited, rubs hands together), let's get down to business! Let's pick a scene.

SARAH: I think we should pick a topic first.

WESTON: Don't we need a scene to write on?

SARAH: (slightly exasperated) We're supposed to pick a dramatic element to focus on, then pick the scene we believe best showcases it, co-write a 10 page paper on it, and then act out all or a portion of the scene in front of the class. So it stands to reason that we should figure out what it is we need to look for in a scene first.

WESTON: Ok, but what if we watch a couple of performances of it, see which scene is most effective, and then decide why and write a paper on that and act it out?

SARAH: (fed up) Fine. Whatever. (slams book closed) We'll do it your way.

WESTON: Um, are you ok?

SARAH: Look, I'm sure you just as thrilled to be partners for this project as I am. We're not friends and you don't have to act all buddy-buddy with me just so I'll work hard, ok?

WESTON: (slightly confused) Uh…alright. Are you sure you're ok? I wasn't trying to act all buddy-buddy with you I genuinely wanted—

SARAH: (almost yelling now) We're not friends!!!

WESTON: (matching her volume) Why not?!

SARAH: I think you know very well why not.

WESTON: Well why don't you enlighten me anyway.

SARAH: (looks at him in surprise) You honestly have no idea what's going on here?

WESTON: No! Wanna let me in on the secret?

SARAH: (talks as she gets up to throw her cup away) I can't believe this. You really don't care about anybody but yourself.

WESTON: Hey that's not true.

SARAH: You have no idea how any of your actions affect anyone else.

WESTON: That's not true! If I was such a bad person why do I have so many friends?

SARAH: Does the word quarterback mean anything to you?

WESTON: I can't help that I'm good at football. And if people like that about me, that's their deal.

SARAH: Need I go on? Abercrombie.

WESTON: My mom works there. What's wrong with their clothes anyway?

SARAH: Nothing if you like soft porn. Ok fine, styling wax.

WESTON: So I like to do my hair. What's wrong with that?

SARAH: Old Spice.

WESTON: You know, for hating me, you sure know a lot about me.

SARAH: Oh come on, you people are a dime a dozen.

WESTON: What is so wrong with being popular? At least I have friends. Maybe you're the one with the problem. You're not exactly Miss Social Butterfly

SARAH: I have two good friends. That's all I need. I don't need an entourage to remind me that I'm worth something.

WESTON: Are you trying to imply something? I'll have you know I'm am a very worthwhile person. I have a lot of friends and talents and responsibilities like—

SARAH: When was the last time you helped someone else?

WESTON: (baffled) What?!

SARAH: When was the last time you did something out of the goodness of your heart, just to benefit somebody else with no strings attached, just because it's the right thing to do? (he opens his mouth) With no personal benefits? (he closes his mouth) That's what I thought.

(Pause. Weston sits and thinks for a minute, then gets an idea)

WESTON: You know I once dated a girl…

SARAH: (sarcastically) Oh this is gonna be good.

WESTON: No really, I dated this girl and I didn't really like her that much. But she liked me a lot. And she didn't have that many friends.

SARAH: Please tell me this isn't what I think it is.

WESTON: So we dated for awhile and eventually we broke up, but she got pretty popular through me. And after that she had more friends and was in the popular group and it was pretty nice for her.

SARAH: Well aren't you just Mr. Selfless?

WESTON: (smugly) She told me one day she owed her popularity to me.

SARAH: That is such a pathetic existence. You people honestly think you can just rule the—

WESTON: I don't see you out there changing the world, so before you just go and—

SARAH: I volunteer EVERY WEEK!

WESTON: With what? Criticizers anonymous? You been nothing but angry since I got here. You didn't even give me a chance. You know I don't have to be nice. I could just leave and let you do this whole project on your own. (stands up)

SARAH: How would you feel about failing English?

WESTON: (stops and stares at her )You wouldn't.

SARAH: This project is worth half our grade. Don't underestimate me. I would.

WESTON: (sighs, cautiously sits back down) ok let's get started

(lights begin to fade)

SARAH: Ok so first thing, I want to choose an element.

WESTON: And I wanna see a performance.

SARAH: Ok fine, lets watch a couple movies. This weekend?

WESTON: Sure. My house or yours.

SARAH: Mine is fine. Let's just focus on a couple of things, alright?

WESTON: Fine by me.

SARAH: And can you quit acting like you're so excited to work together? I mean seriously. Even if we were friends, nobody should act like this.

WESTON: Who says we're not friends?

SARAH: I do.

WESTON: Oh.

 

 

NaNoWriMo

So I'm sorry to everyone who enjoys reading this blog. I have NOT been keeping up on it lately. Something about 16 credit hours, 30 hour work weeks, volunteering, and a monkey (ok there's no monkey...YET!) just cuts down on my time to post stuff. But I haven't been completely lazy all this time. I think I'll try to add some of the stuff I've written about Sarah and Weston within the next couple weeks.

Today, I want to discuss NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. It's coming up in November, and I think I'm going to participate this year. So here's how it works:

-you sign into nanowrimo's website, nanowrimo.org

-from 12:01 am November 1st to 11:59 pm November 30th, you write, write, write!

-the goal isn't quality, but quantity. Basically, you have to submit your written work by midnight, and then they do a word count

-if you reach 50,000 words (and it's not "ninja" 50,000 times), you get added to the list of winners

-there are a few rules, like the fact that it ALL has to be written within that time constraint, but you're free to make outlines and characters sketches and do any necessary research ahead of time, so long as the novel itself gets written in November.

So there you have it. I'm slightly insane for doing this, since the end of November is also when I'm workshopping my Sarah/Weston piece, so I'm planning on taking a week or two off of work to focus more on school and writing. I think there will also be lots of chocolate and coffee involved. Just a hunch.

So if anyone out there has ever considered writing a novel, or just wants to delve into something new, this is a PERFECT opportunity for you! Nanowrimo.org has all sorts of tips and info for writers, so start thinking about that story that's been weaving itself in the recesses of your brain, and liberate it!

Ready, set, WRITE!