A Jumbled Assortment of What's Going Through My Mind

Okay. So while researching and putting together my presentation on America, I really started to think. What is America? Is it a materialistic, competitive place like I described in my presentation? Is it a place where making sacrifices will help people and their families have the best life possible, as Kirsten said? Is it a place where people must look past their past to thrive, as TJ said? Is it a land of opportunity, where some can rise above their social class to achieve greatness, as Peter said? In truth, it's all of these things, and so much more. America is such a difficult thing to define in just a few words. Its people are so diverse; its past is short but filled with greatness; its power on Earth is undeniable (oh, how I love anaphoras). It's such a young country, compared to the rest of the world--that's evident just by looking at the culture. We're constantly indulging ourselves, no matter what the cost. Which brings me to my point--America's kind of like the teenager of the world. We're not the old, wise countries that have been around forever, yet we're not the country that's just getting started. We're somewhere in the middle--and our culture tends to act like teenagers, a lot of the time.

American citizens are generally lazy. We try to do as little work as possible in order to get things done (to the minimum level, obviously), just like teenagers. Anyone who knows me (or has read my Generation essay) knows that I tend to be somewhat pessimistic about where we're headed as a culture, and I feel like if we can just get it through our thick heads, we'll probably be able to turn this awful situation into a positive one. If we can accept that we're headed in a bad direction and actually try to change something, then maybe we'll actually end up getting something done. It's like that essay we read today--we can't just say that we want change and then not do anything about it!

As Jensen said, "There absolutely needs to be the creation of a new culture with new values (or, really, tens of thousands of cultures, each emerging from its own landbase, including the re-emergence of extant indigenous cultures). But the people involved in that cultural creation must see themselves as part of a resistance movement that supports and encourages action against the forces that are dismembering our planet, or, at least, that don't actively discourage organized resistance whenever the subject is raised. Otherwise that nice, new culture is simply a fantasy, unhooked from anything in the real, physical world, incapable of ever being effective, and, ultimately, a position of privilege." That's so awesome! We need to be the change we want to see in the world. Whether it be environmentally or socially, we need to change. We're harming ourselves; we're harming our planet; we're harming our loved ones. If we want to live the lives we've dreamed of, we need to stop being this consumer-driven country that America has undoubtedly become.

The Great Gatsby: Pre-Chapter 8

I'm not going to lie--when we first started The Great Gatsby, I wasn't really a fan. I mean, it was okay, but I didn't love it and I didn't understand what people were talking about when they said they liked it so much! I appreciated the writing, and I loved the way Fitzgerald wrote, but I just couldn't get into the plot. I wasn't sure who was married to who, where every character came to play, and I had no idea how Gatsby fit into the story! Maybe I just didn't read thoroughly enough, or I didn't pay attention when I needed to, but for the first couple chapters I wasn't the biggest fan.

Well BOY has that changed! These last few chapters have been so good! It's like everything has clicked--Gatsby and Daisy have a huge history together; Tom and Daisy's relationship is suffering; Myrtle is DEAD! It's like everything picks up so quickly and then it's just a chain of events one after another. I haven't yet read the homework that's due for Thursday, but I'm expecting it to pick up where everything left off, and probably throw me for another loop! Just when I expect that one thing is going to happen, Fitzgerald changes it up on me. I expected Daisy and Gatsby to get together, but now I'm not so sure. I expected Myrtle was going to go out West with her husband, but looks like she can't do that anymore! I like that this book keeps me on my toes, without dragging out the plot. It's written simply yet with depth, and I think that's an extremely difficult thing for an author to do. So I guess you could say my doubts for Fitzgerald have disappeared--he's proven himself to me!

Lexicon? Piece of Cake!

So I can't sleep. I'm not sure why, I've just been lying in bed for the last hour and a half trying to fall asleep. So what do I choose to do to try to put myself to sleep? The personalized lexicon, of course (let me take an opportunity now to apologize for any grammatical errors that may result from my lack of sleep)!

Basically, I figured it would just be boring and I would have to trek through it one word at a time. I started, and it was actually a lot easier than I expected (when I mean easier, I mean the easiest thing we've done in this class so far!) I already had the words picked out, so I just had to type everything out, and it went by so quickly! I'm pretty sure it took me like a half hour at most to do all of my words. It was actually kind of interesting, too--because we weren't forced to analyze the way the words were used or anything silly like that, I actually found myself learning what most of the words meant. I mean, I figured I'd feel some sort of enmity for this assignment, but I was able to acquiesce the assignment without much difficulty. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that if you haven't done it yet, don't worry about it! It doesn't take long at all and it's virtually stress-free! :)

P.S. Mr. Kunkle, if you're reading this, please try to be magnanimous when grading my blog posts because I know I'm a week or two behind. :)

T-Paine: You So Fly!

I don't know about everyone else, but I actually really enjoyed reading "Common Sense" by Thomas Paine. I found it hard to not over-annotate, because it just seemed like every sentence was well written. In just the first paragraph, when Paine used parallel syntax and antitheses to compare society to the government, I couldn't help but be drawn in.

He brought up some really awesome points, too. When he said that "Government... is but a necessary evil," and that "the crown is this overbearing part in the English constitution," I was hooked. I'm all for human rights and making sure the government/monarchy doesn't gain too much power, so I tend to see all goverment officials as corrupt. Maybe I'm being cynical, or maybe I've just been channeling T-Paine even before I read his piece. I found his writing very easy to read, mainly because he was directing it toward the people. He uses common language and even provides an example to better help citizens understand his main points. Even though I found it a little redundant, the capitalization used throughout the piece also helped me understand what he was trying to say. For example, when he stated that the "ELECTED might never form to themselves and interest seperate from the ELECTORS, prudence will point out the propriety of having elections often: because as the ELECTED might by that means return and mix again with the general body of the ELECTORS in a few months, their fidelity to the public will be secured by the prudent reflection of not making a rod for themselves." I found this really easy to comprehend because he wrote it in a way that would actually make sense to the people, whereas normally I'm sure many people (or at least me, anyway) would have just skimmed over it.

Overall, I just really enjoyed reading this piece. I found it easy to both understand and rhetorically analyze it, and I hope that we are able to read more by T-Paine before the semester ends!