Metacognition: Jane Eyre Writing Assignment

When working with my group members Lauren and Alex on the Jane Eyre writing project this past week, I found myself thinking some surprising thoughts. The first and most major was the idea I came up with at the very beginning of the project, when we were deciding on which themes to write our essay on. From the very beginning I thought about the type of person Jane was, and what her values were. When I was working with Lauren, I came up with an idea that we used in the first line of the project, "How do we juxtapose Jane's love and independence?".

I had been toying with this idea in my mind for quite some time, and I was surprised about the direction it took off when penning the project. At first I had thought that while it was an interesting topic, the answer was fairly simple: Jane was an independent woman who did not let love hinder her independence. But as I began to write with Lauren and Alex, I found that the answer was much more complex than that, and that by modernizing the story of Jane Eyre, we could potentially gather how Jane's love and independence inform each other and blend together.

I was really surprised with the directions my thinking took while juxtaposing love and independence in this story, as well as modernizing it. I found that the two concepts went together really well, and that by focusing on one we almost automatically had a spot for the other. I liked the way my thought process progressed, and how Alex and Lauren's thought process also helped mine. When Lauren and I worked together, I would come up with a basic thought, and Lauren would polish and refine that idea to work into our essay.

I think that working with other people on this project really helped with advancing my ideas of what a modern day version of Jane Eyre would be: without Alex, we never would have thought of transforming our modern version into a television show instead of a novel. Without Lauren's "in-character" comments during the discussion Alex recorded, I would never have seen the words love and independence half a page across from each other and connected the two in such a unique way. Also, without our discussion that we had during class time, I think that the project would have been a lot more rushed and confused.

Overall, I really liked how our project turned out, as well as how our thoughts melded together to blend the two main tasks of the assignment to eventually separate it into three main parts and then have a refined discussion with each of us focusing solely on either love, independence or modernizing. I think that this project was as thought provoking as it was by (in our case at least) taking the topic we discussed most in class and combining it with something we hadn't really touched on. In conclusion, I think that this project really helped me open up my mind to things that went past the class discussion, while still using my thoughts and ideas from given prompts.

Metacognition: Jane Eyre

I think that this book went really well for me in both reading comprehension and thought. I've always been interested in 19th century as well as early 20th century women, and I think that Jane Eyre helped that interest flourish. I really enjoyed reading Jane Eyre, almost because of the slow pace. It was nice not to have to speed through conversation and really get a feel for the characters without being thrown into the book in the first chapter.

There were a couple surprises about my thinking that I caught myself on. The most major was how cynical I am, especially late at night. As I read how Jane rejected Rivers' proposal, I was egging her on instead of encouraging her to go with a stable man who would take care of her as his wife. I also found myself compelled to want to encourage Jane to act out and rashly as a young child in the beginning of the story and at Lowood.

I liked how I was able to think about our discussion on love from Once, and how we talked about the different types of love. I think that I was able to recall this so frequently when reading because of the many different types of love Jane experiences and how that love changes. I think that I could probably think more clearly if I marked more in the book as I read, and that would also help me decide which passages to choose for discussion. Overall, I really enjoyed reading Jane Eyre, and I think that this novel has really honed my thinking skills.

360 Degrees: Hair

Hair is a musical surrounding a group of about 20 "hippie" teenagers during the war in Vietnam. Having seen the musical on Broadway in New York, I think that there are a lot of deeper meanings we can take from it rather than just the outer layer of a group of drug addicts trying to escape the war. What I see here is a group of radicals (for lack of a better word) trying to get a group of higher up officials to see their point of view. How do these teenagers behave in a way that tries to gain others attention?

While there are several numbers that seem to have no meaning other than displaying a drug trip, I believe that these types of songs show a retreat of the characters: their life is so terrible, and they have so little to stay conscious for that they take LSD and other drugs to avoid reality. They are flashy and run around in the streets like crazy hippies who don't care what the world thinks of them, and their story becomes of interest to several people who cannot comprehend what they are trying to accomplish.

We also witness the burning of the groups draft cards to the Vietnam war. I'd like to think that them burning their cards not only represents their vehement opposition to the war but their only way of standing up for what they believe in; under normal circumstances (even today) no one would really listen to the drunk druggie kids or what they were trying to say.

I am curious about the writer of the play, and what his view of the Vietnam war was and how it affected him throughout the years. I think that maybe he had a family member or knew someone who was killed in the war, and this play (that was outrageously shocking and mind blowing, especially when it first came out) was almost like his way of confronting his demons and standing up for what he believes in.

Probably the most important message I got out of this musical was the way the Vietnam war really affected the youth of America. They went, they opposed, they fought, they died. And when you really listen to the words, you can tell that there is more than just the literal meanings to Let the Sunshine.

An Inconvenient Truth: A Lack of Books

It is said that within the next twenty years, paper books will be completely replaced by technology.

This Saturday, Apple's newest creation, the iPad, came out. And, being the techie that I am, I immediately read about two dozen reviews to see how it compared to other Apple products. As almost all the more complimentary reviews read, the iPad is a real game changer in multiple ways: it can outright replace many, if not most, of the computing (internet) needs, and it seems that as the glitches are worked out, and the next generations come out, it will most likely be able to replace computers entirely.

Alongside that article was a blurb on how paper books are being replaced. Amazon's Kindle, and now the iPad have the ability to completely replace the printed book. They have ways to store books so that one only has to carry around one small device for several hundred books. As much as I like the idea of being able to carry around all the books I want to read at once, eventually as everyone begins to own one of these devices, it is so difficult to comprehend that within a generation or two they could stop being used.

I think that having an iPad or Kindle (especially since they have expanding functions, like internet) would be extremely convenient for the user, but I hesitate to get one of these devices no matter how useful they may be. Like any device, a book reader can crash. And reading on a screen is just different than reading an actual book.

Although it will take time to accept, it seems that the reign of books that have been used for centuries is soon to be over. I think that the only way to really get used to the fact that books are being replaced by internet-based technology is to keep the ones I have in good condition, and continue to buy paper books in lieu of using an iPad or Kindle for reading books online.

Dialectics: Time and Control (Pan's Labyrinth)

In Spanish these past few weeks, our class has been studying the Spanish Civil War. In order to demonstrate the impact of the war on its youth and Ana Maria Matute (who's stories we've been reading for the past two months), we watched Pan's Labyrinth. The movie centers on a young Ofelia, who is journeying with her pregnant mother to the countryside to live with her stepfather, an influential general of Francisco Franco.

In the several carefully crafted scenes that focus on the Captain, we learn that he is extremely obsessed with leaving a legacy to his son, like his father did to him. On the day of his death, the Captain's father took his pocketwatch and smashed it into a rock, to be collected by one of his men so that his son would know the exact time that he died. In the specific scene where time and control become extremely related, we see the Captain continually glancing at his watch (the ticking is the only real sound we hear) as he shaves using a razor blade. At the end of the scene, he puts the razor up to his neck in the mirror and slices.

I think that this scene in particular shows how time and control inform each other. The dialectic of control and time shows how people obsessively control and record every aspect of their lives until they die, so as to record the precise moment of their death to be remembered forever. I also think that in this particular situation, we see how (later) the captain uses his stopwatch as a way to control the situation around him even when it's not in his favor.

I think the real connection between time and control is that as time goes on, one gains more control over their life until their peak, when they once again lose control (like a parabola). In the case of the Captain, I think that his obsessive mindset over controlling his life until the moment he dies is what really creates the dialectic here: control is what time really is. Time is a way of controlling exactly when something happens, or when someone is born or dies.

Blogging Around

Anna, Best of the Week: Epiphany (from Cathedral)
Anna's post was about how we can learn from the epiphany that the man in Cathedral has
I definitely agree with you, Anna. I think that the way the man in Cathedral experiences his epiphany is extremely important. I also like what you said about how one small "aha!" moment can cause bigger changes in a person's life. I think that it's important to reflect on moments like this and use them in order to reflect and grow. I think that the author's style - and by extent the man's style - is very important here; his reflection of the epiphany is one of amazement and wonder. Overall, I think that many of your observations were very astute.

Lauren, An Inconvenient Truth: Food, Inc.
Lauren's post was about the way the production and consumption of food has changed and become more monetarily focused
I also saw this movie, and found that it really affected my perspective on the food industry. I really like how you used this to pull from freshman year; the idea of how this is related to Ishmael and the Fall of the world was really an astute observation. I agree with you that the increases in population have led us to take drastic and terrible measures, and I think that it's ridiculous how having more people on the planet have decreased our humanity.

Best of the Week: Frame Narrator

I think that one of the best discussions we had this week was about the frame narrator in Heart of Darkness. I found it to be really interesting how we talked about what the implications of a white, European frame narrator, and how that impacted the way the novel was written. I think that the fact that Marlow and Conrad were both white and previously exposed to European prejudices is extremely influential in the opinions presented in the book.

Thinking about Marlow as a free black European was extremely difficult, because (based on the book) we don't know much about how blacks viewed their African counterparts, but I think that this idea was very important. It made me think about the implications of this novel and the effects they can have on students across the world, and throughout time.

For example, how could the travels of a prejudiced man who penned a novel have affected the people in Little Rock several decades ago have viewed the colored students that came to their school? I also thought that the point Sam made during our discussion was very valid: would anyone have payed attention to Marlow (as a part of Conrad) had he not been a white European?

Overall, I think that Marlow is really an extension of Conrad, and therefore Conrad forced what he knew onto Marlow; for all we know Marlow should have been a black European, or a white who wanted to understand the Africans. Conrad's opinions and ideas are clearly shown through Marlow, and had Conrad been anyone else, Marlow would not have existed.

iMedia: Tik Tok

Ke$ha's Tik Tok has been heard by almost every teenager. It has remained in the iTunes top ten for over twelve weeks. And ironically (as you can most likely see from the video) this 22-year old is what many would call white trash. In all of her most popular songs Ke$ha has alluded to drinking, drugs and sex. I was very surprised to find that she apparently had amazing SAT scores and was a very studious teenager: the image she tries to give off is one of young, pretty and wild.

I think that the ideas behind this song indicate how far popular American music has fallen. Years ago the teenagers were listening to rock and roll tunes. Today we listen to Auto-Tuned, barely sung songs with the same beat. The people who voice these songs are stereotypically young and crazy one hit wonders. They go out and party and get drunk, and no one cares-- the bigger the scandal the better.

Personally I like this song. I think that its fun and upbeat, and when she sings and gives interviews she does it herself: Ke$ha knows what she wants and knows how to attain what she wants. I think that the fact that she has a "different" personality than what people are used to that opens us youngsters to a different lifestyle. But her story is also typical: was dirt poor when she caught a break and now has money and is famous.

Overall, I think that Tik Tok as a song is a perfect one for a slumber or dance party. But while the message behind it may not be so perfect, the fact that Ke$ha can talk about going out and partying every night shows how much music has changed. The party don't stop.

Connection: Marlow and Andrew

As we've been reading Heart of Darkness, we've frequently discussed Marlow's place as the story-teller, thus providing us a need for a frame narrator. In Buffy the Vampire Slayer season seven, Andrew becomes an extremely important point of view for one episode (Storyteller). In this episode, we see Andrew documenting Buffy and her trainee's as they prepare to fight against the ultimate evil. I think that Andrew's role (in this episode particularly) is extremely important.

In parts this episode, we see Andrew embrace the frame narrator. As he gives background information and sets the scene for us, he draws us in with the daily life at the Summers household. As he does this, we see the film through his videocamera, only to have it shut off minutes later and see Andrew in a Marlow-like position; he is in the story while telling the story.

I think that Andrew's role for this episode is very important to helping us understand the need for the frame narrator in Heart of Darkness. In the 42-minute Storyteller, we see how Conrad's idea of a frame narrator has translated to television over 100 years later. The characters are very informative of each other, since they play similar roles in entirely different situations. Andrew is presenting the story to us in order to capture the feelings in the air as a small army prepares for battle, whereas Marlow presents the story to several men on board a ship with him in order to capture the essence of Mr. Kurtz.

Overall, I think that Joss Whedon captured the idea of one character playing as the frame narrator and the character in the story at the same time quite well. It is obvious that Andrew has a place as both a frame narrator and as a main character in the course of the episode, and I think that the way the writers allowed Andrew to play both out is extremely similar to Conrad's intents with Marlow.

(Video watch through 1:15)

Metacognition: First Semester

I think that this semester I have really grown not only as a writer but as a thinker. When the school year started, my ideas were jumbled and I couldn't even begin to describe a philosophic thought. But now I know how to effectively organize what I'm thinking to clearly show my thoughts while showing everyone else. I think that the creative ideas I came up with were what surprised me the most: some of my ideas (such as helping think of the setting for the Lear skits, how I developed my Sophie essay) were out of what I would normally consider my range. Because of this, I feel that I am now more comfortable with what I know: I am not afraid to speak about the crazy ideas I have. But I like the way this creativity has developed; it leads me to push borders that I otherwise would not have crossed as well as pursue other new ideas. I also think that I could still improve my thinking: all great thinkers sculpted out their ideas to have their own flavor, their own style. And I think, that especially through Sophie's World I have learned about many of the greatest thinkers and my new ideas and philosophies will be original and informed. At the end of the day, I know that I have my voice, my ideas and the ability to spread them.