Working On Your Tan

Amy Tan is telling her stories to us once again in Year One classes. Above you see a picture from almost twenty years ago of Amy and her mother Daisy reading one of their precious letters from the daughters left behind in China. Sadly, Daisy died a year after Amy's The Hundred Secret Senses was published (1998). She has said of her mother that when she died, Amy lost her muse and her conscience. Much of her writing has been an attempt to discover who she is through her mother's stories. "My mother's many names were vestiges of her many selves, lives I have been excavating most of my adult life," Tan wrote in a New York Times essay concerning her dilemma. "What I know about myself is related to what I know about her, her secrets...and with each discovery I had to reconfigure the growing whole."

Perhaps in reading The Joy Luck Club, you will find your story as well. Remember that your second and fourth threads must be posted on your blog site by the dates given in class. Also be sure you and your partner(s) are ready to teach the stories you have been assigned. Perhaps we will discover more about our theme -- Who Am I, Anyway?
Here are some links I promised to post:

The Rock Bottom Remainders (the band Amy is in with other writers)
Amy Tan's Blog site
Amy Tan's official web site

Obesessed With Death?

As we come to the end of our study of the poet John Donne (I will refrain from saying we are done with Donne), we can begin to ponder the deeper truths he has revealed to us. Donne's poertry stays with you a long time, so I find it fitting that you will have a winter break to contemplate about this truly intellectual artist.

The picture to your left was commissioned by Donne a few months before his death. It was intended to represent how Donne expected to appear when he rose from the grave at the Apocalypse (or Compt, as Othello would call it). He hung the portrait on his wall as a reminder of the transience of life. We have his poetry hanging in the gallery of our minds to remind us of this transience as well.

We will be watching Margaret Edson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Wit in class this week as a way to see another view of Donne's work. Year Twos, you will be asked to address one of the following topics on your blog site after viewing the play. Please label your blog entry by the question you are addressing and be sure you reference the work. This will be due before the end of the year; I will be checking them in the warmth of my holidays home in Virginia.

* Defend Wit as a play that explores the thematic pattern of creation/fall/redemption.

* Analyze why Wit is the perfect title for this work.

* What does Vivian's dying teach her about life?

* Detail how Wit illustrates the meaning of John Donne's sonnet "Death, Be Not Proud."

* Explore the parallels between Vivian Bearing and E.M. Ashford with Jason Posner and Harvey Kelekian.

Welcome to an Old Friend

Here's a warning, students: after you leave Mr. Munson's class, your education is just beginning. Some past students have gone on to become English teachers as well. Ms. Cintra's class is now linked to our web page. Check out her classes and her students' postings through the link to the right. Good to have you back in my class, Susan!

What is Poetry?

Poetry is a hard thing to define. It almost seems that every time a poet writes his/her thoughts in poetic form, he/she is adding to the ongoing definition of the genre. Indeed, many poets write their definitions in the form of poems called ars poetica (or "the art of poetry"). When Lawrence Ferlinghetti, a Beat Poet, won the Frost Medal for his body of work, his speech was an ars poetica of sorts. Here it is for you to read:

http://www.poetrysociety.org/journal/articles/whatispoetry.html

Seniors, please read this ars poetica and find some (three or more) lines that resonant with you. This will become your first posting on your blog site. Tell what poetry is to you and refer to these lines. Read some others and respond. Juniors, feel free to join in on our discussion.

Tribute to Akhmatova

Sonia wrote in to tell me about the existence of this monument (top) commemorating Anna Akhmatova in front of the prison she stood in anguish in front of for seventeen months and wrote about in "Requiem." That's the prison above. The poem is a better monument to me, but this is pretty classy too.

Akhmatova is Everywhere

I, like all of you juniors, am discovering Anna Akhmatova's life and her poetry, and the Web is full of wonderful discoveries. This woman is considered one of Russia's four greatest poets. I think what inspires people the most about her is that she never abandoned Russia in all the turbulent times she lived through. Her poems were the encouragement people needed to press on despite overwhelming odds against them. The Akhmatova Project (logo above) is a theatrical production dedicated to spreading her artistic vision through theater. One writer put it this way:

“Anna Andreevna Akhmatova used poetry to give voice to the struggles and deepest yearnings of the Russian people, for whom she remains the greatest of literary heroines. She has lately come to symbolize for the world even beyond Russia the power of art to survive and transcend the terrors of our century.”

-- Judith Hemschemeyer, A Stranger to Heaven and Earth

How Can I Get More Out of What I Read?

"We can only possess what we experience. Truth, to be understood, must be lived."
-- Singer Charlie Peacock

I think studying literature is like anything else we do that is worthwhile -- we must practice the process. The problem with education (as well as with business) is that we justify shortcuts in order to get to the goal quicker, especially when the task is hard for us. Many students have trouble with literary analysis or commentaries because they believe that they cannot see what others see in a passage. What we fail to realize is that the actual process of getting the answer makes us a better scholar than actually being given the answer. With the internet, we can so easily find an interpretation of a poem or even go to "Shakespeare Made Easy" to help us get the commentary or reading response done, but it keeps us from actually learning how to figure it out for ourselves.

We may know the answer, but we don't possess it because we never worked for it. And when it comes time to show how well we can analyze literature, we feel stumped because we never made ourselves experience the intellectual tension of not understanding and then figuring it out on our own. That feels so successful unless you give up and let someone or something tell you the answer.

Bottom line: If IOPs and IOCs scare you because you are afraid you won't be able to do it, come in and just talk through the Akhmatova poetry or the Shakespeare passages with me so you can gain practice figuring it out. I'll ask you the questions, but I won't give you answers, or use the internet. I'll help you practice thinking for yourself.

And that's the Truth, but it can only be understood if you experience it.