February 27, 2009

After Laz answered some individual questions about MLA citation format, we discussed the work of Thomas Paine. The following list is comprised of the points that we covered in class about his writing technique and how it was meant to be perceived:

-This is propaganda.
-Written recruit men to fight in the coming spring against the British because the colonist side really needed help.
-The work is full of purr and snarl words.
-Paine made it sound like the colonist side was the stronger and smarter side even though the entire paper was about their retreat.
-Paine wrote about the retreat as if it was glorious, describing the mass exodus as a success.
-Paine followed the troops to Valley Forge in the winter so that he could write about what it was like to be there and what he expected to happen in the future.
-"These are the times that try men's souls" is an important quote. This quote serves as an example of how Paine made fighting sound to be more of a spiritual act than anything else, a battle between good and evil. The fact that he was talking about casualties was disguised with this technique.

-Jen

A Rarity: Watchmen creator Alan Moore interviewed!

Check out this link:

http://www.wired.com/entertainment/hollywood/magazine/17-03/ff_moore_qa?currentPage=all

Alan Moore's interview with WIRED magazine on superheroes, Watchmen, comic book-film adaptations, etc. Some very interesting moments...


LAZ

February 23 Minutes

Today in class the final people who needed to get their topic for the research paper approved did so. Afterward, Mr. Lazarow made a few announcements:
1) Watchmen (the movie) will be debuting in theaters next Friday, March 6th. We have until the end of the 3rd marking period to read the book, see the movie and write a paper for extra credit. Mr. Lazarow will also be hosting a seminar on Watchmen after school at a date to be announced later.
2) HSPA testing will begin next week on Tuesday-Thursday. Don't stress about the testing about the testing it is simply a standardized test that is only needed to pass high school and then the scores are thrown away. Thus colleges will never see the scores. However be warned, don't take the test too lightly and screw around. Mr. Lazarow has had good students in the past mess around and perform poorly and suffer the embarassment of having to take HSPA remedial classes in their senior year for no credit.
3) Start making friends with the school and local librarians because they will become excellent resources as we search for research for our term papers. Librarians are very adept at finding information and are very helpful.

Finally for the last 20 minutes of class we discussed Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence. While many Americans simply take it as it is, the work is actually a great piece of propaganda. Some of the major points we discussed:
-All faults were blamed on King George even though he did not have much to do with the governing of the colonies.
-Some of the grievances were either blown way out of proportion or written so that it would be difficult to research the true facts.
-In those days it was much more difficult to research information and thus most of Jefferson's points were never contradicted.

-Tyler Harris

February 13 Minutes

Today in class we began discussing Patrick Henry's "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death." A few key points we discussed are:

1. The work was given in a speech. This allowed Patrick Henry to add extra emotion and to employ what speed of delivery and what emphasis he wanted.
2. It doesn't follow the Neoclassic form. It is not orderly or listed because that is too rational of a format and not emotional enough. It also doesn't have long sentences in order to keep information easy to understand so that he can get his points across quickly.
3. It uses the device of rhetorical questions to force his audience to give the answer Patrick Henry wants.
4. It alludes to God to show that God is on his side and against the enemy (British).
5. It gives the audience fear which is a top motive for people's actions.
6. It gives the audience no other choice than revolution or submission.
7. It didn't follow the tenets of Deism because Deism is only found among the upper class. Patrick Henry said that God was on his side to get his followers into his cause rather than using the clockmaker idea of Deism. It is more emotional and effective.

The audiences addressed by this work are the nationals and the allies. It tells the nationals that it is time to fight and gives them a call to arms. It tells the allies that their advantages for being on Patrick Henry's side are being on God's side, having freedom, and not being punished for not being with him.

This work contrasts with Benjamin Franklin's work in a few ways. Patrick Henry has already made the decision to revolt. There is no other option and nothing can be reconciled. On the other hand Benjamin Franklin wants to fix things with the British and believes things can still be solved.

--Alexis

february 12th minutes

Since no one is really doing minutes I figured I'd start again with Benjamin Franklin's London Correspondence. Yesterday we talked about Franklin having a sense of humor in this document, mocking England's government. He also has a certain satire (which we established was for proving a point and pointing out flaws in society). Franklin established common grounds with his audience by saying he is a "modern simpleton" -- which also relates to our study of propaganda (just plain folks) and also to Anne Bradstreet's poetry because she uses humilty, although in a very different way. Franklin makes it simple to understand by using an analogy to cake.
Here are a few main points from today's discussion:
1. Capitalization for emphasis (possibly influence of his German background)
2. Audience
a. Neutrals (logic, list of reason why they should revolt and join the nationals, hints that people should watch out for these things in the future -- establishes common grounds because maybe something has happened to them before that they can relate to)
b. Enemies (begin to question their own government, demoralization)
-not so much the nationals, but they will agree; Franklin says something will happen and then it does, they will be more inclined to believe him. Does not lead them or give them direction
3. Very Neoclassic literature -- numbered, ordered list, structure
4.Emotional value depends on who is reading it ( personal connection with the experiences)
5. Does not present opposing arguement (no rebuttal in Toulmin sense)
- propaganda: cardstacking, unfinished claim. People will not question the "facts"


-Sammi

Deism and Human Perfection

Today we continued to talk about neoclassicism and the deist philosophy. One of the recurring topics of discussion was the clock analogy. This described how god was the creator of the universe, which is like a intricate watch that runs just as god intended it to, and humans were the stewards of the watch. Deists also believed that humans were not perfect, but they were perfectable. I was wondering that since they believed in both the clock analogy and human perfectability, did deists think that humans would eventually perfect themselves (since they were the operators of the clock), could only god perfect them, or would they always strive to get closer to perfection without ever achieving it? If perfection would be achieved, then how long would it take?



-Mike Bass

Ben Franklin Reading

I thought the the Franklin reading was very interesting. I liked how Franklin used wit to illustrate the colonies' complaints of England. I wondered how accurate was his portrayal of the American colony-England relationship. Was England really doing all those things? I questioned his accuracy because, he was American. Also I wondered who his audience was. Was it written for Americans? Or the English? If it was written for an American audience than it was probably used to generate animosity for England. Because many American felt that England had wronged them, and the essay reaffirmed these beliefs. Or maybe the purpose of the essay was to approach English administrators in a different way, by using wit.
Also I didn't understand why he capitalize words wrong. He didn't just capitalize the words at the beginning of a sentence, and proper nouns, but other words also. Was it to add emphasis or was that just the writing style of the 1700's?
Overall I thought it was an interesting read. what are your views?
Ashley Hill