This might not make that much sense because I rambel on about some things, sorry.
This semester I think I have read more than I have my whole life. I never read. Well i've read a few books, 3, but that really doesn't count to me as reading. I usually find myself looking to read whenever I am in Florida. Each summer my sister, mom and I spend the whole summer in Destin at our grandparents beach condo. And it is honestly the most relaxing two months of my whole year and I always find myself wanting to read a book while I'm at the beach. Which to me seems so weird because during the school year I dread reading and don't even read books for school, accept for this class because we could actually chose what we wanted to read instead of being forced to read a book that doesn't appeal in any way to a high school student. (shhhhh don't tell) But for some reason the beach always seems to make me want to read. I think that another reason I don't find myself reading during the school year is because I can never find a book that sounds appealing. Don't get my wrong, there are plenty of books that i've heard of that have amazing story lines and are things that I'm intrested in but I just know that I won't take the time to read them. So that is the hard part. But the select books that I have actually are really intresting to me and I finish the book in less than a week. I guess this is my goodbye to reading until summer. Bye reading.
-howdini
Friday, November 11, 2011
Friday, November 4, 2011
currently
Currently.
Blindness by Jose Saramaga
The past few weeks I have been reading a new book called Blindness by Jose Saramaga. At first glance I thought that it looked like a pretty good book. Well I'm not gonna lie, I just looked at the cover and it looked cool so I thought I would read it. Unfortunately, that's how things interest me, by the way they look. Anyways, this book actually won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1998 so that's pretty cool. When I first started reading it I didn't notice that it was written weird until about a chapter in. The author uses really long sentences and a lot of commas instead of just using "normal" writing and using many sentences. Actually I think that for each paragraph it is only one sentence. Maybe, but I'm not 100% sure but that's what it seems like.
Anyway, this book is about a man that suddenly becomes blind while he is driving. When he leaves his house that morning he is fine but suddenly when he stops at a red light he becomes blind. When the light turns green and his car is still at a holt, a crowd of people gather around his car trying to figure out what's wrong and the only thing he says is "I'm blind." The first thing that crossed my mind was why is someone that is blind driving? But then it goes on to say how he could see perfectly fine before he left his house. A pedestrian then accompanied the man to the passenger seat of his car and told him that she would drive him home, because like me, she thought that he was always blind. While they were in the car though, the blind man told the lady his story and she was trying to calm him down saying how he will be able to see again but the man just kept going on about how he was fine that morning and all of a sudden everything became white. Which the lady found really odd because almost all blind people can only see black, so the fact that this guy only saw white was really strange. Anyway this book turns out to become a huge epidemic and forces the government to take action.
It suprised me that I actually found this book intresting since the only thing that attracted me to it was the cover. But I actually want to read it and find out what is happening with this guy and if this Blindness epidemic will be cured or not.
-howdini
Blindness by Jose Saramaga
The past few weeks I have been reading a new book called Blindness by Jose Saramaga. At first glance I thought that it looked like a pretty good book. Well I'm not gonna lie, I just looked at the cover and it looked cool so I thought I would read it. Unfortunately, that's how things interest me, by the way they look. Anyways, this book actually won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1998 so that's pretty cool. When I first started reading it I didn't notice that it was written weird until about a chapter in. The author uses really long sentences and a lot of commas instead of just using "normal" writing and using many sentences. Actually I think that for each paragraph it is only one sentence. Maybe, but I'm not 100% sure but that's what it seems like.
Anyway, this book is about a man that suddenly becomes blind while he is driving. When he leaves his house that morning he is fine but suddenly when he stops at a red light he becomes blind. When the light turns green and his car is still at a holt, a crowd of people gather around his car trying to figure out what's wrong and the only thing he says is "I'm blind." The first thing that crossed my mind was why is someone that is blind driving? But then it goes on to say how he could see perfectly fine before he left his house. A pedestrian then accompanied the man to the passenger seat of his car and told him that she would drive him home, because like me, she thought that he was always blind. While they were in the car though, the blind man told the lady his story and she was trying to calm him down saying how he will be able to see again but the man just kept going on about how he was fine that morning and all of a sudden everything became white. Which the lady found really odd because almost all blind people can only see black, so the fact that this guy only saw white was really strange. Anyway this book turns out to become a huge epidemic and forces the government to take action.
It suprised me that I actually found this book intresting since the only thing that attracted me to it was the cover. But I actually want to read it and find out what is happening with this guy and if this Blindness epidemic will be cured or not.
-howdini
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
forrealzzz?
I like how almost everyone that didn't even post a response dissed mine. really? lol oh and I think mine was used in like everyone's post. lol well this just shows how awesome I am at english!
-howdini
-howdini
Common Weakness
I feel really bad doing this because I know that everyone tried and I hate having to point out weaknesses on something that they did and having to link their blog to this post. So to anyone that I like their blog to this post, I'm sorry.
- weakness 6: "As the passage goes on, the author uses phrases like" used the word use. blog link.
- weakness 1: "He says whatever comes to mind, saying that his parents "would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them," shows that he doesn't really care what he says, just wants to get his point across. blog link.
- weakness 3: He describes the boy’s feelings towards his parents with a negative, abusive and defiant diction. blog link.
- weakness 2: Baker describes his surroundings as "towering volumes of marble and glass" and "long glossy highlights to each of the black rubber handrails". They use the quote for the whole sentence without describing it. blog link.
Response to the Catcher and Rye Excerpt
In the excerpt from "The Catcher and the Rye," Salinger's noisy, comical banter highlights his childish gullibility. Although he is a teenager, he makes no effort to compose in impressive vocabulary. He describes his childhood with the word "lousy" and a general introduction as "stuff that bores me." On the subject of his parents, he says "they're touchy as hell." Salinger has no boundaries as to what can be said; he lets Holden say what he wants about everything in life. Writing with such a low, familiar diction emphasizes how some teenagers truly feel about their home life and their story.
poem
I really liked this poem that was read in class yesterday so I thought that I would post it on my blog.
Bus Boy
O teenage bus boy of the summer dusk!
Lugging your gray tub of swill,
bathed in slop and ooze and bits of spaghetti
in the alley behind the Applebee's—
hate me if you will,
as I pass by in my tennis shorts and Obama t-shirt
with a vibrant, dark-haired woman,
on my way to watch game three
of the NBA finals at our local microbrewery.
Hate me, but you cannot know
that I once labored as you do now, at a Big Boy
in Riverside, California, elbow deep
in the very same lumpish goop and ooze.
Like you, I was of the slime of alleys,
of the same immemorial cigarette butts
and rotting cottage cheese.
And like you,
I dreamed of a certain waitress,
and of driving a fork into the forehead
of the night manager,
and of spitting in the soup
of plump, complacent, well-dressed diners
who snapped their fingers at me.
But most of all I dreamed of being clean,
and cool, and never, ever again
slogging through the world's filth and stink,
which is something I have achieved,
as must be perfectly obvious to you.
-howdini
Lugging your gray tub of swill,
bathed in slop and ooze and bits of spaghetti
in the alley behind the Applebee's—
hate me if you will,
as I pass by in my tennis shorts and Obama t-shirt
with a vibrant, dark-haired woman,
on my way to watch game three
of the NBA finals at our local microbrewery.
Hate me, but you cannot know
that I once labored as you do now, at a Big Boy
in Riverside, California, elbow deep
in the very same lumpish goop and ooze.
Like you, I was of the slime of alleys,
of the same immemorial cigarette butts
and rotting cottage cheese.
And like you,
I dreamed of a certain waitress,
and of driving a fork into the forehead
of the night manager,
and of spitting in the soup
of plump, complacent, well-dressed diners
who snapped their fingers at me.
But most of all I dreamed of being clean,
and cool, and never, ever again
slogging through the world's filth and stink,
which is something I have achieved,
as must be perfectly obvious to you.
-howdini
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
practice diction analysis
In the exert The Mezzanine, by Nichason Baker, the author uses high language to describe the lobby of his office building along with his over the top apperance. His use of connotation suggests a picturesque vision of his apperance while walking through the lobby. "Turned toward the escalators, carrying a black Penguin paperback and a small white CVS bag, its receipt stapled over the top," describes the harsh clattering of the setting.
I'm not really sure how to end this or how long it is suppose to be so I'm just gonna end it now haha\
-howdini
I'm not really sure how to end this or how long it is suppose to be so I'm just gonna end it now haha\
-howdini
Monday, October 24, 2011
friday post
1. "The elevation of his diction is pretty average - not rude or flowery - and the sound can be described as both grating and melodious as he switches between describing the horrors and beauties of war." - Becca's Blog
2. " In the excerpt from The Help, Kathryn's literal meaning of certain things are common and colloquial in ways that makes her writing unique." - Book Lover
3. " In Stardust, Neil Gaiman articulates his description of Wall, the people and the area formal, harmonious, flowing, descriptive language where words can be taken for their face value meaning." - Contemplations
4. " The whole work is symbolic and metaphoric, a "noble lie" in which the denotative meaning of the story isn't always true persay, but reveals a deeper truth, transcending the literal meaning." - A Scrap of Parchment
5. "The diction falls into the category of being very denotative with a high and elevated tone wtih a light use of figurative language. The narrator uses only common adjectives such as "old" and "square." - So Many Books, So Little Time
My favorite sentence is sentence 4 becasue it is very descriptive. It uses a varitey of words to decribe the book and it caught my attention.
-howdini
2. " In the excerpt from The Help, Kathryn's literal meaning of certain things are common and colloquial in ways that makes her writing unique." - Book Lover
3. " In Stardust, Neil Gaiman articulates his description of Wall, the people and the area formal, harmonious, flowing, descriptive language where words can be taken for their face value meaning." - Contemplations
4. " The whole work is symbolic and metaphoric, a "noble lie" in which the denotative meaning of the story isn't always true persay, but reveals a deeper truth, transcending the literal meaning." - A Scrap of Parchment
5. "The diction falls into the category of being very denotative with a high and elevated tone wtih a light use of figurative language. The narrator uses only common adjectives such as "old" and "square." - So Many Books, So Little Time
My favorite sentence is sentence 4 becasue it is very descriptive. It uses a varitey of words to decribe the book and it caught my attention.
-howdini
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