Figurative Language

1) Straight metaphor- Friendship is a vase.
2) Similie- Music is like poetry for the ear.
3) Personification- The trees rebelled against the storm.
4) Kenning- The garbage can is a fruit fly carnival.

-Cat Simmons

Another thing:

This is an idea we'll be using in class in order to discuss similes.

Wednesday, Friday, etc.

1. Remember that your FD is due on Friday. Skip the RR that is on the original schedule.
2. You also have blog-posting homework related to our class today (Wed.).
3. Our in-class text for today: Craig Raine: "A Martian Sends a Postcard Home"
4. Things you should know when you leave class today:

Descriptive Writing Techniques: Sensory Details and Figurative Language

Figurative Language Modes: Metaphor (simile, kennings, personification)

Cliches
5. Get ready for the next essay:

Creative Essay #1: Observation & Description from an Alien’s perspective

We’re taking our cue from Craig Raine and his “Martian Sends a Postcard Home” poem. First of all, this fits with our theme; an outsider’s perspective on human behavior shows us how one (non-human) individual perceives our system(s). Secondly, Raine uses a wonderful figurative language to make his observations (more on that in a second).

So, your job is to choose something to observe—something ordinary, something strange, something social, something domestic, something with other humans, something with animals, something with children, something with nature or machines . . . something you can look at for a good 30 minutes and then write about for 4 pages.

Here’s the catch: you must play the part of “individual versus system.” You must observe this thing as if you are not human; your descriptions should employ the figurative language tricks we have picked up from Raine and our RRs (also, we’ll have a lot class time devoted to figurative language exercises). There might be times, in the essay, in which you have to break back into your normal, human voice and explain yourself and how it was to observe and then describe. That’s fine, but focus on writing descriptions from an alien’s perspective.

You can use the double-entry chart I give you in class while conducting your observation. You will need to look over your notes and consider what will be your thesis. There should be one, clear sentence that is your thesis. What overall impression do you want the reader to have? You should use your introduction to present your thesis. Then, the body of your essay can be devoted to supporting it with details and descriptions. Seriously consider your method of organization, based on our class discussions. Also consider all the terminology under figurative language: metaphor, simile, personification, kennings. And don’t forget about the role of sensory description. How would an alien have sensory experiences? Finally, and oh-so-importantly, avoid clichés; they’re boring, and aliens would not use them.

Checklist:
-A good topic/location
-An observation chart that is attached to your FD
-A thesis statement
-An organizational pattern
-Use of figurative language and sensory details

Align your work with the rubric:
• Observation/Description FD is worth 40 points.
• The thesis accounts for 10 points (9-10 excellent, 7-8 good, 4-6 adequate, 1-3 inadequate).
• Development accounts for 10 points (9-10 excellent, 7-8 good, 4-6 adequate, 1-3 inadequate).
• Organization accounts for 10 points (9-10 excellent, 7-8 good, 4-6 adequate, 1-3 inadequate).
• Written conventions are an issue on this essay, but will be graded only in a punitive sense. At this point, you should know our class list of grammatical and mechanical errors, and you should apply that knowledge to your own proofreading. If you have repetitive errors from our list or errors that consistently interfere with meaning, you will lose 5 points.
• Style accounts for 10 points (9-10 excellent, 7-8 good, 4-6 adequate, 1-3 inadequate).

Notes from our syllabus:
RD: Due in class (should be 2 complete pages; 10 points)
FD: Due to me in hard copy (3-4 complete pages; graded according to our rubric and worth 30 points)

Miss America/Faces of the Dead

For "Miss America", I found it really interesting on the way the picture is constructed. Notice the blood over her eyes... maybe this is signifying that her vision is tainted by the situation, like the war or violence in general clouds her vision. What I wonder is why is the man's head between her legs? I don't mean this to be immature, I'm just curious to its significance. Does it mean rebirth? Birth in general? Like these women are birthing a tragedy? Or maybe the woman is meant to be seen as America, and that it is giving birth to destruction. What was the artist trying to say by this placement?

"Faces of the Dead" I found really clever with the different boxes. One of the men, Andrew G. Patten, was a young man that went to the church I went to throughout middle and high school. I didn't know him personally, but many of my friends did. Coincidentally, the church is erecting a memorial building in his honor. It is interesting to see the pictures of the men and women who have served, it makes it much more personal. We hear the names on the television and read them on the paper, but this makes the viewer take these men and women into perspective in a much more relative way. If I were to group these two together, I would say that War is the system, and the people that fall under it, whether American or otherwise, are the individual.

-Cat Simmons

Miss America and Faces of the Dead

I think Wolf Vostell was really letting the media have it when he created Miss America. These two iconic representations in the piece were handed to us by the media. You can see that he has chosen two well-emphasized themes in modern media: the obsession with sex and violence. The unrealistic expectations of women and sexuality and how it is perpetuated by the media is symbolized by the picture of the fashion model. The candid photograph of the Vietnamese soldier being shot in the head by the Vietcong general, I think, is a testimony to the media’s tenacity to exploit something as atrocious as war. A lot like the pop-art during that time, it was a satirical interpretation of the familiar images floating around in the media. I have never seen anything like Faces of the Dead before but after seeing all of the faces of those who have fought for our well-being and lost their lives while doing so; I couldn’t imagine a better memorial to them. I like how all of the “tiles” or pictures of each soldier contributes to the one giant portrait of the soldier chosen, as if the designer was trying to say that one soldier alone is the make-up of all the others. It’s also important that some personal information of the soldiers was listed though I would have liked to see a small tidbit of a personal interests listed with the picture. I feel it would have made it even more powerful because the audience would have been able to identify with the soldiers on a personal level but perhaps that wasn’t entirely the goal. The analysis and timelines of all of the deaths are devastating.

Faces of the dead in Iraq

When I saw the page about the many dead soldiers in Iraq I was a bit sad about the amount. Each little square represented the death of a soldier and seeing that the the list is not even complete made it more depressing. How many more soldiers need to die for the war to end?

Just imagining that each person in that list had a life, family, and friends makes it really depressing. The pain that their family is going through is unimaginable.

At the same time I'm thinking that this is a war and casualties are to be expected and the soldiers that went to war expected it too. I have a few friends that left to Iraq and came back. I have had conversations with them regarding their choice to sign up for the armed forces and what were their expectations. They told me that they know what they signed up for and that although it is sad when there are casualties they know what they are doing for their country.

Miss America

When I look at this image a mixture of confusion swirls through my head. In a way I feel like America is being portrayed as this glamorous land where nothing bad ever happens or that America fails to see the chaos going around worldwide.