Lit Circle Blog: Fahrenheit 451

     Our group read Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. The essential question I have chosen for this blog is:What caused Ray Bradbury to write a novel about book burning/censorship? This tied into my study in a few different ways. First, we never quite found the answer in the plot itself. This led to about 5 minutes of discussion that resulted in the logical outcome of this being a rebuttal to the Nazis' practice of book burning. The outcome was two different articles being chosen: one on book banning, and the other on book burning, as you will see below.

The firemen in the book are very similar to Nazi book-burners in method and reason. On the back cover of the book, it says, "The system was simple. Everyone understood it. Books were for burning, along with the houses in which they were hidden." This would seem to just be attention-hooking. However, there is in fact a reason for the book burning. "Just what is that reason?" I hear you thinking. This precise reason is brought up on the Holocaust Encyclopedia website, on the page marked "Book Burning", where it states, “...the burning of books represents an element of censorship and usually proceeds from a cultural, religious, or political opposition to the materials in question." This is, in fact, brought up-spoiler alert- in the book. They burn books for this exact reason, which ties back to my EQ (Look at me, tying things together!). Writing this has also sparked a bit of pyromania in me.

     There is also a historical reference to the burning of books. In the book's altered history, there is a line, which states, "Established, 1790, to burn English-influenced books in the colonies. First Fireman: Benjamin Franklin." Obviously, this never happened. But clearly there is a reference to the Nazi's historic symbolism of book burning! The historical symbolism was mentioned in the article too. In there, it is clearly written,“In a symbolic act of ominous significance, on May 10, 1933, university students burned upwards of 25,000 volumes of ‘un-German’ books, presaging an era of state censorship and control of culture.” Clearly, this was in fact written as a Nazi rebuttal. Even the references to a war being over before they can start again make sense in the wider context!

That was my blog. Enjoy your spring break and the party!
The article

Symbolism. Pyromania.

Poetry Reflection Blog

      This is the final blog for our poetry unit. I know you're all thinking "Yes!! New unit!!" However, I'd prefer it if you kept those comments to yourself, as this is VERY important and for a grade (according to Mrs. Larson). But, enough about that, let's get to the actual blog!

   The first question I have to answer is this:"Poetry can be a vital, real part of everyone's life. What place or importance does poetry have in my own life? Does poetry belong to everyone? How do I know?" Poetry has a lot of importance in my life, as any other form of literature does. It can express things in ways unique only to poetry itself and is a great way to spread the word about something. It can also make me laugh like no other written medium.  Also, poetry does belong to everyone. Why? Well, it's easier to get a point across as a poem than as an article, as well as being a favorite childhood (and possibly adulthood) pastime. Poetry has even worked itself into every inch of popular culture. Poems can be songs, if just put them to music and sing the words. Poems can be raps, if you just add music in the background. This connects to my last point about pop culture because, as most of us know, song and rap drive culture, and poetry drives them. That means that poetry is our culture, and some might say everyone's culture. Therefore, poetry belongs to everyone, from the smallest baby to the oldest great-great-grandfather.

       The next question that must be answered says, "How does the life and experiences of a poet affect the poem he/she creates?" My answer to that is, "That is often the core of poems: life experiences." However, it goes beyond that, as people who have had tough lives often write more glum and gloomy poems, and vice versa. This can be evidenced by Edgar Allen Poe; his poems were gloomy, as was his life. On the opposite end of the spectrum is me: I've had a (mostly) happy life so far, therefore my poems are mostly happy. It is really simple.

     Now I have to analyze some poems, so I'll be analyzing "Jabberwocky" first. It is written in quatrain stanzas, which gave Mr. Carroll a solid excuse to make up nonsense words. This allowed the single meaning of "complete nonsense" to thrive. All the nonsense words added to the nonsensical and humorous effects within the poem. There was also a trope from a certain game series in there where you repeat things without giving them any logical meaning and let the players/readers figure it out for themselves.

     The next part is one of my own poems, which will be my AoW poem. I wrote it with hints of rhyme in mind, without it rhyming per se.  I also have it as image-heavy as possible specifically to add to the effect. I designed the stanza breaks so that it would seem as if the speaker was pausing for a moment before going on with his tale. The meaning is "If you are used as a pawn, you'll regret it later." I have accomplished that easily with the tricks above.

Links 
-Bio-Poem
-AoW Poem
-Where I'm From Poem
-Spine Poem
-Found Poem
-The poorly formatted nonsense poem

Nonsense Poem: The most nonsensical poem that ever was or will be.

Click here to view "The Barven Quest"

Sorry, Blogger hates PDFs apparently...

"An Apology by a Toxic Metal"

This is my AoW nonfiction poem.

“An Apology by a Toxic Metal”

It is I, lead. Yes, I-who-poisoned-Flint.

But I’m not here to talk about my crimes.

I’m here to apologize.

The industry wanted me to keep people safe

but I could not.

All I could do

was hurt people (I’m toxic)

and when I tried to tell them

they denied me.

We had known since Roman times

and my crimes did not shift names (unlike their gods).

However, this was lost

and I was used to prevent

cholera and typhus

and thus, fear.

My ads were like Donald Trump,

spouting ludicrous lies

but I, honestly, tried to prevent the awful, atrocious

fate that befell those who drank from me

and ended up having another industry use my miniature Danger Dolan doughboy

to hurt and kill people.

The outrage against me and my corroded corpse

is deserved.

I failed at my job

and I am sorry.

Inspired by "'Lead helps guard your health': How U.S. companies sold a toxic product"

Lead:This is me and my brothers in 2009.

Bio Poem

Connor Lassiter
rebellious, kind, smart, brave
A character in Neal Shustermann's story
Lover of Risa Ward, teen freedom, and justice
Who notices the baby on the doorsteps, a Juvey-cop's socks, and the entire injustice of unwinding.
Who feels horror when he realizes he has the unwound parts of his friend inside of him, joy when he escapes the Juvey-cops, and dignified when he goes to his unwinding with a straight face (but survives).
Who learns how to run a camp from The Admiral, how to survive on your own, and how to kick butt
Who says,"Nice socks."
Who used to think nothing of unwinding but now knows it's a major social issue
Major character in Unwind
A book that seems frighteningly close to reality

This is Connor.

Character Development in Bronx

Yes, the title is copy-pasted.

Janelle changed a lot over the course of the novel. At first she was focused on her weight and extremely self-conscious, as her first poem shows with, "Daily/I notice you frown/at my thick casing..." However, she realizes (slowly) that everyone sees her for who she is. With that, she makes light of the fact that she's effectively beating herself up over something no one cares about:"When no one is looking/I check to see/if anyone else seems/as scared as me..." Honestly, she went through a bunch of self esteem issues that would have taken years to fix in a few months. She's very dynamic.

To delve into how plot elements affect each other, allow me to present you with this diagram:
Setting-> Characters-> Conflicts-> Theme-> Plot

What does all this mean? Well, it means that the setting produces the characters (as the characters won't make sense in another setting). These characters produce the conflicts (which are specific to each character, and wouldn't make sense with any others). These conflicts, in turn, produce the theme (as the conflicts always end up making the theme), and the whole thing drives the plot. It's really simple.

I honestly thought this blog would be harder, but it was actually quite easy to write. And with that, we hopefully close the book on this book. Enjoy our hopeful new unit come Monday!

Found Poem

"On Hard Terrazo"

A voice called Retta
Looked up to see her riding a big escalator
Beyond a sun, behind a floor
On hard terrazo

The point of this is to make you think about what life would be like in such a weird place. This can be connected to cultures, disabilities, whatever you like, just be sure to give me credit if you cite it. (No one will notice I didn't intend for the poem to have a point.)

The theme of this poem is "weird places" as the entire poem takes place behind a floor, which is scientifically illogical and weird. However, the inhabitants there seem to have mastered it, as shown by the big escalator, thus showing a message about culture:What seems weird to you is normal to others.