PARAGRAPH: AS A PAIR, CHOOSE ONE OF THE FOLLOWING TOPICS TO WRITE A PARAGRAPH ON TOGETHER.

1. Analyze how the diction in “My Papa’s Waltz” provides 2 different interpretations of the poem.

2. Compare and contrast the imagery, diction and/or language in the 2 pieces, “Eleven” and “My Papa’s Waltz”.

Topic sentence: author and “title” and topic Textual evidence Lead in to quotes properly:

Says Sentence blended

Explain evidence and connect to topic. An example of how the diction conveys the first interpretation is…

Conclude paragraph properly

HOW TO READ LITERATURE LIKE A

PROFESSORChapters 2 and 3: Communion and Vampires

WATCH THE FOLLOWING CLIP AND MAKE MENTAL NOTES OF RELATIONSHIPS WITH IN THIS FAMILY UNIT. ALSO, WHAT WAS POINT OF HAVING THIS CONVERSATION OVER FAMILY DINNER?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO30o4l4rtw

CHAPTER 2. NICE TO EAT WITH YOU: ACTS OF COMMUNION.

Typically, the term communion is most commonly associated with religion. When Christ had his last supper, he broke bread and gave it to his disciples telling them that to eat it was to eat of his flesh. He gave them wine, telling them that to drink it was to drink of his blood.

For literary purposes, communion can have a completely different meaning. In books, poems, movies, TV shows, short stories, when people eat, drink, smoke together, whether it is a large affair like thanksgiving dinner, or a small affair like coffee at the local Starbucks, it is a form of communion.

Communion can mean (but is not limited to any of these meanings):•Insight into character behavior and relationships (getting along or not getting along)•Sexual experience, consuming desire•Belonging to a group, or being isolated from a group•Life/death

ANOTHER EXAMPLE. NOW, WHAT DO YOU NOTICE?:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGVwn6xmCeI

HOW TO SPOT ACTS OF COMMUNION IN LITERATURE: Pay attention to when characters sit down to dinner, when they are at a bar or coffee shop having a drink, or when they have an after dinner drink or smoke. Most of the time, there is more than just eating and drinking occurring. Ask yourself: Who are the characters participating in the dinner? What is their relationship? What exterior factors are occurring that have brought these characters together? Are they getting along? Are there ulterior motivations behind why they are meeting? What are they discussing? Is there anything that they should be discussing that they aren’t? Why aren’t they?

Examples from pop culture:•Katniss shoots the apple through the pig’s mouth while the game makers are eating and ignoring her (The Hunger Games).•Sheldon, Penny, Leonard, Raj, and Howard sit down in the living room for take out (usually each episode of The Big Bang Theory) and discuss what is on their minds. •In National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, the family dinner includes a dry turkey, an electrocuted cat, and jello-mold make with cat food.

CHAPTER 3. NICE TO EAT YOU: ACTS OF VAMPIRES. Vampires, ghosts, cannibals, monsters, demons. What do they all represent in literature? There are many interpretations. But the following can apply:•Selfishness •exploitation •Sex (yes, sex!)•Loss of innocence•Destruction of youth, beauty•Temptation, the Fall•Consumption on some level

****Vampire tales do not have to be literal (fangs, bats, etc.).

THE VAMPIRE TALE: Key elements:

•Older man (knowledgeable in ways of world, not always the good ways)•Younger woman (typically a virgin, innocent)•Older man lures young woman•Older man strips away/feeds off of younger woman (tempts her)•Young woman loses her innocence and is destroyed•Man is shadow and temptress, woman is tragic heroine

HOW TO READ LITERATURE

LIKE A PROFESSOR

Chapters 10, 19-20• Rain and Snow• Geography• Seasons

SO WHAT DOES IT MEAN IF IT RAINS OR SNOWS? RAINBOWS AND FOG?Rain: Cleansing Restorative Tone (mysterious, misery)

Snow: Clean Stark Severe Inhospitable Playful Suffocating

Filthy

Fog: Uncertainty

Rainbow: Peace Divinity Unique/uncommon

DARK (NIGHT) VS LIGHT (DAY) Darkness usually symbolizes ignorance or an inability to see (metaphorically) on some level. It can also represent evil and death. Light is the opposite. It represents knowledge and enlightenment, an ability (metaphorically) to finally see something that was invisible to character before. It can also represent good and life.

WHAT ABOUT GEOGRAPHY? When and where count as geography (places, time periods, directions)

Hills, rivers, lakes, deserts Politics, history, economics People (characters) Plot device

AND SEASONS? Spring: birth, youth Summer: adolescence, experimentation Fall: middle age/knowledge Winter: end of life, death

What emotions can we equate with the seasons?

TRUE DETECTIVE SCENE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_QHB1SiBRs

As you watch/read the scene, pay attention to the importance of geography and seasons in Rust and Marty’s conversation. Thing about how it helps create meaning and tone. Also, what is the significance of the darkness and the light? What does it represent?

READ THE 2 POEMS AND “ANNOTATE” AS YOU READ THEM. THEN ANSWER:

How do weather, geography and seasons affect your understanding and interpretations of the poem (individually)?

How do weather, geography and seasons connect the 2 poems? How do they divide the poems?

Both are about snow and winter and walking through the woods (most basic idea). What is the tone of each? How is the tone similar and/or different in each poem?

Sex, Politics and ViolenceHOW TO READ LITERATURE LIKE A PROFESSOR

“SHE BEING BRAND”1926

As I awkwardly read the poem to you (and remember, I get to do this twice today so I am way more uncomfortable than you are), circle/underline/highlight words and phrases that give the poem a double meaning.

E.E. Cummings takes liberties with grammar/punctuation (style). Think about how/why those liberties might enhance the readers understanding of the double meaning in the poem.

SEX! Basically, innuendo and subtlety is key here! There is a difference between a “sex scene” in writing and “pornography” in writing. Romance novels are not sex scenes, they are in the second category (and no, I do not want to type that word again…awkward!)

Most sex scenes in literature have some sort of symbolic meaning, either to the characters or to the author (author could be making a statement about a time period, people, politics etc., OR trying to get away with writing about something taboo)!

EXAMPLE: WHAT SYMBOLIZES SEX IN THE FOLLOWING SCENE?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOwsZ6bDqJU

IT’S ALL POLITICAL!!! “Nearly all writing is political on some level” (111). There’s political writing where literature tries to influence the “body of politic” and then there is political writing where the author is addressing human problems of the political and social realm with out getting on a soap box!.

Most writers are socially conscious and try to incorporate that in their writing to make it more realistic.

VIOLENCEIn life, violence can be:CulturalSocietalSymbolicThematicBiblicalShakespeareanRomantic

AllegoricalTranscendentAggressive

2 CATEGORIES OF VIOLENCEIn literature, violence is:SymbolicMetaphorical

Character violence: Specific injuries that authors cause characters to inflict upon themselves or others (stabbing, gun shots, drowning, etc.). Authorial Violence: The narrative violence that causes characters harm in general (usually to advance the plot in some way or make a statement, teach a lesson, of some kind)

***Example: “The Red Wedding” from Game of Thrones

Baptism, Christ and Flights of Fancy

HOW TO READ LITERATURE LIKE A PROFESSOR

• Pay attention to water!!!! When a character goes under water and when they surface from water is extremely symbolic (it is also symbolic if they don’t come back up!). Basically, it is a baptism, or a re-birth.

• On page 126, 128-29 of HRLLP, there are 2 lists. If characters exhibit traits from that list, they are Christ figures. Typically, whenever there is a sacrifice in literature, think Christ figure!!!

• Example: Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows part 2!

BAPTISM AND CHRIST FIGURES

Basically, “flights of fancy” are moments in literature and file when a character is literally or figuratively caged, but are freed in some way (the reverse can also be true). It can include the following:• Freedom from oppression• Flight was temptation of Christ (Satan asks him to prove his

divinity by flying)• Escape, return home• Love• Spirit leaving the body (freedom from body)• Dreaming (escape from reality)• Limitations (chains)• Feathers and wings and birds (pay attention to this imagery and

think about plot, characters, symbolism, figurative meaning)

CAGES AND FREEDOM

Watch the clip from the movie Shawshank Redemption. How are all 3 (baptism, Christ figure, and flights of fancy) evident in the clip??? Anything else from HRLLP that we have discussed evident? Be ready to talk

SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION

IRONY AND ALLUSIONS Side notes of note

ALLUSIONS Biblical Greek Shakespeare Fairy Tales ***There is only 1 story is what the book argues. Every other story is a variation of another story.

IRONY TRUMPS EVERYTHING!!!! Think about what this means!!!!

Everything can be a symbol. All these chapters tell you what things symbolize in literature. BUT, irony trumps everything, meaning is nulls and voids the arguments Foster is making in each chapter!

WHERE ARE YOU GOING, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?

Read the short story “Where are you going, where have you been?” by Joyce Carol Oats. WARNING: This story is intense! Please try to read it as a mature adult. As you read, connect the story to HRL: Acts of Vampires. Be ready to discuss tomorrow.

“WHERE ARE YOU GOING, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN” If you had to argue that Joyce Carol Oates used sex and violence in her short story to make a political statement, what statement would you argue she is making? Why do you think the violence was not more graphic in the short story? What do you think happened to Connie in the end? Textual evidence to support?

33, 19, 17 The 33rd book of the Old Testament (King James Version and Most Other Forms) is Judges. 19:17 is the passage: “And when he had lifted up his eyes, he saw a wayfaring man in the street of the city: and the old man said, ‘Whither goest thou? and whence comest thou?’”

Also, coincidentally, Mary French was 19 and was with Charles Schmid (Smitty)when he killed Alleen Rowe (15).

Grethchen Fritz, another victim of Schmid, was 17. Her sister was 13 and both girls disappeared the same night.

33 was also the age of Jesus Christ when he was crucified…hmmmm…