Engl 320: Commonplace Book

[just-a-constantheadache-blog]

So..

When is everyone going to blast 10+ posts on here to meet the requirement? Let me know, because I don’t wanna be the last one to do it.

[just-a-constantheadache-blog]

A law to overturn Charlotte’s effort to extend bathroom rights and other protections to the LGBT community has mushroomed into North Carolina’s latest civil war over culture and the law.

This is a story that’s been in the news for a few weeks now. People like to describe the United States as a “post-racial” / “post-bigoted” society, and this new piece of (passed) legislation does a pretty fantastic job of shitting all over that ignorant dream. I encourage everyone to read the story, but the very, very short version is that business owners in Charlotte, North Carolina are allowed to refuse service to LGBTQIA+ identifying people based on the principle of “religious freedom”; the argument from them is that forcing them to serve people whom they deem “immoral”, then THEIR rights are being nullified.

But those damned liberals are the ones that “hate the constitution,” right?

[psychedelic-x-ascension]

[just-a-constantheadache-blog]

Feeling pretty red from writing my Marxism-inspired paper for tomorrow. I realize that this is a Banksy-esque piece, but it’s topical.

Also, I’m sorry if you like Banksy -- his shallow rhetoric just doesn’t get me going.

[youngblackmuses]

10 Black authors that should be read in every high school english class -

Reading is something that I valued more than anything growing up. Books were a way to leave all of the abhorrent mess going on in…

[just-a-constantheadache-blog]

This is a blog posting that lists some very, very influential Black authors including Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, and (topically for this class) Ralph Ellison. The only gripe I have with this posting is that it simply lists their names; it wouldn’t have been so difficult to include a few pieces with each person. Good thing we have GoogleBrain™.

[just-a-constantheadache-blog]

In our political update this afternoon, Dr. Stacy gave a brief history of the “dirtying” of the term “liberal”. To continue that discourse, the Democratic party has long since (Bush Sr.) been pandering to that misinformation and skewing their self-presentation (more Stacy jargon) in a less “extreme way”. This is a clip of Hillary Clinton avoiding that title/nomenclature in such a pandering effort.

If you’re uninterested in the short preamble, skip to about ~ 0:50 to see the footage.

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Side note: This video was created by The Young Turks, a YouTube-hosted news organization. Their videos & commentary are pretty accessible, and you should watch them. More and more people are turning to the internet for their news to avoid corporately-influenced bias. Stay current, y’all.

[cindyserrano320-blog]

6 Of The Weirdest Things Stacey Has Said In Class February 2, 2016

1. “Let’s have some fun ‘cuz when you’re dead, you’re done!”

2. “Otherwise, the terrorists win!”

3. “…with a meat hook ready to kill them!”

4. “What is a dank meme?” 

5. “I got holier than you could ever believe.”

6. “So if you don’t like it, fire me!” 

Disclaimer: All quotes should be taken out of context.

[just-a-constantheadache-blog]

February 4th:

“Another day, another absurdity.”

[just-a-constantheadache-blog]

March 10th:

“‘You probably fucked up sexually trying to understand Hemingway’”.

[rimofsanity-blog]

“You don’t want to end up one of those writers sitting up in your attic apartment straightening your pens and papers to right angles and vacuuming your carpet for the fifth time that day and you haven’t done it in three years–you have to have the courage to draft and revise!”

I forget the date on this one, but it has been stuck in my head since I heard it and I get the feeling it will never leave me :P

[just-a-constantheadache-blog]

March 24th:

“You know you’re tired when the idioms start to leave you.”

[best-of-memes]

[just-a-constantheadache-blog]

I think this is appropriate both in the spirit of this course and in the political atmosphere of this semester.

[cindyserrano320-blog]

6 Of The Weirdest Things Stacey Has Said In Class February 2, 2016

1. “Let’s have some fun ‘cuz when you’re dead, you’re done!”

2. “Otherwise, the terrorists win!”

3. “…with a meat hook ready to kill them!”

4. “What is a dank meme?” 

5. “I got holier than you could ever believe.”

6. “So if you don’t like it, fire me!” 

Disclaimer: All quotes should be taken out of context.

[just-a-constantheadache-blog]

February 4th:

“Another day, another absurdity.”

[just-a-constantheadache-blog]

March 10th:

“‘You probably fucked up sexually trying to understand Hemingway’”.

[just-a-constantheadache-blog]

(This links to a PDF of the story)

On Thursday my group will present on a Carver short story (”Why Don’t You Dance?”). This is a different story; it’s the title track of the collection that our story opens. Stacy is always talking about what “we should know” etc., and it is my personal opinion that HSU English majors should be familiar with Raymond Carver. He is a Humboldt State graduate, and he also served as editor for the Toyon for some years, too.

Carver is especially interesting to study from a New Critical perspective. Stylistically speaking, there is a lot to look at in his writing.

[just-a-constantheadache-blog]

“The Hollow Men” T.S. Eliot

Mistah Kurtz-he dead             A penny for the Old Guy                        I     We are the hollow men     We are the stuffed men     Leaning together     Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!     Our dried voices, when     We whisper together     Are quiet and meaningless     As wind in dry grass     Or rats' feet over broken glass     In our dry cellar         Shape without form, shade without colour,     Paralysed force, gesture without motion;         Those who have crossed     With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom     Remember us-if at all-not as lost     Violent souls, but only     As the hollow men     The stuffed men.

I read this poem in a high school Brit. Lit. survey course, and it’s been in the back of my head since I first read it. Stacy mentioned Eliot a few weeks back, and I meant to post this at that time. Then or now, this post is still worth posting.

Eliot wrote this poem following the first World War, disagreeing with much that he saw happening around him. The whole work is heavily intertextual (referencing Conrad here in the beginning, Dante, Kipling, and others later...), and attempting to analyze this work with any serious tone in just a Tumblr post would be an incomplete joke.

This is only the first of five stanzas, and I strongly encourage everyone to go read the whole thing. This stanza, although still thick with metaphor & imagery, may be the most simple; the fifth gets really weird in every way possible. I think this relates to Utell’s bit in Chapter 1 about studying what makes literary language so literary.  A big portion of analyzing this poem would obviously be paying very close attention to the language Eliot uses, and trying to interpret how that language lends to the “literary voice” of this poem.

[theprndl]

“you sure thats the right word?” “yeah im sure” “okay post it”

[geekshallinherit]

i like how they used “ambidextrous” in the text of the article but didn’t bother to check what they’d written when writing the headline

[just-a-constantheadache-blog]

This great happening touches on Dr. Stacy’s spiel about editing your work. Also, the title appears to be a much darker shade than the rest of the type, so I fact-checked this -- it really happened.

[thoodleoo]

when u find a really good jstor article

jscore

[just-a-constantheadache-blog]

My feeling tonight:

[cindyserrano320-blog]

6 Of The Weirdest Things Stacey Has Said In Class February 2, 2016

1. “Let’s have some fun ‘cuz when you’re dead, you’re done!”

2. “Otherwise, the terrorists win!”

3. “…with a meat hook ready to kill them!”

4. “What is a dank meme?” 

5. “I got holier than you could ever believe.”

6. “So if you don’t like it, fire me!” 

Disclaimer: All quotes should be taken out of context.

[just-a-constantheadache-blog]

February 4th:

“Another day, another absurdity.”

[just-a-constantheadache-blog]

Let me explain.

There exists a relatively common opinion about the director Quentin Tarantino’s use of “The N-word” in his scripts, as well as discrepancies over what some perceive to be harmful character archetypes. The photo shown above is a screenshot I took of the first posts produced by searching “Tarantino racist”; if you were to search that phrase yourself, you’d likely find similar sentiments. This opinion immediately came to my mind as I read the section in Tyson (Ch. 2) about differentiating between “representing and endorsing human behavior”, and I believe that the fourth (bottom right quadrant) post pretty perfectly exemplifies a failure to make that distinction.

Tarantino no more endorses racism than he does the elaborate organization and execution of a jewel heist. (plot of Reservoir Dogs 1992)