Slumdog Millionaire

Viewing Slumdog Millionaire was tough for me. I just really didn't want to do it. I realized too late that it had an R-rating, which I typically do not view due to moral beliefs. However, I didn't want to make a fuss about it with only a few days left to view the film. It was my own fault for waiting so long.

After watching the movie, I was pleasantly surprised. There was no nudity, fairly mild language, and the violence was hardly worse than the violence in The Lord of the Rings movies (that are PG-13 and I love). I'm not quite sure how it required an R-rating, to be honest.

In general, I liked the movie. (Although, I still say that the best part is the dancing at the end credits. AMAZING!) I appreciated that it showed how knowledge can be gleaned in uncommon ways. Traditional education does not alway succeed, but real life experience can often give individuals more knowledge than they need. I also liked that it really was a "feel good" movie. Another interesting aspect was the fact that it was a hybrid film, meaning that it had both American directors and Indian directors.

I actually disliked the love-interest aspect of the film. I think it may be that I'm coming at it from a Western sensibility, but destiny did not seem like enough of a pull for me to become involved in their relationship. I wish that there had been slightly more interaction between Latika and Jamal so that I could become invested in that aspect of the film.

The hard part now is writing an essay about it.

Digital Media

One of the greatest things about our modern day is the ease of information access and the ease of collaboration available to us. I really think that we often take this ability for granted. I'm old enough to remember needing to go to the library for information, but my daughter will probably never have to experience this. At three, she knows what a computer is for and how to use my iPhone. She "types essays" on her own toy laptop just like mommy. Odds are that she will never be unable to answer her own questions. In many ways, this is a beautiful thing.

With my group, I'm able to prepare a presentation without ever needing to meet up at a public location. We can easily communicate with one another without even leaving our homes. I fear that this may lead to future generations closing themselves off to deep, in-person connections with other people. I don't want us to lose that as a species. We are, by nature, social and that sociality sometimes needs to be physical as opposed to virtual.

Mythology Should Be Fun!

With all of the stress about mythology presentations, I think people just forgot that mythology can be such a fun subject. There are so many fascinating things about the cultures around us, as well as those cultures of the past. It's amazing to find the similarities and differences between different groups of people.

I have to say that I was at first a little upset to present Myths of Sacred Places, but the material was so much more interesting and applicable than I previously realized. We all, whether religious or not, hold different places sacred. It can be your home, the beach, a public area, a private space. Anywhere! This unit made me so much more interested in connecting with people via the places that they hold sacred. You can really learn so much about an individual that way.

It made me think of all the places that I hold sacred myself. There's the obvious religious places like the LDS Temples that take a strong hold in my heart. But then there are the more subtle places...like birth areas in the hospital and libraries. I hold both of these places sacred as well.

 

Poetry for All

Hello, everybody! I missed class on Monday, so I don't have a class reflection. I do, however, have a few poems that I've been working on. I write in free verse. I just seem to struggle so much with finding creativity in the constraints of closed form.

I can't think of a good name for this first poem...so if you have any ideas...throw them down!

Ophelia of LA by Alicia Rogers

The world is still, a breath caught within the lungs,

soft lungs that collapse into shades of blue and grey.

I can smell the pain. It’s waiting

just beyond the borders of who I am, who I was,

who I am yet to be.

Ophelia. driven to madness in Lake Los Angeles.

But the world isn’t still. It shifts and moves.

It bobs and weaves faster than my hands can reach out and take hold.

And I don’t want to take hold.

Let’s run free

from these conventions, from these expectations, from the bullshit lines that draw our circumstances.

It’s happenstance created by indecision

and revision.

We insist, we chant, we scream “I’m so deep. Look at me, I’m so deep.”

But we aren’t.

This is universal: the overwhelming force of drowning in my own insistence.

The flowers in the lake, the welcome darkness of the water—

ink to blot out what I know too well.

I breathe the water and it breathes me,

dragging me under.

A year from now I’ll know that this was real,

that I was born from the coughing

choking

gagging

screaming

that brought me down to death

Carpe diem.

I’ll seize that day and fall back

to the earth that birthed me into its stillness of grey and black.


And here's the second poem:

After by Alicia Rogers

You promised me shooting stars

that we’d catch on our tongues

as we wove our bodies together.

I promised you the sea, the ground, the foundation.

I gave you permanence.

You gave me flight.

But flying is transitory, and I fell

down

in a different land.

A strange land.

A broken land.

lost

Final Draft of My Poetry Analysis

Alicia Rogers

Wexler

English 495

11 February 2013

Partial Draft

Comfort and Adventure in Death:

A Look at Tennyson’s “Crossing the Bar”

            It is often said that the only inescapable constants of life are death and taxes.  As mortal men and women, we will always be tied to some form of government to control the masses, and thus, subject to the payment of taxes.  Furthermore, as mortal men and women, we will always be tied to the grave.  Mortality is something that we all share; it is our great equalizer and unifier.  However, none of this makes death any easier to encounter.  This is where art comes in.  Whether graphic or literary, art seeks to negotiate the boundary between life and death and lend some comfort or insight into an experience that we all must face.  Alfred, Lord Tennyson navigates through his own feelings about death in his poem, “Crossing the Bar.”  Through his natural images, his structure and rhyme, and his established conceit, Tennyson finds a place of comfort and acceptance within the deep distress of morbid thought.  

When Tennyson discusses natural images within his poems, he connects back to stability.  The images serve as reminders that humanity, in general, and the reader, specifically, are connected to the world.  In “Crossing the Bar,” Tennyson relies on images of the environment to “gravitate [the poem] towards some inevitable ground” (Tucker 9).  The poem opens with the “sunset and the evening star” which are simple twilight images that people encounter daily, yet their significance intensifies throughout the poem (Tennyson 63).  Just as humanity cannot stop the sun from setting nor the stars from heralding the night, we cannot stop death from coming for us.  It is the way that things were meant to be.  Furthermore, these images are not drawn in fearful colors.  Instead, they are displayed in their simplicity, as facts.  In the next stanza, readers witness the quiet peace of the tide in the sea.  This ocean is “too full for sound or foam” which reflects an air of calmness; there is no tumult here.  The image of the tide also brings implications of being swept away in its midst.  However, the boat that is the narrator uses the tide in order to journey.  This sets the narrator up as “is the tide master, not its victim” (Shaw 10).  Yet, Tennyson also uses this inevitability that the natural world invokes to unite with the power of God.  As the “flood may bear [him] far” to see his Pilot, the narrator recognizes that he is held up by forces beyond himself.  Just as readers cannot escape the world around them, neither can they escape the power of God and death. 

The structure and the rhyme scheme of the poem further emphasize Tennyson’s journey to a peaceful resolution with death.  Just as Tennyson uses the natural world to reflect the inescapability of death, he finds “a semblance of command…reflected in the command of poetic form” (Tucker 14).  Tennyson takes an uncontrollable situation and exerts control over it by fitting the wildness of death into four finely structured and relatable stanzas.  Tennyson uses a simple abab rhyme scheme to further resonate the straightforward goal of the poem and, ultimately, the plainness of the subject matter.  The word choice also echoes this need for simplicity.  Instead of dressing the lines up with cluttered adjectives, Tennyson lets the smallest word count.  The poem is not overly ornate; in fact, it is “poetry of the austere and minimal” (Shaw 9).  This reflects Tennyson’s understanding that death is not an exceptional experience.  It is one that all beings who live must face.   Yet, even within the “deliberately impoverished” style, readers—like Tennyson—learn that it is not desirable to avoid death at all cost.  Tennyson’s “short syntactic units create a sense of urgency” that leads readers to believe that Tennyson looks forward to the journey of death (Shaw 10).  Tennyson even uses the cleanest method of signaling closure with repetition and revision. In his “twice repeated optative—‘may there be no moaning,’ ‘may there be no sadness’—and the final ‘hope’” Tennyson draws his poem to its natural conclusion and its death (Shaw 11).  This continual mirroring of his subject matter leads readers towards Tennyson’s own conclusion that death is not big enough to fear, instead it is another normal step in the process of life. 

Finally, Tennyson treats readers to an extended metaphor that eases both their feelings about death and his own feelings about death.  The narrator of the poem is a boat heading to sea.  This motif of the sea and the boat “permits plenty of action, but action in which the actors are subordinated to some authority outside of themselves” (Tucker 11).  Just as the boat cannot journey without the sea, humanity cannot journey without additional authority.  The “sustained evocation of emotional atmosphere” holds readers to Tennyson’s analysis and urges them to further contemplate the nature of death (Tucker 12).  Additionally, Tennyson creates another metaphor that complements the first.  He uses a natural sandbar to signify the edge of life and the beginning of death.  This bar is the obstacle that must be faced in order to see his “Pilot face to face” (Tennyson 64).  Ultimately, Tennyson finds hope in the journey that his boat must make. He puts his trust in his faith where “God is the guide as well as the goal, for without His Incarnation as the ‘Pilot’ at the outset of the voyage there would be no immortality on the farther shore” (Shaw 10).  Tennyson does not undercut the overarching message that death is unavoidable; instead, he call attention to his confidence that “though he knows he will not make the journey through his own navigating skills” he has hope that he has run the course back to his mooring where he can “trust in his Pilot’s presence” (Shaw 10).  Readers who have followed the poem closely can see that the narrator does not end in turmoil—he may be unsure of the journey, but he knows that it is a natural course; furthermore, he remains ever hopeful. 

In my own life, I have often pondered the relationship between life and death.  I became acquainted with the topic at a very young age.  One of my younger sisters died in her infancy when I was five years old.  More recently, my younger brother died in a snowstorm.  As such, I’ve had years to contemplate and reexamine the subject.  I, like Tennyson, cannot bring myself to fear death.  Instead, I view it as part of the deal we all make when we are born.  It may be a little morbid to think about, but we are all marching at different speeds toward the same end.  All that humans can do is seek for something that makes that march worthwhile—be it God, or Love, or Learning.  

Works Cited

Shaw, W. David. “Tennyson’s Late Elegies.” Victorian Poetry 12.1 (1974): 1-12. JSTOR. Web.

8 Feb. 2013.

Tennyson, Alfred. “Crossing the Bar.” 100 Best-Loved Poems. Ed. Philip Smith. NY: Dover

Publications, 1995. 63-64. Print.

Tucker, Herbert F., Jr. “Tennyson and the Measure of Doom.” PMLA 98.1 (Jan. 1983): 8-20.

JSTOR. Web. 8 Feb. 2013.

Poetry Exercises

Hi guys. Tonight in class, we were given a few writing exercises in preparation for our poetry projects. Most of the assignments were brainstorms to create lists of assonant/alliterate phrases. The one that was a real challenge was changing a songs lyrics! I'm done yet, but I wanted to post a bit before I leave class.

The song that I'm going to play with from Parachute. It's called "Blame It On Me." I dare you to not get the song stuck in your head.

Click after the read more to see the lists that I created so far.

Partial Draft of My Poetry Analysis

Hi guys. I was going to try and have the whole essay posted, but I really just want to go to bed. I have, what I like to call, an extended outline written up for you to peruse. It has the introduction and all my supporting evidence written out. There are some detailed sentences so that you can see where I intend to go with this as well. I hope that this is appropriate to partial draft. I've never had a partial draft due.

Alicia Rogers

Wexler

English 495

11 February 2013

Partial Draft

Comfort and Adventure in Death:

A Look at Tennyson’s “Crossing the Bar”

            It is often said that the only inescapable constants of life are death and taxes.  As mortal men and women, we will always be tied to some form of government to control the masses, and thus, subject to the payment of taxes.  Furthermore, as mortal men and women, we will always be tied to the grave.  Mortality is something that we all share; it is our great equalizer and unifier.  However, none of this makes death any easier to encounter.  This is where art comes in.  Whether graphic or literary, art seeks to negotiate the boundary between life and death and lend some comfort or insight into an experience that we all must face.  Alfred, Lord Tennyson navigates through his own feelings about death in his poem, “Crossing the Bar.”  Through his natural images, his structure and rhyme, and his established conceit, Tennyson finds a place of comfort and acceptance within the deep distress of morbid thought.  

When Tennyson discusses natural images within his poems, he connects back to stability.  The images serve as reminders that humanity, in general, and the reader, specifically, are connected to the world.  In “Crossing the Bar,” Tennyson relies on images of the environment to “gravitate [the poem] towards some inevitable ground” (Tucker 9).  The image of the tide brings implications of “being swept away…is [instead] and act of volition; he is the tide master, not its victim” (Shaw 10).  He then uses this inevitability of the natural world to unite with the power of God.  Just as readers cannot escape the world around them, neither can they escape the power of God and death. 

The structure and the rhyme scheme of the poem further emphasize Tennyson’s journey to a peaceful resolution with death.  Just as Tennyson uses the natural world to reflect the inescapability of death, he finds “a semblance of command…reflected in the command of poetic form” (Tucker 14).  Tennyson takes an uncontrollable situation and exerts control over it by fitting the wildness of death into four finely structured and relatable stanzas.   The poem is not overly ornate; in fact, it is “poetry of the austere and minimal” (Shaw 9).  This reflects Tennyson’s understanding that death is not an exceptional experience.  It is one that all beings who live must face.   Yet, even within the “deliberately impoverished” style, readers—like Tennyson—learn that it is not desirable to avoid death at all cost.  Tennyson’s “short syntactic units create a sense of urgency” that leads readers to believe that Tennyson looks forward to the journey of death (Shaw 10).  DO SOMETHING WITH THIS LINE: “with the twice repeated optative—‘may there be no moaning,’ ‘may there be no sadness’—and the final ‘hope’ Tennyson is committed at the end to nothing but a wish” (Shaw 11). 

Finally, Tennyson treats readers to an extended metaphor that eases both their feelings about death and his own feelings about death.  The narrator of the poem is a boat heading to sea.  This motif of the sea and the boat “permits plenty of action, but action in which the actors are subordinated to some authority outside of themselves” (Tucker 11).  The “sustained evocation of emotional atmosphere” holds readers to Tennyson’s analysis and urges them to further contemplate the nature of death (Tucker 12).  Ultimately, Tennyson finds hope in the journey that his boat must make. He puts his trust in his faith where “God is the guide as well as the goal, for without His Incarnation as the ‘Pilot’ at the outset of the voyage there would be no immortality on the farther shore” (Shaw 10).  Tennyson does not undercut the overarching message that death is unavoidable; instead, he call attention to his confidence that “though he knows he will not make the journey through his own navigating skills, his humility is also a form of confidence: a trust in his Pilot’s presence” (Shaw 10).  

CONCLUDE THIS THING: