"A Blessing," James Wright

James Wright, "A Blessing."

Today is our last opportunity to revise our Submissions Portfolios before they are due tomorrow.  Please be sure to follow the formatting of the sample linked to on yesterday's post.

Also be sure to take time to name the two most effective reading blogs in the comments to yesterday's post.

"Unfortunate Location," Louis Jenkins

"Unfortunate Location"

In the front yard there are three big white pines, older
than anything in the neighborhood except the stones.
Magnificent trees that toss their heads in the wind
like the spirited black horses of a troika. It's hard to
know what to do, tall dark trees on the south side of
the house, an unfortunate location, blocking the
winter sun. Dark and damp. Moss grows on the roof,
the porch timbers rot and surely the roots have
reached the old bluestone foundation. At night, in
the wind, a tree could stumble and fall killing us in
our beds. The needles fall year after year making an
acid soil where no grass grows. We rake the fallen
debris, nothing to be done, we stand around with
sticks in our hands. Wonderful trees.

--Louis Jenkins

Our next two days are designed for revision conferences.  I plan to spend time with every one of you going over at least one of your submissions from this first quarter. 

Your submissions portfolio is due, printed, at the beginning of class on Thursday.  When compiling yours, please follow the model I placed on the class notes page, here.

Your only other responsibility between now and Thursday is to name two blogs from your class that you think have the most interesting reading logs of the quarter.  Who read the most interesting or challenging stuff?  Who responded to it in the most thoughtful way?  Pick two from your class and name them in a response to this post (please designate your class, "ETY1," e.g.) before the end of class Thursday.

Submission #4: Blog Assignment

Our submission portfolios will be due next Wednesday.  I will have a sub-folder open on my Homework folder for you to drop a file in by 8:00 a.m. that day.  Your file should contain revised versions of only three of the four submissions you have made this quarter. 

Remember that these submissions need to be true analytical arguments, not evaluations or personal responses. Today, I'd like us to practice telling the difference between these three.  On your blogs today, I'd like you to do some collecting:

(1) Name and link to two blogs, from any of our three classes, who have nice argumentative claims in their submission #4 and quote those claims in your post.

(2) Quote lines from two blogs, from any class, where they are working in the mode of either personal response or evaluation.  Quote any lines in which, for example, they might say that their subject is "worthwhile for everyone" or "good" or something like that (that is, evaluative) or if it talks in first person about how they feel about something.

"Three Dog Night," Faith Shearin

"Three Dog Night"

In the old days, before houses were warm,
people did not sleep alone. Not even
widows went by themselves into

the cold sheets of night. Rooms were
lit with lanterns and children were
encouraged to jump on their beds,

warming themselves, before they
crawled inside. You might sleep with
your cousin or sister, your nose

buried in the summer of their
hair. You might place a baked potato
in your blanket to help it remember

warmth. A fire would be lit but, after
awhile, it would smolder down
to the bone silence of ash. Everything

was cold: the basin where you washed
your face, the wood floor, the windows
where you watched your breath

open over the framed blur of snow.
Your hands and feet were cold
and the trees were cold: naked,

traced in ice. You might take a dog
to bed or two or three, anything to lie
down with life, feel it breathing nearby.

--Faith Shearin

"Joy in a Random Universe," Helin Chasin

"Joy in a Random Universe"

Sometimes I’m happy: la la la la la la la
la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la
la la la la. Tum tum ti tum. La la la la la
la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la.
Hey nonny nonny. La la la la la la la la
la la la la la la la la la la la. Vo do di o do.
Poo poo pi doo. la la la la la la la la la la
la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la
la la. Whack a do. La la la la la la la la. Sh-
boom, sh-boom. La la la la la la la la la la
la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la
la la. Dum di dum. La la la la la la la la.
la la la la la la la la. Tra la la. Tra la la
la la la la la la la la la la. Yeah yeah yeah.

--Helin Chasin

Submission Portfolio: Points of Emphasis

We are moving into our final submission before our 1^st quarter portfolio, so it is a good time to start paying closer attention to your own analytical style.  When I grade the portfolios of your work, here again are the key elements I will be looking for:

(1)    Claims—On the “left side,” do they contain nice general observations of Setting, Character, Action, or Style?  On the”right side,” do they contain nice general inferences about the tone effects caused by these observed elements? 

Also remember that your claim can be just a left side claim or a right side claim—they don’t always have to have both. 

(2)     Description—Do you do a nice job of making specific observations/descriptions that support your claim?  Do you occasionally use figurative descriptions?  Do you ever compare elements to other, outside examples that your reader might know?  (“Watts looks a little like Zack Galifianakis on a bad hair day.”)

(3)    Discussion—Do you elaborate, even if just a little, on the tone or theme of your subject?  Do you occasionally use figurative descriptions of tone?

Some common mis-steps that you should look out for in your own writing:

(a)    This kind of writing should not be in the first person: no “I” or “I feel,” etc.  So-called “academic third person” sounds more authoritative and credible.

(b)   Write in the present tense when describing your work.

(c)    Do not “evaluate” the work.  That is, avoid descriptions or attempted inferences that claim elements of the work are “amazing” or “masterful.”  In analysis, we care not that you like the work; we care about how the thing works—your job is give us one way to look at the way the piece creates an artistic effect.

(d)   Avoid making inferences that refer to “the reader” or “the viewer,” like “These images help the viewer see the artist’s point more clearly.”  These are inferences we usually make when we don’t know what else to say—your work is to tell us the “point” of that work, to put it into your own words.

Look for examples of these points of emphasis in a future blog post.

Short List 2.21.12

1.  Leanne Shapton: Thursday Nights Out. 
Shapton has a style that almost makes you think you could be an artist. You think this partly because her watercolors all seem drawn with a fat brush, are more water than color, and don't seem to care about staying in the lines, if there are even lines.  It's also because she's making art out of the spare minutes of her life.  A friend in a chair, a friend at a restaurant.  Makes you realize how much art is happening around you at all times.

2. "Urnatur," an eco hotel featured on the blog Anthropologist.

When I first saw this photo and video spread, I thought that it was only a place for faeries, or at least people from Iceland or whatever remote northern European woods it was located in.  And then we figured out it was a hotel.  We could stay there.  We never, ever will, but we could.  That sense of possibility lets my imagination take quick trips there every once in awhile.

Places like this always prompt me to wonder "what if?"  The simplicity, the proximity to nature, the lack of wires and wi-fi and, well, electricity, doesn't look threatening here as much as it does liberating. 


3.  Reggie Watts, "I Just Want To"

Kind of like Leanne Shapton, Reggie Watts makes you want to buy a piece of audio sampling equipment from a local pawn shop and start making your own amazing music.  Even my 7 year old, when watching this, said "Dad I want one of those."