Ian?

So right now, Mrs. Duke is probably a baby killing, savage teacher that gives homework out like candy and laughs in your face when you cry from stress overload….

Whether or not this is your current understanding of said teacher, Kealy Duke, or not i can assure you it is not true. I asked her at the beginning of last year… she said:

“No”

Most of the young’ns think of me as a funny guy which admittedly is very true, I’m hilarious, which may make it hard for some to believe what is about to be written (or in your case read) on this little white section on the computer screen.

Umm, wait

I wrote that before i had anything to say… nevermind, the fact of the matter is, Mrs. Duke is legit. She doesn’t kill babies and i’ve only seen her spit fire once. She does give a lot of homework and i can tell you “it isn’t really that bad” but you shouldn’t believe me cause I’m lying. However, I can promise you that if you at least ‘try’ to get some/most of it done, class will grind along noticeably smoother than it does when you don’t. She’s an outstanding teacher but she’s hard to understand, the way she teaches and the way she has you apply what you learn is incomparable to any other english class you’ve had, ever.

When it boils down to it, the only thing you need coming into, and during, Duke’s english class is effort. Don’t make excuses, skip reading or, god forbid, flat out not complete an assignment. All you have to do is try… really, really hard and then once the effort is put into action, the book has been read, and the paper has been written, even the stupid kids can make a passing grade.

just chill
listen to every word she says
read
write
and pray she doesn’t call on you

“To be or not to be, that is the question”… suicidal?

Nope

1.) What needs to be done at this point? Is that even a question? Hamlet needs to decide whether or not he’s gonna kill his uncle or at least figure out how he is going to get revenge. Hammy’s got a lot going on right now, he’s still pretending to be crazy, he’s planning to reveal that his uncle/father killed his real father to everyone and he had to break up with his guh. He’s pretty stressed out and it shows in that he’s having such a tough time with his decision.

2.) Audience, i think a big part of the audience is himself, obviously he’s talking to himself because it’s a soliloquy, but it seems like he’s trying to sort things out in his head. He also could be talking to Ophelia, he obviously still loves her and you tell people you love what’s on your mind but he can’t actually tell her this because he is pushing her away for her own good. The secondary audience is Claudius and Polonius who are hiding out listening to him speak, but Hamlet doesn’t know about them. The fact that he doesn’t know their there allows him to really speak his mind whereas if he knew they were listening he would have continued his act and not revealed anything.

3.) The purpose of his speech is to show the real audience, the viewers, the readers where Hamlet’s head is at and what he’s thinking. This soliloquy shows all the mental stress he is under and really how much his character has been thinking about death.

4.) Hamlet is appealing to his own character and the emotions of the audience in this little exert. lines 65-68, when he asks if it is nobler to suffer through oppression or fight against it which obviously pertains to who he is and if what he is doing is right and even questioning what he should do in the first place. Line 76-90, Hamlet describes all the pain and torment we put ourselves through just to get to heaven, if thinking about how difficult life is and what makes it worth it doesn’t appeal to an observers emotions I don’t know what will.

5.) He uses strong imagery to symbolize adversity, “slings and arrows” and “whips and scorns of time”, the strong physical images make his message that much clearer. He talks about sleep and death, and then turns sleep into a symbol for death and his reference to dreaming is where you find yourself in the after life, heaven or hell.

6.) I think Hamlet is a good guy, with honest intentions but a little bit lacking in tenacity and courage. He’s under an emmence amount of stress, I get that, but that stress should drive him to act upon his thoughts even more so. This speech he gives gives a reason for his actions, lets the reader/viewer into his head so we can be sure he isn’t really crazy.

Ros and Guil are exeedingly aware of the fact that they are in a play in this section of the play, and of the fact that they are bad actors with minute roles and little control. Their dialogue becomes more and more pointless until eventually Ros begins telling religious jokes that never get to the punch line. The two men are hungry for attention, someone to talk to, and identity/importance/purpose in the play.

When they run into the players again, the one they talk to explains that they are only to do what they are told and that they just have to trust that what they are told is the truth. He goes onto describe truth as merely what is perceived as true, which is so postmodern you can almost smell it. The player is also a semi-non-important character, at this point, and says he can come and go as he pleases; he can do this because he is unimportant to the point where he is not needed very often but valuable enough to have some control over what he does, when and where he goes.

This section of our reading is crammed full of dry, postmodern humor like when Ros and Guil are trying to figure out which way is south but just go in circles and eventually forget what they were talking about and when Guil says that line about the monk who had a dream about the butterfly. I also think that Stoppard uses the player on page 66 to take a nonchalant, comedic stab at Modernism by saying “Relax. Respond. That’s what people do. You can’t go though life questioning your situation at every turn.” which is what modernist artists and writers were known best for. I’m not sure if that was meant to be a low blow on modernism or just to add to the fact that Ros and Guil were unimportant, interchangeable and just needed to chill out.

“I take my hat off to you” “shake hands” …. they do

The postmodernness is beginning to show itself more and more; it is becoming more and more evident that they know they are in a play, asking questions such as, “Why? We are marked now” (52) which is a certain awareness most characters in a play are not supposed to be aware of… what?

Like trent said, I think we should play the question game in class, it’s just like on ‘Who’s Line is it Anyway’. I think we could learn alot about this exercise, how it is postmodern and how it is relevant to the characters’, Rosecrantz and Guildenstern, position. This game could also teach us self-awareness, if we pay attention more to what we say, we will hear it and know how it affects other people, or in this case the game. Well then if not to learn anything simply for entertainment value, their back and forth dialogue is hilarious and I think we could get some good stuff out of the kids in period 6;).

Overall impression of the play:
I really like this play, I am kind of leaning towards the idea of persuading Mr. Halliday into letting us do it on a real stage, for people, as the non-musical theatrical presentation of the 2010-2011 school year. But i think he, Mr. Halliday, thinks I’m a senior this year… so we’ll see how that goes.

Yeah “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead” reeks of postmodernism…

From the perception and interpretation of reality and discussion of probability to the extreme self awareness and questioning of presence, the postmodern lens is evident. The intertextuality of including Hamlet in the play is postmodern too. The play is written about two less important characters in Hamlet and follows them from before their particular part in the play to where they enter and then after their part, this technique of following unimportant characters can be seen in a ton of other postmodern writings.

I really like this play so far. Some of the plays we have read in the past really weren’t meant to be read, but I think this particular one perfectly serves its purpose on paper. I’m in enjoying the back and forth dialogue, it keeps things moving and entertaining.

sorry it’s late:(

yeah there’s a cougar in the car, i put it in there…

I don’t know too much about dramas. Nevermind, i take that back. I know enough to say that they are dramatic. Well, it also depends on which type of drama you are talking about, theatre or television. Stage drama is dramatic because if it wasn’t the entertainment value would be equivalent to the golden girls. Television drama is how it is because society has called for it, the aspects of drama may complicate it a little bit but basically, people want to see almost realistic situations in other people’s lives that make their lives seem a little less bad.

Being a “thespian” myself (I’m not it the club) i have seen both sides of the drama spectrum. The makeup, the masks, the clothes, the dialogue all go into the production and all have a tremendous affect on its success or failure. If the actors don’t project their voice and make every movement big or stay in character the entire time, people begin to throw vegetables.

TV drama is somewhat shallow compared to theatre, there is less meaning behind the actions and dialoge and is usually produced just to entertain the masses, or create conflict in some cases. I would guess that the same elements play into this particular type of drama, dialogue, character, etc, but without the crazy makeup and ridiculous stage antics.

Really don’t know what to say…

I can’t wait for school to end, that’s pretty much it. I think i have senioritis, I mean this is my 12th year at this school so i think it’s about time to leave.

Well, not really leave the school but summer would be nice. It’s getting harder to focus everyday, but that’s pretty much how it goes every year. Junior year has gone by so fast, I am just getting used to writing an 11 on the sign in/out sheet at the desk and i keep confusing sophmore year with this year. I’m a basket case

ok this is the second time i’ve finished this, but last time it didn’t work. Jazz fest wasn’t as good as i thought it was gonna be, uber crowded and the location needs to change. I had a lottttt of fun. Even tho i missed band of horses… FAIL MY LIFE

Well first off, I’m a pro so automatically my ideas are fresh and memorable. That’s just how I do, I can’t go wrong, not a stain on me…

As you have most likely deduced from the title of this particular blog the thesis of my paper is centered around Marxism, Karl Marx’s view on religion to be specific. Now you see why I’m so confident that my paper will be different huh. In my opinion it is developing quite nicely, I am writing it in the same way I write my blogs, very casually and in the same way I speak.

Much similar to the way I write my blogs, the ideas for support and evidence come to me as i write my paper. Lacking a physical outline, this is an important factor in the completion of the paper. I just recently had another epiphany involving the religion and marxism and all that which i hope will play out well in the final product.

Shout-out. Thank you trent wallis for putting Marxism in my head

So the presentations were pretty well done this week, but the wife of bath group was definitely the best. They had the most content and the most useful information; the quotes they showed were a big help in understanding the tale as a whole. They analyzed the characters names and how that was symbolic of the characters themselves and the situations that take place in the story.

The franklin group had a solid presentation too, they emphasized the moral, or theme, of his story being that patience in love is key to success. This tale was different from the garden variety courtly romance because dorgien and arveragus were actually in love instead of just being married for the heck of it. Specifically it is a Breton Lai, and the Franklin’s tale itself is an adaption of Giovanni Boccaccio’s, “The Filocolo Story”.

The Miller’s tale group made sure we understood the comedic value of every detail in the story, such as the bath tub boats and the hairy butt kissing. They also pointed out the significance and symbolism of all the characters names and the countless refrences to the bible. They’re presentation was informative and helpful, the “match the character game” helped with understanding the characters’ thought processes and who they really are.

So this guy, Edward Chilbarough, the local elementary school’s principle, who was born July 4, 1966, in Cold Water, Ohio, never accepted the fact that he, not Tom Cruz or some famous guy, was the only person on earth with the power to see through walls, even those made of brick. He, Edward Chilbarough, not Tom Cruz or anyone else for that matter, also had the strange ability to unclothe women with his mind. Eddy is the real deal, no doubt.

Mr. Chilbarough, Edward that is, not his father, Frankenstein, first discovered his mutant-like abilities at the age of nine in a coffee shop not far from home, his home, not yours or mine. The shop owner, Zacharia the Vengeful, introduced Ed to the idea, sensing a certain majestic strength in the young boy’s zen. As the young boy, Edward Chilbarough, not his younger brother, step brother that is, Jim Vista, who was also there, approached the counter with the simple purpose of purchasing a tall cup of coffee, by tall i mean the smallest size not an actual tall cup, he is only nine and does not need that much caffeine, Zach, as the locals call him, refused to hand him the beverage until he closed his eyes and focused intently on dropping his girlfriend’s pants, she went by the name of Xandel but after this day everyone called her “Rock-Bottom-Lindsey”, which was and still is her middle name, Lindsey not Rock-Bottom. Obviously the mind game worked and her pants hit the ground.

He continued to train with Zacharia the Vengeful, Zach V. for short, until he was 17, the age of enlightenment as Zach V. called it. He immideatly began using his powers to reek havoc and cheat and steal, the years his family, including younger step-brother Jim Vista and the dog, Stewart Moby, Stew Mobe for short, refer to as the ‘lost years’. At 22, Ed finally pulled his act together and somehow ended up as the Principle of Cold Water, Ohio, Elementary, everything leading up this point is hazy at best due to its death-like boringness.