CREATING YOUR BLOG NAME
BLOG POST #1 [10 Points]Create your blog name and post to this message using your blog name. Then in a short post, reveal your real name and explain why you chose the name you did and possibly why it relates to your totem animal. Finally, describe what you think literature's purpose is in our society and name some of your favorite poets, short story writers, novelists, playwrights. Why are these your favorite?
posted by Tim Kahl @ Wednesday, August 16, 2006
5 Comments:
Hello
My real name is Shantel Castro and I am currently enrolled in your 301 advanced English compositions also known as literature. The name I decided to use as my blog user name is Mixedominican. I discover myself using Mixedominican as my alias for user names on other websites as well, frequently I add the number 04 at the end because that was the year I graduated from high school but, the website said it was not available to use. How my user name relates to my totem animal is it explains my background. I come from a mixed background and I am very proud. It opens me up to two very rich cultures; in fact it make me feel very open minded to other cultures and backgrounds as well. My mother comes from the Dominican Republic mixed with African and White Spaniard decent. My father also comes from the Philippines, which make my mixture of backgrounds so unique.
Literature consists of writings that connect with ideas “…of permanent and universal interest [such] as poetry, novels, history, biography, and essays (dictionary.com).” I think literature's purpose in society is to capture forms of communication and pass on knowledge, ideas, and philosophies down to one generation to the other. With out literature I think the world and people would not be as knowledgeable. People would also not be informed about issues from the past and present in which can affect them if literature was not in present day society.
Poetry seems to interest me the most when it comes to literature. My favorite present day poet is Saul Williams because his style reminds me more of a hip- hop artist. Williams has a blend of spoken word poetry and hip-hop. He caught my eye when I watch the movie Slam; further more, I think he is I think on of the most talented open-mic poets I have herd. Williams is also a native from New York where my mother is from. My all time favorite poet is Rumi who is a Persian poet I find to be very mystical. I admire his strong love for Allah (god) and his focus to lead people closer to him being that I am also Muslim. This list can kind of go on with poets I admire from the past and present.
Sources Cited
"literature." Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.0.1). Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006. 24 Aug. 2006. Dictionary.com dictionary.reference.com/search?q=literature&x=34&y=18
Thanks for sticking with the posts. Due to an administrative oversight on my part, people were getting their comments bumped early on. This glitch appears to be fixed. Please keep on posting. There wil be no "late posts" this round as we are all getting the hang of it—myself included.
As for Victor Schnickelfritz, well, schnickelfritz is a name that was used against(?) me as a child. One says this about a child that has a habit of getting into things and causing trouble. In short, a schnickelfritz is mischief-maker. Some of us are pathological mischief-makers, ones who never cease in causing a little bit of irritation (hopefully fun!), like a single grain of sand that gets cemented to the lens of your glasses.
I see a "schnickelfritz" also to be something of a trickster figure, a figure duplicitous and mischievous for the purpose of teaching others about the apparent contradictions and complexity of the physical world. The mythologies of the world are replete with trickster figures. In Native American culture, in particular, the trickster has important pedagogical roles to play. Whther it's coyote or Iktomi, the spider figure for the Lakota, the trickster is often involved in ushering some cultural practice or involved in explaining some physical attribute of the world.
The Chinese Monkey King [Sun Wukong] is also a trickster figure, and may be related to other mythical trickster figures in Asia.
In the European tradition there are fewer trickster figures, but they still abound. Figures such as Loki, and Till Eulenspiegel are considered to fit into this category.
The most famous of African tricksters is Anansi, again, a spider.
The uses of literature in society are many and complex. They do teach us about our cultural past and can even prescribe "right ways" of behaving. However, more than this, on a psychological level, literature does its most good by letting readers get to know others in all their complexity and by letting readers spend some time with characters so that they can appreciate that complexity. This is useful in that is a training ground for how to deal with that complex animal which is the human being.
If we stay with a story and come to know the people in it (without any real harm coming to us as they are fictional) then we learn how to react to the complexity of real human beings in a similar way. Literature is a "flight simulator" for the complicated social lives that people generally tend to exist in.
If one cuts characters short in books by dismissing thier motives or judging them as moral failures, more often than not, they are doing so in real life. If they are reading about characters just to see what they will do next (as agents of the plot), they will tend to see people as only agents of action and dismiss the rich internal life that breeds complexity.
In short, literature breeds tolerance, tolerance for the complicated set of affairs that is the human condition. The best literature is one that reisists the easy "typing" of individuals and fully fleshes out its characters with both rich inner lives and as agents of complicated action.
Hello, my name is Jenna Camarena. I went with confuzed2113 because it is kinda of a little joke among my friends and I. My best friend calls herself Dazed and I am confuzed, so together we are dazed and confuzed! It all started because I can be a ditz and sometimes do not follow directions well. People would say ok do you get it Jenna? " Nope I'm confuzed, how do you do it again?" haha Basically i'm slow at times. The numbers 2113 are simply because I am currently 21 and my favorite number has always been 13 just because people say it is unlucky, what do they know.
Literature plays a huge role in society. It gives people knowledge, hope, insight. Sometimes it is nice to pick up a book and fall in love with it and the characters you are reading about, and just forget about your problems and worries. People have a way of relating to real problems and tragedy. To be honest I have never been a big reader on my own. I mostly read books that I have to for school because I am busy. The older I am getting the more I am trying to focus on literature because I love to write and would like to have a book published of my own one day. One of my favorite Authors would be Scott Fitzgerald. I fell in love with "The Great Gatsby." I love Shakespear as well, there is nothing I have not like of his. His twisted love tails are classic and should never be forgotten.
My name is Jordan Moncrief. I chose the name patoloco (crazy duck) for a few reasons. The first is that I am intrigued by the spanish language. My sister is currently living in Chile and I have really come to appreciate the language. I specifcally chose "patoloco" because "pato" is the name of a famous soccer star in Argentina, and I happen to love soccer as well asd this player. One of my favorite authors is John steinbeck because of his book The Grapes of Wrath. This book is a clear window into the Great Depression, for Steinbeck captures the imagery and experiences of the migrants so vividly. I am also a fan of John Grisham, and love his book Bleachers because of the perception of sports life he creates. Literature ultimately is the link between the personal and social hemispheres, and allows us to see into the minds of others through a vivid and more accurate medium than that of the mainstream media. It also allows us to preserve our history, and how we came to be in the present day.
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