Week of 2/14 - 2/18

This week in English we have been focusing on starting to read the play Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare. So far we have only read a few portions and descriptions of the play but from what I've seen it looks very interesting and creative, especially for its time. My goal while we read this is to try and be able to understand Shakespeare pretty well without having to look at any simplified translations. It seems that story in Shakespeare's diction is sharper and more clever that the updated texts. I hope that by the end of the play I will be able to understand what everything means when it is being read aloud.
This week I also finished up the rest of American Psycho and wrote me essay on it. I feel that it went well except that I wish I would have interviewed a psychologist before I had wrote essay so I could have psychoanalyzed Patrick better. However, I think I did a good job of drawing symbolism from the novel.

Week of 2/7 - 2/11

This week was I had a very strange schedule at school. On Tuesday we had the field trip to see Emma and then on Thursday I went to my volunteership instead of school. Personally, I thought that Emma was pretty entertaining and all in all worth watching. I really liked at the end when they almost didn't end up together and the whole audience started screaming. It was surprising that a bunch of high school and middle school students cared so much. My only complaint would be that the plot was kind of predictable and cliched, but I guess for it's time the novel was probably original. This week I have also been continuing to read my novel but will need to be spending a lot of my Saturday and Sunday reading. I have around 150 pages to read which is very doable. Tis all I have to say.

Week of 1/31-2/5

This week we have continued to work on our project for our websites for our inquiry project. Being on my own and having to do all of these tasks on my own is a little daunting, but it isn't too bad. I have continued to read American Psycho but haven't been able to get far into it due to an impending math mid-term. I have also been continuing to email professors in hopes of finding someone to interview about my topic. I am hoping to find a psychology professor to get his opinion on why a reader would want to read a novel about a psychotic character or one that focuses on misanthropic themes.

Week of 1/24-1/28

This week we worked mostly on trying to improve our project proposals for our inquiry project as well as laying the groundwork for future work in our project. This week I also started reading my first book, American Psycho. Earlier this year I has read half the book but had to stop because we started our last inquiry project and decided to just restart the book. Re-reading it I am noticing many things that I did not realize before. In the story the main character, Patrick Bateman, always says what a person is wearing before he starts talking about them and always know what brand their clothes are by. However, I've noticed that a few times he will say that himself or somebody else is wearing one thing but will then change what they are wearing later on in the chapter. I highly doubt that this is a mistake on the part of the author and understand that he did this intentionally. However, I can't quite figure out the reason for doing this. My best guesses are that either is satire on the part of Ellis to criticize how all the fashion back then was easily interchangeable and simply based on brand names or that he is trying to show that Patirck is lying and really has no idea who made the clothes but likes to act as if he knows. Just an interesting little thing I noticed in the book.

1/17-1/21

This week we have been finishing up with our inquiry project proposals and preparing for our Beowulf test. Personally, I chose to write about the topic of what would America's Epic hero look like. One important distinction I thought was that in our embodiment of the Epic Hero was that rather than solely being strong he/she must also be cunning. I think strong examples of this are Frodo in Lord of the Rings and the James Bond series. Frodo is a weak little hobbit that in many situations in the film trilogies got along based on his intelligence, and James Bond usually takes advantage of an arsenal of gadgets. Additionally, I thought that the American Epic Hero must also have sex appeal. Maybe this has been added due to the fact that "sex sells" but I've realized that many American epic heroes, like James Bond, must not only be able to defeat the villain but also be able to woe the ladies. One last difference I noticed was that we have abandoned the mysterious or noble birth of the epic hero. I think this is based on the fact that we have no nobility in America and that with our better understanding of biology and baby making there isn't much room for a "mysterious" birth.

Week of 1/10-1/14

This week we have been studying the epic poem Beowulf. I remember reading it in middle school but all that I could recall was that he slayed a demon named Grendel, his mother, and a dragon. After reading the poem I really liked it and can easily relate to other epic stories. One it particularly relates to is the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Tolkken's writings has many of the same themes as Celtic folklore such as giants and dragons that guard treasure. However, I realized that a strange difference with Lord of the Rings is that even though Frodo is the protagonist he is not a bold hero like Beowulf. Instead, Leoglas, Eragorn, and Gimili embody the epic hero.
Also this week I have choose the books that I was going to read for my inquiry project. Right now I'm thinking that I'm going to read Notes From Underground, Master and Margarita, and American Psycho. I'm thinking that my question will be something along the lines of why are people drawn to dark or misanthropic literature that focuses on the negative aspects of humanity?

Language

This week we have been studying language, specifically English. In the beginning of the week we examined how a word gains or looses the status becoming an "official" word. However, on Friday, we watched a lecture about the evolution of language and English. I found this topic to be very interesting to see how languages develop. This lesson also connects with a question that I have had for a long time. I've realized that when I normally think or talk to myself in my head that I do so in English. This lead me to ask the question of what did people do before there was language? How did they think in their heads? It's strange to think about because you can't just forget the language you know. Another thing I find interesting about language is how it can directly affect our emotions. It's strange to think that a sentence containing words that have a purely artificial value have the ability to affect our biological being and state of mind.