November 18 Close Reading

For my close reading this week, I read "How to Live without Irony" by Christy Wampole. The full article can be found here: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/17/how-to-live-without-irony/?ref=opinion. 

     In the article "How to Live without Irony" Christy Wampole discusses the dangers she sees in the current "ironic" lifestyle she sees in many young adults. She characterizes the ironic lifestyle as a lifestyle that avoids being genuine about anything. Some examples she gives are the tendency of young people to give gifts as jokes rather than genuine gifts, and also the existence of "hipsters". Throughout the article, Wampole argues that the ironic lifestyle is dangerous to society because it fosters empty humor, destroying sincerity about everything, and because it will leave no legacy behind for the next generation. Wampole effectively argues this with careful diction, second person syntax, and humorous imagery.

     Wampole's humorous imagery in the opening few paragraphs serves to set a satirical tone for the rest of the essay. Her description of "hipsters" in the first paragraph is stereotypical and slightly humorous. She mentions "outmoded fashion" and mechanical possessions like "record players" and "fixed-gear bicycles." The descriptive language, along with the almost caricature like picture accompanying the article serves to set a humorous tone that the reader can relate to.

     The main strength of the article is in Wampole's diction. All throughout the article, she uses precise language. Often this precise language seems over the top, which contributes to the humor of the article. This first appears in the first few when she uses words like "haunts" to describe the actions of "the hipster". Later she calls the hipster the "most extreme manifestation of the ironic lifestyle". By choosing big words like these to describe quite ordinary things the tone comes off as humorous and slightly mocking. It is difficult to tell exactly what the point of such inflated languages was, it seems to be trying to make a satirical criticism on the subject she is discussing. Whenever the author makes a clear or concluding statement directly to the reader, she uses much more understandable and appropriate language, like when she says "Somehow, directness has become unbearable to us."

     Finally the syntax adds effect through he specific use of pronouns. In the first paragraph, she uses the the pronoun "he" to describe hipsters in general. This creates a humorous effect because it parallels the description with a scientific description of some other species, making the "hipster" seem foreign and unfamiliar. In the concluding paragraph, Wampole uses the second person "you" pronoun to make her point to the reader unmistakable. In the second to last sentence, she challenges "determine whether the ashes of irony have settled on you as well." It is a powerful and rather accusatory statement directly to the reader. However in the last sentence, she redeems it slightly by saying "it takes little effort to dust them away."

     Overall the article is well written, and it brings up an interesting point. I have definitely seen the attitude Wampole is talking about, but I feel that her opinion about it is perhaps harsher and more extreme than the situation makes necessary. The final statement of the article has a particularly biting tone, and the excessive language in places comes off as somewhat pretentious. It is a good article, but it definitely could have focused more on the main point and less on making fun of hipsters.

Open Prompt 1981- November 11

Vergil's epic poem The Aeneid contains extensive allusions to myths and other works of literature. As Vergil's hero Aeneas travels around the Mediterranean, he encounters people, places, and monsters that are familiar from other stories. Through constant allusions to Homer's Iliad and Odyssey and other well-known myths, Vergil hopes to put his hero on the same level as the heroes of those stories and myths. 

Vergil's main goal in writing The Aeneid was to justify the rule of Caesar Augustus. He intended to do this by writing a story about Aeneas, Augustus' supposed ancestor, making him seem almost god-like and thus justifying Augustus' bloodline. The heroes the roman readers would have been familiar with were the heroes of the works Homer and other myths, so Vergil tries to put Aeneas on their level by having him encounter and overcome many of the same difficulties. He does this by recreating events from those stories in allusions that are sometimes obvious and sometimes subtle.

      The entire first six books of The Aeneid allude to the Odyssey from their structure. For all of these six books, Aeneas sails around the Mediterranean and stops at various islands, just as Odysseus does in the Odyssey. Some of the places Aeneas comes to are exactly the same as those Odysseus went to. For example, Aeneas accidentally lands on the island of the harpies, whom Odysseus also encounters. Likewise, he finds the island of Polyphemus, where Odysseus landed. Finally Aeneas is also forced to sail through the strait between the monsters Scylla and Charybdis. By placing Aeneas against the same obstacles that Odysseus and his crew faced, and having Aeneas overcome them in the same or even cleverer ways, Vergil makes Aeneas seem Odysseus' equal or even his better.

      Aeneas' wanderings also contain more subtle parallels with the Odyssey. The main example of this is his stay with Dido, the queen of Carthage. Aeneas stays with Dido for a time, and perhaps falls in love with her. But eventually, Hermes brings the message from the gods that Aeneas must fulfill his duty elsewhere, and Aeneas departs. This echoes Odysseus' stay on the island of Calypso. He stays there for a time, and his possible love for Calypso conflicts with his duties to wife and homeland, and he finally departs upon prompting from Hermes. With these more subtle allusions, Vergil intends to parallel Aeneas' character with that of other heroes, rather than his deeds. Aeneas' ability to overcome his personal feelings and do his duty shows his inner strength and service to the gods and other men.

     The second six books of The Aeneid allude to the Iliad just as the first six allude to the Odyssey. Once Aeneas reaches Italy, he must fight a war to gain control of the land. Ultimately he must defeat a man of superhuman strength, Turnus, whose physical prowess mimics that of Achilles and Hector. Throughout the conflict, Gods also appear and aid the combatants of both sides, which is a common occurrence in the Trojan conflict as well. By making Aeneas overcome such a mighty foe, Vergil puts Aeneas' strength in war, and thus that of Rome, on the same level as the heroes of the old stories. 

     The Aeneid also contains allusions to various myths besides the works of Homer. Throughout his wanderings, Aeneas encounters people and places that allude to other myths, such as the temple of Daedalus, and the descendants of Perseus and other heroes. His journey to the underworld also alludes to the feats of Hercules and Orpheus. Through all these adventures, Aeneas becomes the hero of all heroes, having experienced the equal of any of the most famous heroes of Greek and Roman mythology. 

     The allusions, both subtle and obvious, that are contained in The Aeneid all serve to impress the reader with Aeneas' feats. At the end of the book, the reader has seen Aeneas overcome all the most difficult obstacles in the world. This made Aeneas noble in worth in their eyes, elevating to  an almost god-like status. By doing this, Vergil's epic turned the popular opinion in favor of Caesar Augustus, who, as Aeneas' descendant, supposedly had the same strength, nobility, and courage.

Response to Course Material November 4

I feel as though this unit on Death of a Salesman is beating a dead horse a little bit. There are two reasons I think that: first, Death of a Salesman is part of the curriculum for American Lit. and a lot the students have already had a class in which the story and its symbolism were discussed in detail. Secondly, it seems that this play the exact same thing as The American Dream in a lot of ways. Both center on a family obsessed with consumerism and the capitalist system, and in both the author makes a powerful message about how this attitude leads to death and destruction. Admittedly, these two plays are still quite different in style even though their themes are the same, and it seems that we will still be able to learn a lot from doing a close reading and analysis of both, and then comparing the two. However, I feel it would be more interesting to branch out from the theme of the horrors of capitalism instead. There is such a huge variety of good literature out there, and we have such a short time to cover it this year, it seems almost a waste to spend so much time on two plays that are so similar. For this reason, I like the reading from the textbook more than a lot of the other assignments we do. The textbook gives a lot of excerpts from various texts; in chapter four we got to read work from Amy Tan, Langston Hughes, and several other well-known authors. The textbook gives a much better all-around knowledge of literature than reading the specific texts in detail does. Obviously, we have to study the texts that will allow us to pass the AP test, but I sometimes think we could gain more from the course if we didn't have the exam to worry about.