A dozen by a dozen .... Blog post 4 of 12

For Friday, December 2nd, 2011, read Zadie Smith's "Speaking in Tongues" (Hitchens 179- 194).

We will be discussing, writing, and blogging about it inclass.  To prepare kindly post (here as blog post 4 of 12), your own six questions you have following your reading of this text.  Make sure you ask the right questions though.  Craft questions that are whole and hale and honest in their inquiring.  Post these six questions on your blog.

You should use language from the essay and cite the page, as follows in this sample question 1: 

Zadie Smith exclaims in an apostrophe to the reader:  "How persistent this horror of the middling spot is, this dread of  the interim place!  It extends through the specter of the tragic mulatto, to the plight of the transsexual, to our present anxiety -- disguised as genteel concern -- for the contemporary immigrant, tragically split, we are sure, between worlds, ideas, cultures, voices -- whatever will become of them?(181-2)"  Why does  Smith lament so vociferously the in-between?  Does her own sense of self involve such doubling?  such ambiguity?

A dozen by a dozen.... Blog post 3 of 12

What I really think about the writing space that twitter affords is ________________________.


Think about this first:  is tweeting writing?  what is writing?  what's a tweet's purpose?

A dozen by a dozen.... Blog post 2 of 12

I'm not sure why so many people wear texts on their clothing and on their skin.  Perhaps they feel that such portable writing serves to ______________________.

Before you respond to this post, you may want to review the collective posts on twitter for #puttingontext

You can also see many of them @EthnaLay as well, for I have retweeted as many as I could catch.

A dozen by a dozen.... Blog post 1 of 12 (with directions about commenting)

A dozen by a dozen: Finishing up your Invention Blog
Second Blog Review due on December 11, 2011 (worth 50 points)

The subjects of the last twelve blog posts (about three paragraphs each) will be posted on this blog.

Here is  blog post 1 of 12: 
Read the following poem and respond to the questions below.

Robert Hass, “The Problem of Describing Trees”  

The aspen glitters in the wind
 And that delights us.

The leaf flutters, turning,
 Because that motion in the heat of August
 Protects its cells from drying out. Likewise the leaf
 Of the cottonwood.

The gene pool threw up a wobbly stem
 And the tree danced. No.
 The tree capitalized.
 No. There are limits to saying,
 In language, what the tree did.

 It is good sometimes for poetry to disenchant us.
 
Dance with me, dancer.  Oh, I will.

Mountains, sky,
 The aspen doing something in the wind.
 
 What is the argument of this poem?

What does the italicized line signify?

 ______________________________________________________________

Then you will comment substantively on twelve of your peers’ posts.  Blogs are after all a [pseudo-]conversation after all.

 Your first comments may follow this format.  After you are comfortable, craft your own responses in the way you see fit.  Be sure though that you comment in substantial ways.

1.  Write four to eight sentences per comment. 
2.  Start by thanking the writer for the intelligent, thoughtful post.  Then ask a question: “hey, have you thought about this?”
3.  Continue by justifying your question:  “The reason I ask this is because ________.”
4.  Then direct the poster to other information:  “You might want to take a look at this _____________.”
5.  Conclude by suggesting some alternate rhetorical move to try in the writer’s next post:  “I see that you frequently access metaphoric thinking in your writing.  Perhaps you might like to try more analytically in your next posting.”
6. What I really admire about your writing here is that you are positively _________ about  ____________.
 

Brooke and Carson's project on body parts in _Twelfth Night_

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1LBTVZogus&layer_token=2d671cc03e62e0fd

Carson and Brooke's place project - Tattoo Parlor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APvv3HiUrX0&NR=1

Virginia's four-letter word MODE

http://vrayyy.blogspot.com/2011_03_01_archive.html


Jenna's four-letter word project SAVE
http://jtanzola.blogspot.com/2011/03/save.html