Mr. Eric Mills’s Comments (group member since Mar 22, 2016)

Mr. Eric Mills’s comments from the Mills AP Lit and Comp group.

1) Copy and paste, or type up your 4-10 (more is ok) lines of Shakespeare. Then 2) comment with a brief description of the verse. Make note of how you see a contemporary incarnation. What I mean is, you’ll be amazed at how applicable most of Shakespeare’s lines still are—“Since the more fair and crystal is the sky,/The uglier seem the clouds that in it fly.” Bolingbroke says these lines in Richard II, but they are applicable every day: the cleaner you wash your car, the more you notice that one spot you missed. Write up your Shakespeare anecdote and post it here. Then, 3) find a favorite from someone else and learn it, too.

July post 2
Great Expectations was originally published in serial installments from Dec 1, 1860 to Aug 3, 1861. (Think of the “old” way we had to watch television, if you can remember that, where we would wait all week to see a new episode). Some argue that this publishing format is the reason for its tedious sentence structure and drawn out plot. Dickens sent the last chapters of Great Expectations to the printer in the middle of June 1861. To relax after his efforts, he then went to stay with his wealthy aristocratic friend Edward Bulwer-Lytton, a hugely popular crime and historical novelist (no longer read today) whom he greatly admired and respected. Dickens decided—we don’t know precisely why—to show his host the last chapters of Great Expectations in proof. Bulwer-Lytton was so adamantly opposed to the depressing ending that Dickens rewrote the ending of the novel to be more positive. Ever since, critics have debated with fervor the verisimilitude, veracity, and superiority of both endings. Locate the original, unpublished ending (Google can help with that). Then re-read the ending in your edition of Great Expectations. Which of the two endings do you find more aesthetically and/or emotionally satisfying? Decide which one you think is superior, and then develop an argument in defense of your choice. Use evidence in a well thought-out three-paragraph response.

July post 3: reply to another student's post commenting on their thoughts.

In questioning the value of literary realism, Flannery O’Connor has written, “I am interested in making a good case for distortion because I am coming to believe that it is the only way to make people see.” Write 2-3 paragraphs in which you “make a good case for distortion,” as distinct from literary realism. Analyze how important elements of Great Expectations are “distorted” and explain how these distortions contribute to the effectiveness of the work. Avoid plot summary and use evidence.

Don't worry, we won't read Romeo and Juliet or Hamlet! I assume most of you have already experienced those.

Natalya wrote: "Natalya Hill period 1
The one aspect that keeps F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby from reaching perfection is that Nick Carraway is used more as a lens in order to see the story rather than b..."

Testing the reply function to see what it looks like. I agree that Nick is a bit of narrative contrivance. I especially dislike how Baz Luhrmann placed him in an asylum in his adaptation of the novel. Hmm, I wish the replies would be nested under the original posts. Oh well.

In The Writing of Fiction (1925), novelist Edith Wharton states the following: “At every stage in the progress of his tale the novelist must rely on what may be called the illuminating incident to reveal and emphasize the inner meaning of each situation. Illuminating incidents are the magic casements of fiction, its vistas on infinity.” Using The Great Gatsby, describe an “illuminating” episode or moment and explain how it functions as a “casement,” a window that opens onto the meaning of the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.

Reply to this using the comment link below. Write one succinct paragraph and use evidence from the text. Place your name and class period at the top of your post.

One of the most over-looked quotes from The Great Gatsby is: “I see now that this has been a story of the West, after all—Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly inadaptable to Eastern life.” Being a New Yorker, born and raised, and living in what many consider a “cow town” here in Colorado for the last ten years, I can relate to the converse of this idea. Comment on the delicate balance between seeking adventure and remaining faithful to one’s birthplace/childhood. Use evidence from the text to support your analysis.

Comment to this post using the link below. Write your first and last name along with the class period at the top of your post. Don't worry about formatting for the title of the book if you can't figure it out.

The Great Gatsby and perfection

When Fitzgerald set out to write The Great Gatsby, he set his sights high; he intended to write the perfect novel. In nine chapters--three prior to Gatsby, three with Jay Gatsby, and three after Gatsby--Fitzgerald comes very close, arguably, to achieving what he called a “‘consciously artistic achievement,’ something ‘beautiful and simple and intricately patterned,’” according to the book’s forward, written by Charles Scribner III. That said, many critics have found fault with a number of aspects of the novel. (That is, after all, the telos of a critic). Therefore, in two to three succinct and well thought out paragraphs (it is summer, after all), explain what you would consider the one fault in an otherwise perfect novel. Choose one scene, character, description, event, or any other aspect of the novel, and (pretending you find the rest of the novel perfect) explain why this ONE aspect is what keeps the novel from achieving perfection.

Respond to this post using the comment link below. At the top of your post, please include your first and last name, and what class period you are in if you remember.

Welcome new AP Lit students! I'm very excited to take this journey with you. I am still developing and considering what we will read second semester, so if you have any suggestions, please post them here. Also, please know that we probably need to stick to books the AP folk consider having "lasting literary merit." Also, older novels will tend to win out over newer (with the exception of Toni Morrison) to enable us practice parsing older language. If you know anyone signed up for this class who hasn't yet joined this group, please remind them to do so before the last day of May.