Hi there. In response to a question from Phoebe about what exactly I want you to do in class on Tuesday, here's an answer.
I'd like you to have thought long and hard about what exactly it is you want to pursue for your Major Work. If you have an author/director/etc as focus for a critical study you could talk about how much you liked a book of his/hers that you've read. If you don't have an author/composer/etc as focus but you've got an idea/concept you'd like to pursue, then talk to us about that and where/why you want to pursue this idea. If you're writing a short story the same rules apply: which authors/texts have you read that have inspired you to write? Was it the subject matter, the way they wrote, the structure, the characters etc? You could talk to us about ideas you have for plot/character/structure. It will only be a short informal talk - I will encourage other class members to ask you questions and/or I will ask some questions.
The intention is to get you thinking and focussing your ideas: start big and then refine and refine. You could talk about the areas of research you're going to do but have not yet engaged with, books you really want to read because you think they're interesting/important/etc and you believe will help you define and refine your ideas. And it's also to put you on the spot a bit.
It's designed to be a co-operative, sharing, thought-provoking and (perhaps even) inspirational environment.
Mr Turner
I'd like you to have thought long and hard about what exactly it is you want to pursue for your Major Work. If you have an author/director/etc as focus for a critical study you could talk about how much you liked a book of his/hers that you've read. If you don't have an author/composer/etc as focus but you've got an idea/concept you'd like to pursue, then talk to us about that and where/why you want to pursue this idea. If you're writing a short story the same rules apply: which authors/texts have you read that have inspired you to write? Was it the subject matter, the way they wrote, the structure, the characters etc? You could talk to us about ideas you have for plot/character/structure. It will only be a short informal talk - I will encourage other class members to ask you questions and/or I will ask some questions.
The intention is to get you thinking and focussing your ideas: start big and then refine and refine. You could talk about the areas of research you're going to do but have not yet engaged with, books you really want to read because you think they're interesting/important/etc and you believe will help you define and refine your ideas. And it's also to put you on the spot a bit.
It's designed to be a co-operative, sharing, thought-provoking and (perhaps even) inspirational environment.
Mr Turner
this was posted on the website for the extension two english students in our class.
start big start big start big.
i know i want my focus to be about poverty.. but i don't know what EXACTLY i want to incorporate. i really want to do it.. but i'm scared.. i'm not sure whether i should continue with it or not.
the following quotes i'm recording, for sparks of inspiration..
these quotes have been on one of my favourite tvshows, and their aim has always been to motivate. to inspire.
this is the only thing on my mind.
society is a masquerade ball, where everyone hides their real character and reveals it by hiding.
- ralph waldo emerson
you can not run away from a weakness.. you must fight it out or perish.
and if that be so, why not now?
- robert louis stevenson
do not look back and grieve over the past, for it is gone. and do not be troubled about the future, because it is yet to come. live in the present.. and make it so beautiful that it will be worth remembering.
- ida scott taylor
There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose the ventures before us.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose the ventures before us.
- william shakespeare
Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle.
The world you desire can be won. It exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours.
-Ayn Rand
The world you desire can be won. It exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours.
-Ayn Rand
most of our life is a series of images.. they pass us by like towns on a highway but sometimes a moment stuns us as it happens. and we know that this instance is more than a fleeting image. we know that this moment- every part of it will live forever.
Henry James- 'Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.'"
John Steinbeck- 'Change comes like a little wind that ruffles the curtains at dawn, and it comes like the stealthy perfume of wildflowers hidden in the grass.
John Steinbeck- 'Change comes like a little wind that ruffles the curtains at dawn, and it comes like the stealthy perfume of wildflowers hidden in the grass.
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.
- William Ernest Henley
