a thread about english classes

antidisestablishmentarianism · CAN'T. STOP. POSTING.

a thread about english classes

antidisestablishmentarianism · CAN'T. STOP. POSTING.

well, joe and i have been working on a project-type thing for college prep english and since it's due on monday, we must communicate via this forum...email is just a pain in the ass. seeing how joe didn't start the thread yet, i decided to. yay.
anyway...this is the poem mrs o gave us to read/analyze/present...

On the Amtrak from Boston to New York City
The white woman across the aisle from me says 'Look,
look at all the history, that house
on the hill there is over two hundred years old, '
as she points out the window past me

into what she has been taught. I have learned
little more about American history during my few days
back East than what I expected and far less
of what we should all know of the tribal stories

whose architecture is 15,000 years older
than the corners of the house that sits
museumed on the hill. 'Walden Pond, '
the woman on the train asks, 'Did you see Walden Pond? '

and I don't have a cruel enough heart to break
her own by telling her there are five Walden Ponds
on my little reservation out West
and at least a hundred more surrounding Spokane,

the city I pretended to call my home. 'Listen, '
I could have told her. 'I don't give a sh it
about Walden. I know the Indians were living stories
around that pond before Walden's grandparents were born

and before his grandparents' grandparents were born.
I'm tired of hearing about Don-fu cking-Henley saving it, too,
because that's redundant. If Don Henley's brothers and sisters
and mothers and father hadn't come here in the first place

then nothing would need to be saved.'
But I didn't say a word to the woman about Walden
Pond because she smiled so much and seemed delighted
that I thought to bring her an orange juice

back from the food car. I respect elders
of every color. All I really did was eat
my tasteless sandwich, drink my Diet Pepsi
and nod my head whenever the woman pointed out

another little piece of her country's history
while I, as all Indians have done
since this war began, made plans
for what I would do and say the next time

somebody from the enemy thought I was one of their own.

Sherman Alexie

-- Edited by antidisestablishmentarianism at 11:24, 2007-02-16

T Square Man · Sports

is that for college prep, because i've read that somewhere else before

INTERNET · Forum Dictator

WHEN RED TOUCHES BLACK, CANT READ SH IT

antidisestablishmentarianism · CAN'T. STOP. POSTING.

SRY. it was a copy-paste thing...and your language filter took out some words...
...and yes...this is an assignment for college prep

..there i fixed it, BRIGHT GREEN...and fooled the language filter...

-- Edited by antidisestablishmentarianism at 11:26, 2007-02-16

INTERNET · Forum Dictator

i suppose I could have fixed it rather than make a CAPS LOCK post

Joesus · GET ME A PS TRIPLE

well if anyone has anything intelligent to say on what they think the poem means, say it.

Joesus · GET ME A PS TRIPLE

Quite frankly i thought it was more or less about the author's anger that people only focus on their culture, alhough there are ones out there that are 5X older and richer.

Joesus · GET ME A PS TRIPLE

Oh and btw, tetris is the next game to fall under my dominion
MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

antidisestablishmentarianism · CAN'T. STOP. POSTING.

Arcadium wrote:
Quite frankly i thought it was more or less about the author's anger that people only focus on their culture, alhough there are ones out there that are 5X older and richer.

ignorance. self-centered, self-righteous ignorance.
people only see the good their society has done.
sort of a satirical humor...
also,
i like how the poem verses are split up...mid-sentence, like the rhythm on an amtrak train, but i can't figure out any rhythm in how each line is broken off...idk

T Square Man · Sports

Arcadium wrote:
Oh and btw, tetris is the next game to fall under my dominion
MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Then beat 204,000, I know its no listed on the high score list but thats because it wouldn't send the score.

Sorry about the non english tangent that joe started, but at least i used quotes, which are englishy, even if englishy isn't a word

antidisestablishmentarianism · CAN'T. STOP. POSTING.

ahh! quotes! my worst enemy!!! i write a perfectly good paper and then have to ruin the flow of thought by sticking in ****ing quotes!
yeah...sry..
well joe, we'd better at least write down some notes or something to hand in so she can't tell how much we're going to bs our way through the presentation...

T Square Man · Sports

i hate it when teachers require you to have a certain page limit or that you have to have quotes or a certain point must be raised, while at the same time having voice. I would like to one day say "Hey, my writing style doesn't say that that is needed in this paper, so why the hell do I have to have it." Any smart person could tell if you BSed it into it. How boring is it to have a good, witty paper that perfectley brings up what you want to say, then have to BS your way through 3 more pages, while adding some quotes from some dead guy, just to make sure you have the "requirements" of a good paper. Then, some teacher makes you have multiple sources, so you have to add some other useless info from a useless book, so you don't get docked points for having enough resources, when the one book you found has EVERYTHING you need. If I was a teacher, I would say "Write me a paper, if it's good, you get an A." Not, "If you have 5 pages, 3 quotes, 17 sources, and a purple dragon you get an A."
That is why Creative Writing is a awesome class. YOU CAN ACTUALLY WRITE ABOUT STUFF INSTEAD OF WRITING ABOUT NOTHING!!

-End rant

INTERNET · Forum Dictator

I remember hating college comp but I never went on rants about it.

T Square Man · Sports

i'm not ranting about college comp, just english classes in general

Joesus · GET ME A PS TRIPLE

antidisestablishmentarianism wrote:
well joe, we'd better at least write down some notes or something to hand in so she can't tell how much we're going to bs our way through the presentation...

LOL

Joesus · GET ME A PS TRIPLE

antidisestablishmentarianism wrote:

ignorance. self-centered, self-righteous ignorance.
people only see the good their society has done.
sort of a satirical humor...
also,
i like how the poem verses are split up...mid-sentence, like the rhythm on an amtrak train, but i can't figure out any rhythm in how each line is broken off...idk

Good point.

Joesus · GET ME A PS TRIPLE

T Square Man wrote:
Then beat 204,000, I know its no listed on the high score list but thats because it wouldn't send the score.

I only need to beat what the high-score listing says, not your personal best...lol

-- Edited by Arcadium at 20:00, 2007-02-18

antidisestablishmentarianism · CAN'T. STOP. POSTING.

zach--i agree with your rant completely

joe--think of some ideas, write them down...make it sound like it took hours of intense thought to discover such ideas, and i'll attempt to do the same...

sometimes i really wish i had dropped this class..

Joesus · GET ME A PS TRIPLE

It's a good class...or WAs 1st semester. but now with all these presentations I don't like it as much as I did