Blog 16

During this whole semester, I really have learned a lot for my English writing, even more than I expected.

Frankly, I don’t like language writing courses. When I was in China, Chinese class was my least favorite class. Chinese is my first language, but I even don’t like it. So not to mention English, my second language. Last semester, I had a painful experience for trying my best to survive in ENG111.

I feel my biggest progress this semester is that I can follow what the teacher was talking about in class most of time. Though there were classes about poetry that I didn’t understand at all, I feel more comfortable to listen and speak out in class. In addition, my  writing has improved a lot as well. I think I can write in a more logical way at the beginning.

Overall, I feel Dr. Weaver put the class in a very meaningful and useful way, so I enjoy this class a lot.

Blog 15: Metaphor Paper Topics

I am going to write the metaphor paper based on an article that I read from the Miami Student — ” J. Crew U?”

The main metaphor is ” Miami University is J. Crew U”, which is a well-known metaphor in the US. In terms of “X=Y” equation, the tenor is Miami University, and the vehicle is J. Crew U. The most straightforward interpretation of this metaphor is that Miami University is famous for a lot of “rich, preppy, white” boys and girls. Therefore, this metaphor highlights the characteristic of Miami University that the majority of the students are from upper class who are also very beautiful.

However, I consider this metaphor as a negative comment for Miami University. I feel the facts that it hides are more than the facts highlighted. Though I haven’t decided what my thesis statement is for this paper, generally I will start my paper from two aspects — materialism and lack of diversity. I feel these are the two major problems of Miami from this metaphor.

By the way, there is no offend to any Miami student. I just find this topic very interesting to write.

Blog 14 – Metaphor analysis

My metaphor analysis is the article “How to Build a Better Democrat” written by Joe Klein

There area lot of metaphors in this article. For example, the author compares the greatest threats today to virus. Unlike before, when foreign policy could use military or economy to make a difference, the foreign policy has its new characteristics according to the new age. One significant feature is insidiousness. Sometimes the threat is invisible but big, so unlike actual war, it is hard to tell apparently.

The author’s argument of this article is “In an age of viral power, Democrats might argue, the U.S. has to be more than a hammer looking for nails. We have to find a way to act as a vaccine.” Here is another metaphor which is associated with the last metaphor of virus. He thinks “Good Democrat = vaccine”.

Vaccine is the medicine to protect people from viruses, so a better democrat should have the role to protect their people from any threat. Moreover, vaccine is not violent compared with surgery and other medical methods to cure diseases. So the author also means that a better democrat should not rely on its military power or economy to achieve this purpose, but to use a friendly and mild way.

Blog 13: Peer Reviews

Overall, the peer reviews went very well. I like the paper-based review, which is much easier to read and make comment on.

I feel the most common problems appearing during the reviews is that we just talk about the two novels, but we didn’t the significance to readers. So it is like we wrote about “what”, but forgot about “why”. This can make the paper much deeper.

I need to work on the add more information and analysis to push my question a little further. Right now, mine is OK, but not good enough. “Why my thesis statement is significant to readers and why both writers want to tell this to readers” are the questions that I am going to work on.

Blog12 – After finishing In the Lake of the Woods

I have just finished reading this novel. I don’t know why, but I feel upset. All they need is happiness, but in the end, they are tragic and far away from the happiness. I feel sad for this couple. They should be happy, but they aren’t all the time. Pretending hurts.

“More likely they drowned, or got lost, or lost themselves. But who will ever know? It’s all hypothesis, beginning to end.” In fact, I am not sure whether I understand the whole story or not. The chapters are choppy. But I am wondering the writer’s purpose of this novel.

Besides the war, besides loss, besides love, how people treat our secrets is what I think another purpose. “I have my own PFC Weatherby. My  own old man with a hoe. And yet  quality of abstraction makes reality unreal.” John Wade is an extreme person, or even unreal. But the way he use magic tricks to forget something sets everyone thinking. Sometimes we refuse to recall some memory unpleasant, just like John. However, memory is not a terrible thing that we cannot face, as long as we face them correctly. Hiding is the way.

Creative writing- interview between the narrator and John

N(Narrator): Why do you like magic?

J(John Wade): I don’t know. Probably it makes feel good and relief. In a world of magic, everything is possible for me. Everything is within reach as long as I concentrate.

N: It seems a little vague to me, though. What specific magic trick you like best?

J: When I was small, my father called me Little Houdini. I guess I am good at escaping from a certain circumstance to another one  with some small tricks.

N: If you got a chance to choose live in the magic world or the reality, which would you choose and why?

J: The magic world for sure. There I don’t need to hide and pretend, because things there themselves are not real. I can use my tricks to make my life better.

N: I understand the good point to be in the magic world, but don’t you think it is scaring on the other hand? Everything is not real…

J: Well, as long as you have your own magic to stay forever, then you won’t concerned at all. But the condition is you have to stay there all the time.

N: So you mean, the fact that you switch between the reality and magic makes you scared?

J: Well, sort of.

N: What do you mean by saying sort of?

J: I don’t know. When I feel scared, I will immediately go back to my magic world. So the fright feeling is pretty short.

N: Do you find it is hard to communicate with others or sharing your own feelings?

J: That’s a tough question. I never share my feelings with others. So I don’t know. In my Magician’s Handbook, it says “You will never explain your tricks to an audience, for on matter how clever the means.” I am following the directions.

N: But that’s merely magic tricks, not your personal feelings?

J: The same. I am a strict magician.

Blog 11 – Dialogue between Ragtime and In the Lake of the Woods

The writing style of Ragtime and In the Lake of Woods are totally different, especially about the dialogue.

In the Lake of Woods, author uses more direct and short dialogue between charaters.For instance,

“You know, maybe I’m way off,” she’d say, “but I get this creepy feeling. Like you’re always there. Always worming around inside me.”

John would smile this candidate’s smile.”Very true. Not worming, though. Snaking.”

“You didn’t go out today?”

“Out where?”

“I don’t know know where. It just seemed –”

Personally, it is a very natural and daily dialogue. Very straightforward and short. It helps readers follow the story thread more clearly.

On the other hand, the dialogue in Ragtime is much longer and fewer. For example,

In front of the sergeant’s desk at police headquarters on Centre Street, she made a statement to reporters as she was booked for conspiracy. I am sorry for the firemen in Westchester. I wish they had not been killed. But the Negro was tormented into action, so I understand, by the cruel death of this fiancee, an innocent young woman. As an anarchist, I applaud his appropriation of the Morgan property. Mr. Morgan has done some appropriating of his own. At this the reporters shouted questions. Is he a follower of yours, Emma? Do you know him? Did you have anything to do with this? Goldman smiled and shook her head. The oppressor is wealth, my friends. Wealth is the oppressor. Coalhouse Walker did not need Red Emma to learn that. He needed only to suffer.

Without any quotation mark, Doctorow switched the speakers succeefully. I feel one of the distinguishing characteristics is this kind of dialogue is more close to narration. Unlike the former one, it feel more rational and narrative.

Experimenting with Dialogue and Intertextuality

I chose to compare two video news: one is “Aunts and Stepdads line up for this year hottest gift: The electric Tea Kettle” from The Onion and the other is “Cooking to cut costs” from CNN.

The similarities about these two news is the constructions of the narration.  Both of them first state what happens generally in this news to give the audience an overall idea. Then it goes to details to describe the story with vivid pictures as well as interviews with experts or authorities. This tries to build more credibility for this news.

But these two news have a major difference. The Onion news uses satirical tone to re veil some reality now, though the news there is “fake”. Specially, this video news is to describe how insane and crazy customers buy a product, but in reality for such a bad economy, customers will definitely control themselves to cut unnecessary expense. Personally, I think The Onion wants the audience to reflect their own consuming behaviors.

On the other hand, CNN news is more rational to the audience. Every sentence used is more serious and cautious. By a straighforward way to tell the audience that people now prefer cooking at home to cut cost, CNN conveys the message that what is the people’s response to the bad economy now.

Blog 10 – Peer Review

Overall, I think the peer review for the Ragtime paper went well last Thursday.

Frankly, at first, I didn’t think highly of peer review, because last semester for my ENG111, this process didn’t went well. However, this time, I think I had some useful suggestions and ideas from my peer reviewers, which helped my improve my paper.

The most important part that I have learned from this reviewing process is that as I read others’ paper, I gradually realized how can I come up the thesis statement and how to organize the paper. Before the last class, my draft was merely about the ideas that I came up with, but it wasn’t a paper. As the review process, I could learn from my peers and tried to think about my own paper. I feel after that my mind is much clearer to form my ideas into a paper.

Hopefully, my paper is “readable” when I turn it in this Tuesday!

Blog 8 – 2 quotes

1.”He’d (Father) always thought of himself as progressive. He believed in the perfectibility of the republic. He thought, for instance, there was no reason the Negro could not with proper guidance carry every burden of human achievement. He did not believe in aristocracy except of the individual effort and vision…But the air in this ball park open under the sky smelled like the back room of a saloon. Cigar smoke filled the stadium and, lit by the oblique rays of the afternoon sun, indicated the voluminous cavern of air in which he sat pressed upon as if by a foul universe, with the breathless wind of a ten-thousand-throated chorus in his ears shouting its praise and abuse.” (Page 231)

This long paragraph is a little confusing to me. Personally, I feel it is a comparison between the dream and reality of the American society at that time. Father thought there was no class difference as long as they had the effort and intelligence, which is called “American Dream”. But as he and his son was in the stadium watching baseball. The air, which “shouting its praise and abuse”, is breathless not fresh. People, in reality, don’t have much freedom to achieve their dreams, especially for those who had low social status and race difference.

2.”But now the authorities were embarrassed. The Ford stood as tangible proof of the black man’s grievance… Feeling that they had compromised themselves the Mayor and the Board of Aldermen issued a new series of condemnations of the colored madman and said that to negotiate with him in any way at all, to face him with less than an implacable demand that he surrender himself, would be to invite every renegade and radical and black man in the country to flout the law and spit upon the American flag.” (Page 237)

This paragraph describes the corruption of the government at that time. Even Coalhouse had such a strong proof of this car that had been damaged by the white, the government was still for Conklin. They think Coalhouse flouted the law and if they don’t make him surrendered, more radical and black men will go on strike or other things to threaten their governance. The nature of the government made them do what they thought was right and justice. This is also the reason why Coalhouse turned out to be “mad”. No matter how hard he tried, like before suing or finding a lawyer, the government was already on the opposite side of him. They refused to help him out. That’s the roof of the tragedy.