Sunday, February 22, 2015

Response to Course Materials

Well it has been a long while since the last time that we  responded to course materials. Before Christmas! Wow.

A long long time ago we were finishing up Hamlet, and I remember like 3 weeks of discussion. I really like Hamlet over all. The whole idea of the play is pretty easy to relate to: young fella being forced to come home and deal with all the unbearable drama that he wanted to escape when he initially left. Anybody else feel the same way? I know that just being a high schooler on the cusp of graduation fosters feelings similar to our prince Hamlet.

Final Exams were not at all bad in this class. At all. I was really pleased with my group considering we had such a hard time figuring out what we were actually going to talk about... I wish we could have group projects for finals in all of my classes!

Something that we recently started doing on our blogs is open prompt posts. This is new to me, I didn't really know how to do them really, so I winged it. At least part one was harder for me because I am TERRIBLE at editing/criticizing other people's work especially on AP essays. The part two blog post was easier because I just treated it like writing a free response essay, it was probably terrible but there was no hour of contemplation before beginning. Overall, I think they will become easier the more that we do them.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. We started reading, finished reading, and started discussing the play and it certainly is interesting. I think this may be the hardest work that we have read so far because so much of the content relies on stage direction and visual aid that you can't really get from just reading it aloud as a class. I would also like to comment on how depressing our general discussions in class have been. I kept catching myself zoning out and pondering the meaning of life. At least its sixth hour so I'm not out of it for the rest of my classes. Is there a God? Is there a point? Do we have free will? Even if we do have free will, what is the point of using it if it is for nothing in the end? This play is tripping me out.

3 comments:

  1. Hey Abby,

    Good response, you had a lot more to say than me. Nothing is for certain in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. It was almost like Tom Stoppard presented multiple angles and walked away, letting the reader decide for themselves what is right. In this aspect it is a lot like the Bioshock games. The player is presented with two ideas and must pick one with their own morals at stake. I liked our classes talks about religion, but I feel like we spent more time trying to prove things that we could not actually determine, like Stoppard's religion. Nice job!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear Abby,
    I really liked your response to course material. You put in a lot of your own thoughts instead of just giving a class summary. With your comment on how you related to Hamlet I found it very difficult to relate to him. That may just be me though. Also with what you said about how with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern a lot of it is stage direction and visual aid I agree which is why I found watching the movie so helpful. Did watching the movie help you too? With your comment on how you zone out during class pondering the meaning of life I can see your well on your way to emerging an existential butterfly (if you don't understand this reference sorry).

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete