Writing Across Cultures

The Mahabharata Open Book Quiz Please take the open book quiz on the Mahabharata from Google classroom. If you finish your essay/quiz before the end of period one, please work on your research/creation myth project or use your time writing creative pieces for your workshop. Period 2: Workshop Please conduct a writing workshop. Use the handout to help guide your answers. When you have completed commenting on your partners' work, you may use the time to research your creation story or use the time to write or revise pieces for your portfolio. Use your time productively. Also, please watch the following short video:  Crash Course Mythology #2  (Creation Stories) and take note of how these creation myths are examined and presented. You will be doing something similar when you present. HOMEWORK: None. If you did not finish the Mahabharata , please do so to prepare for our discussion of the epic next class. 

Period 1: Creation Myths: Kafka: "Poseidon" Morning Task: Tell a short story about what created the universe and everything in it. Then let's take a look at these creation stories. After each one, identify the kind or type of creation story told: Judeo-Christian I nuit Mayan Babylonian The Big Bang Scientology  & Scientology again Crash Course Mythology #2 Work on your research/creation myth project. Period 2: Workshop Please conduct a writing workshop. HOMEWORK: Please complete your reading of The Mahabharata . There will be an open book test on the work next class. Make sure you know the following terms (from your handouts): anima, animus, archetype, collective unconscious, persona, shadow, the 4 functions of myth (Campbell), archetypal theory/myth criticism, the hero's journey & various archetypes (Jung & Campbell)

Clash of the Titans (conclusion) Clash of the Titans   (1981)--produced and designed by  Ray Harryhausen . Directed by  Desmond Davis . Starring:  Laurence Olivier  as Zeus,  Maggie Smith  as Thetis,  Harry Hamlin  as Perseus, and  Burgess Meredith  as Ammon. Clash of the Titans (2010) & Clash of the Titans (2010) Medusa Scene Wrath of the Titans (2012) Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief (2010) Percy Jackson Sea of Monsters (2013) Percy Jackson Titan's Curse (2017) Use mythic criticism to review (in writing or as a podcast or vlog post)  Clash of the Titans . Take notes during the film to help you prepare your review. Myth Criticism  asks: 1. How does the story resemble other stories in plot, character, setting or use of symbols? 2. Are archetypes presented, such as quests, initiations, scapegoats, descending, or withdrawals and returns? [Use your handout/notes to help!] 3. Does the prota...

Clash of the Titans   (1981)--produced and designed by  Ray Harryhausen . Directed by  Desmond Davis . Starring: Laurence Olivier as Zeus, Maggie Smith as Thetis, Harry Hamlin as Perseus, and Burgess Meredith as Ammon. Use mythic criticism to review (in writing or as a podcast or vlog post)  Clash of the Titans . Take notes during the film to help you prepare your review. Myth Criticism  asks: 1. How does the story resemble other stories in plot, character, setting or use of symbols? 2. Are archetypes presented, such as quests, initiations, scapegoats, descending, or withdrawals and returns? [Use your handout/notes to help!] 3. Does the protagonist undergo any kind of transformation (such as movement from innocence to experience) that seems archetypal? 4. Are there any specific allusions to myths that shed light on the text?  HOMEWORK: Read The Mahabharata: Chp 7 - 12. There will be a test on the book when you return from T...

Period 1: From Christopher Marlowe's The Tragedy of Dr. Faustus : Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships, And burnt the topless towers of Ilium? Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss... Here will I dwell, for heaven is in these lips, And all is dross that is not Helena. I will be Paris, and for love of thee, Instead of Troy, shall Wittenberg be sack'd; And I will combat with weak Menelaus, And wear thy colours on my plumed crest; Yea, I will wound Achilles in the heel, And then return to Helen for a kiss. O, thou art fairer than the evening air Clad in the beauty of a thousand stars; Brighter art thou than flaming Jupiter When he appear'd to hapless Semele; More lovely than the monarch of the sky In wanton Arethusa's azur'd arms; And none but thou shalt be my paramour! Troy poem samples. Let's read a few poems based on the Trojan War. You can write a poem too! Use The Aeneid (any part of it) as fodder for your own imagination--or use t...

Thank you for attending the field trip Friday to MCC. Hopefully, it was worth your time. Feel free to develop any idea from the experience in your upcoming portfolio. Please use period 1 to prepare your Gilgamesh projects. If you finish early, please take a look at the following: Troy Story: The Iliad Troy Story: The Odyssey The Odyssey: Crash Course with John Green Helen of Troy (1956) The Trojan Horse (1961, Full film with Steve Reeves) Troy (2004) Did Troy Really Exist? Period 2: Gilgamesh presentations: Whataya' got? Episode 1 Episode 2 Episode 3 Episode 4 Episode 5 Episode 6 Episode 7 The Aeneid by Virgil. We'll get started reading this next major mythic epic. One of the most influential Latin writers was Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro).  Here's a bit of background on him . The Aeneid Videos: The Trojan War (Lego version) Dido & Aeneas (Henry Purcell opera)   Dido's Lament Dido & Aeneas (Dance) Book 6 in 60 Seco...

Prep for Field Trip to MCC: The Brain: the human brain, the largest of the mammal-kind relative to body size, is the command center for the nervous system of the body. It receives input from sensory organs (sight, sound, touch, taste, smell--hey! IMAGERY!) and sends messages from this input to the rest of the body (muscles, etc.). The normal human brain averages about 3.3 lbs. and is comprised of over 86 billion nerve cells (neurons -- grey matter) and nerve fibers (axons and dendrites or "white matter"), all closely spaced together with synapses. Anyway, there's the major parts of the brain: the cerebrum (forebrain), the cerebellum (the hindbrain), and the brainstem (the midbrain).  The cerebrum is divided again into the cerebral cortex with its four lobes (the frontal lobe, the temporal lobe, the parietal lobe, and the occipital lobe). Anyway, enough of that medical talk. The whole thing remains a complex system, essential to thinking, feeling, learning, sin...

Notes/comments about your portfolios. Write every day. Don't wait.  Set your own deadlines. After 3 years of doing this for you, you should not rely on your teachers to force you to write. Writing should come naturally like bleeding. If it's not, you are in the wrong program and can wonder why this happened to you in the first place. Seriously, plan ahead. Your next portfolio will be in January. Winter is coming. A simple suggestion (requirement) about writing deadlines--every day you have my class, you MUST write 1-2 pages. The days you don't have my class, you should write 1-2 more. There are 25 class periods as an average per marking period. If you wrote 1 page per class period with me you'd have 25 pages to turn in for your portfolio. Doesn't sound that bad now, does it? Another tip: Start writing when you get to class (even before 7:30) if you need to. Otherwise, most of you have one or more advisement periods in which you could find the time to write. Oth...