Saturday, November 22, 2014

"Why Read Shakespeare?"


1 and 2.  According to the article, students find Shakespeare difficult because the language is obscure, the plots and characters are complex, and readers do not have an immediate understanding of the piece of writing.  Mack answers to these complaints by recommending to read everything over and over again.  He writes that the more someone reads, the more you will enjoy the work of art.  According to Mack, when someone finally "gets" Shakespeare, they are actually getting help for navigating the real world and the truth about himself or herself.  We get these things from actions and reactions of the characters in Shakespeare's plays.

3. We should read Shakespeare because:
     1.  People can enjoy their results from their hard work.  Shakespeare has very intricate plays and a confusing writing style which people do not understand during their first time reading it.  Although, it is complex, the more someone reads it, the more they will enjoy and understand it.  The understanding and joy gives people a sense of accomplishment.
     2.  The plays are aids for people who are trying to navigate the world and the people in it.  The characters in these plays relate to people living during any time because they struggle with the complexities as people today such as love, hate, power, morals, ect.
     3.  Shakespeare is the source from which our thoughts and ideas come from.  Characters in his plays set up real-world fantasies where people have unrealistic (at the time the plays were written, but not now because the plays introduced the ideas) priorities such as romantic love which people took to heart and enjoyed.
     4.  By persevering  through Shakespeare's literary works, we learn to be flexible with how we think.  Shakespeare throws his characters into extreme and twisted scenarios.  His language is only one part of his plays that is bizarre, but we learn to wrap our minds around these difficulties and make sense of them. This process of getting used to something that we never thought to get used to is expanding and stretching or thoughts.
      5. When reading Shakespeare, people grow in emotional intelligence because of the struggles that the characters face to follow their head or their heart.

4. I find that hard work pays off with Shakespeare to be the most convincing argument in which to read his works.  This is a personal decision because hard work does not always pay off and when it does, it's very rewarding.  Hard work also builds character.  I love the feeling someone gets after working hard and it pays off.  That feeling is accomplishment.

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Should Diaries Be Published or Not?


I understand that diaries are very personal and powerful; they are literally the lives of other people. On one hand, they should not be shared because they can hurt the people that are discussed and mentioned in them.  They can also distort the view of the writer to the audience.  This was stated in one of entries by Virginia Woolf when the author wrote that she only writes in her diaries when she is in certain moods.  This allows a reader to understand just a small part of someone and not be able fully grasp who they are.  On the contrary, sharing a journal or diary shares historical evidence and helps people to learn.  For example, by using Virginia Woolf's diaries, writers could experiment with more styles for their writing.  One compromise between these two sides could be that a certain amount of time like one hundred years after the author's death be required (unless the author specifies otherwise) before the diaries are published.  With this idea, the people who are involved in the diaries are no longer there to be effected by them and people can still learn from them.

Adding On Methods Of Learning by Lewis Carroll


http://www.brainpickings.org/2014/06/13/how-to-learn-lewis-carroll/

I agree with the methods for learning in the link above in general.  Although, starting at the beginning is very helpful, I find understanding why or where in general someone is going to be very helpful.  An example is when someone is learning to build a structure or reading a book. It's important to know what's needed by the end or the end result, so if one were to get extremely lost, they could at least know the general train of thought to stay on.   Another comment is on the last instruction on how to learn: talking through everything.  I believe this method works, but a parallel method is to write thoughts down.  By writing thoughts down, one can visually sort ideas out and not forget them