Hatin' on the Oldies

Personally I prefer more modern prose.

While looking for a poem to use for the poetry project, I realized that I greatly prefer more modern poetry to the pre-1900 selection. Almost everytime I found an appealing poem, a quick glace at the publication date only brought me sadness and disappointment: published after 1900. There's a reason almost all the poems we have had to analyze for poetry papers are published in the modern era... they're better. Let's face it, it can be a real challenge finding deeper meaning in a poem that uses words like "loth" and "forsooth" every couple lines. Modern poetry is much easier to relate to, understand, and appreciate. I know why Ms. Serensky mandated the poems had to be pre-1900. It's because she knows we need to have experience analyzing and reading poems from this time period for the AP exam, but she does not want to be the one to root through musty old poetry books to find appropriate poems. On one hand I feel a bit validated that Ms. Serensky is willing to risk her perfect passing record on us choosing appropriate poems, but I'm also annoyed--limiting us to pre-1900 poetry took a lot of the enjoyment out of the assignment. If there was no time-period limit on the poetry project, here are some poems I would have rather chose:

1. "splash" by Charles Bukowski

2. "(love song, with two goldfish)" by Grace Chua

3. "Myself" by Edgar Albert Guest

4. "The Guitar" by Federico Garcia Lorca

Interesting Title

Brain dead six words too hard.

Simultaneous Disappointment

Do you ever find yourself at a party that has gone on for far too long? Do your friends sometimes refer to you as a "wet blanket?"Are you a sociopath who wants to spread your pain and misery and ruin the happiness of others? If you answered yes to any of these questions, Simultaneous Disappointment is the perfect game for you! Disguised as a fun, enjoyable party game, Simultaneous Disappointment is a sure-fire way to kill the happy mood of any social gathering and have your fellow party-goers wishing to leave! Simultaneous Disappointment comes with 50 foolproof activity suggestions that are guaranteed to leave your guests filled with sadness. Such gems include:

Meow! We're going away soon.

- Bring in a box of kittens. Let the guests play with the kittens for 2 minutes, then take the box away.

- Invite people over under the impression of watching Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, but put in The Namesake instead. 

- Say you're going to make some chocolate chip cookies, but use raisins instead. 

- Announce midway through the party of your home's lice infestation. 

- Turn the party into an intense poetry analysis session, including the works of WH Auden and Ted Hughes, of course.

- Pass out some Composition books -- it's Journal Time, formal paragraph style.

We believe so strongly in the depressing power of our product, we offer a 100% refund if your guests are not completely dissatisfied with Simultaneous Disappointment!

Memorable Moments in Amsterdam

Before we started reading Amsterdam, Ms. Serensky gave us a little background information on the writing style of Ian McEwan. She mentioned that in every novel of his a certain moment always sticks out in her memory as particularly poignant and memorable. I read McEwan's novel  Atonement a few years ago, and there is a moment from that novel that clearly sticks out in my memory, so vivid that I can almost recall it word for word. It still amazes me that one sentence has the ability to change the entire novel; all of my prior thoughts and assumptions had to be completely reworked after the introduction of this new information. While reading Amsterdam, I am keeping a close watch for a similar moment, since Ms. Serensky warned it could happen anywhere in the novel. There have already been several shocking moments so far, but as far as I can tell, none of the moments have stood out as particularly important. Clearly, Clive's potentially life-changing decision not the help the woman in need stands out as a very important scene. The exact moment I began to consider this part for novel-changing status was on page 95: "Clive knew exactly what he had to do. Even as he eased himself back down the slope, he understood that his hesitation ad been a sham."Initially, I thought Clive was assuredly deciding to go down a help the woman, since he seemed so confident in his decision. However, when revealed in the next sentence that  Clive had instead crept back down the slope, I only felt shock at his brash, seemingly uncaring choice. Clive's decision to sacrifice the safety of the woman for his music marked a significant shift in persona, but is this scene hallmarked as the most memorable moment in the novel? Right now, I feel like it comes close to Vernon's uncovering of Garmony's cross-dressing photos. Again, McEwan carefully depicts a moment that completely shifts the reader's entire view of not only Garmony, but Vernon as well. Although I see both of these moments as being hugely significant to the novel, I still feel like McEwan has more tricks up his sleeve to turn our views of Amsterdam upside down.