The haze in the glow

From Part 1, ¶ 9:

The yarns of seamen have a direct simplicity, the whole meaning of which lies within the shell of a cracked nut. But Marlow was not typical (if his propensity to spin yarns be excepted), and to him the meaning of an episode was not inside like a kernel but outside, enveloping the tale which brought it out only as a glow brings out a haze, in the likeness of one of these misty halos that sometimes are made visible by the spectral illumination of moonshine.

From Part 1, ¶ 14:

We looked on, waiting patiently—there was nothing else to do till the end of the flood; but it was only after a long silence, when he said, in a hesitating voice, “I suppose you fellows remember I did once turn fresh-water sailor for a bit,” that we knew we were fated, before the ebb began to run, to hear about one of Marlow’s inconclusive experiences.

In the narrator’s indirect way (Marlow’s experiences are “inconclusive,” the meaning of his yarn is “not inside” but “outside”) he—with the author—is warning his audience about the tale Marlow will relate.

What do his warnings lead us to expect, and not to expect, from the tale Marlow tells? What do they hint about Marlow’s character compared, say, to that of the average seaman?

This post will remain open for comment over the Thanksgiving holiday, with a cut-off time of 5 pm Tuesday December first.

About Essays: Big AND Little

I've done some more thinking and amending to those thoughts on essays that I presented to you during Thursday's class. Here they are then, updated to include formal as well as in-class essays.

Big stuff

· In full-fledged essays, a weak or incompletely expressed thesis is the number one cause of failure. Compare yours with classmates and ask for feedback from teachers you respect (possibly including me) if you have any doubts about yours.

· I believe any thesis that looks beyond the immediate plot and world of the work of fiction you’re analyzing is at least on the right track. Everything we read in this class does that implicitly. If you don’t take that into account when you sit down to write, you’ve begun with a very limited scope that may have worked very well through your sophomore year. Now you must replace it with a more adult perspective that ranges farther and deeper than many of you are used to.

· In timed writes, students too often tend to re-state the prompt in a tedious way that merely delays your thesis, which too often is a lame construction based literally upon the prompt.

· Quotes (in timed writes only) aren’t required and not expected. If they come at the cost of your time and add to your writer’s stress, they aren’t worth it. Use only what is at your fingertips.

· Quotes (in “black tie” essays) are essential in literary analysis & criticism (“lit-crit” for short). Without them your essay often degenerates into an abstract discussion that circles the subject without hope of achieving resolution.

· Horrible sentences I have read:

“Conflict with the society they live in is something everyone goes through…

“In almost every work of literature there is a character who is greatly conflicted and dissatisfied with his or her world…”

“Being different can cause a lot of problems for a person…”

“Societies often have important beliefs and values…”

Inevitably followed by:

“…and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is no exception.”

“…and Bernard Marx/John Savage/[you name it] is no exception.”
“…for Bernard this is certainly the case.”

· Don’t analyze at the character’s level of vision. Your view must be more holistic. You are—or should be—as close to the author’s level as possible. It’s his or her purpose that most occupies you. The characters serve to illustrate & advance that purpose.

· What do people and things represent? This is a pointed social critique, not just a good yarn. Above everything else, consider the author’s purpose.

· Don’t cross out more than a sentence during a timed write. You don’t have time to second-guess yourself to that extent. It’s worth the risk to keep it in—you won’t be sentenced to walk the plank.

·Context, context, context! This isn’t a conversation with a friend about some other friends. A brief identifying phrase to introduce any character or important feature of the literary work that you choose to discuss.

· As long as we’re on the subject of context— no shorthand references: “…when Bernard and Henry take the elevator together.” or “It’s just like the rock/wax metaphor”

· Use present tense—this is fiction, not history.

Little stuff

· Don’t use “so” as a sentence opener. “And” can be okay if your previous sentence and/or line of argument builds to it properly.

· “seems to”— Almost always a mistake: see the “Forever Incomplete guide to Proofreading” and the tentative language section of “Stuff to Avoid.”

· Second person—the lazy man’s approach to persuasive writing. Avoid at all costs.

· Dreary phrases guaranteed to provoke or bore (depending on his mood) your reader. You should chuck these and their relatives down the memory hole:

“Throughout the novel…”
“Throughout history…”
“Man has always…”
“It is stated…”
“He is thought to be…”
“The fact that…”

If you think about it, a line like “Because of his being cast out of society” can easily be improved to “Because he is cast out of society” or “Since society has ostracized him” or “Because he is an outcast” or…

· “…as the book marches on”—Use this exciting phrase sparingly, or it might just blow the lid off your essay!

· Get rid of the “ing” thing, as in: “Being John’s mother, Linda…”
I don’t like to see this sort of participle noun/adjective structure kicking off a sentence. It’s a hallmark of weak & unconvincing writing. If you notice you are using sentences like “Having my baby is a wonderful way to say you love me!” (not much chance of that yet, I hope, but it was the title of an monumentally stupid 70s pop song), start cutting back.

And now I'm going to cut out. See you Monday morning.

J.D.

In-class essay prompt for Great Expectations

Here is the prompt, from the 2000 AP Lit exam:

Many works of literature not readily identified with the mystery of detective story genre nonetheless involve the investigation of a mystery. In these works, the solution to the mystery may be less important than the knowledge gained in the process of its investigation. Choose a novel or play in which one or more of the characters confront a mystery. Then write an essay in which you identify the mystery and explain how the investigation illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole.

I was going to give you some notes on writing beforehand, but I don't think that's a good idea. There's no reason to complicate the task by making you self-conscious about what you're doing. Just write naturally and to the point. Provide a little context for each character and incident you name or allude to. Examples:

"…Pip goes to play at the house of the wealthy but eccentric Miss Havisham…"

"…Estella, a haughty and beautiful girl who appears to Miss Havisham's adopted daughter."

"Among the Finches is one Bentley Drummle, a lout who also happens to be a highborn 'gentleman'."

The escaped convict that Pip helped years before turns out now, to his astonishment, to be a wealthy sheep farmer from Australia named Magwitch—and Pip's true benefactor."

The old AP line that in this version runs "explain how the investigation illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole" is a standard feature. Don't let it bother you. The intent is to keep you mindful that the writer's purpose in employing (in this case) the features of a mystery novel have a greater and more profound purpose than "whodunnit."

That's all, folks. See you tomorrow!

Let's get pretentious!—bring your favorite symbols & other assorted metaphors to class Tuesday

My idea for Tuesday is to make like a real college lit class and get ourselves waist-deep or perhaps even up to our necks in metaphoric language. After all, the class is called Advanced Placement English Literature & Composition even if we affectionately know it as good ol' AP Lit.

So let's be advanced, shall we?

The assignment is to come to class with some passages—say four or five—identified and noted down (page number with a brief summary for each) on paper. That should give us a good basis for discussion.

Possible symbols or metaphors:

decay & rot

stars & spiders

fire

names (Estella, Pip, Satis House

Satis House itself

mist & fog

We can have a great discussion if we all do our part. Of course we have the class distinctions & plot issues to sort through also. All in all, could be a very stimulating class. Be sure to wear your tweeds and bring along pipes & tobacco. A goatee to stroke thoughtfully also might be a nice touch for the proceedings. Just make it tasteful.

Apologies to all—but here's the post!

I had to do quite a bit of thinking about this blog post. Trabb's boy would have been fun, but I'm afraid of getting a lot of obvious observations along the lines of "The Emperor's New Clothes." That seemed a dreary prospect.

Then I considered our little discussion Friday, but I couldn't—just couldn't!—think of a really suitable question or remark that would stimulate the right sort of conversation.

("Can't you get to the point?" you're thinking about now. Well…I'm afraid not. But I'll try.)

Then reading along merrily in the old G.E. text I thought about the scene we watched of Pip passing by the Havisham relatives on his way to view that cobwebbed bridal chamber that the filmmakers so marvelously portrayed, complete with a superlatively moldy, rat-infested cake.

That's the sort of thing that film can do fantastically well. What it does less well is catch the nuances of setting, tone, character and author's purpose that Dickens wove so well into his narrative.

With that in mind (my God this is long-winded!), re-read the chapter passage that begins:

“Since this house strikes you old and grave, boy,” said Miss Havisham, impatiently, “and you are unwilling to play, are you willing to work?”

and ends:

It was quite a wilderness, and there were old melon-frames and cucumber-frames in it, which seemed in their decline to have produced a spontaneous growth of weak attempts at pieces of old hats and boots, with now and then a weedy offshoot into the likeness of a battered saucepan.

In your comments, consider the characterization of the relatives, the appearance and atmosphere of the bridal chamber, and the narrative tone that Pip adopts as he relates this incident. Some of it is funny, some of it is mordant (look that word up—it's a good one), some of it is foreboding.

The film is wonderful, but this is also a masterly bit of writing that deserves a closer look.