Blog Intro

Hello, my name is Lennart and I am from Germany. I love literature and history. I am new to Brookes and as far I can tell, the english lessons with Mr. MacKnight are funny and exciting. For this school year I want to learn new things, For example, about Ancient Greece.

Introduction – Lada

Hello, my name is Lada and I am 16. I am from Ukraine and I enjoy quite a few things, but my favorites are drawing, painting, listening to music and writing. My favorite thing to do after school is spend time with my doggo ( her name is Yummy).
I hope to learn as much from this year as possible, I want the new knowledge to stay in my long term memory as well))
I am exited to participate in this English class because this is one of the subject that I enjoy.

Introduction-Leeland

Hello, my name is Leeland. I was born in Vancouver and now live in the greater Victoria area. Things I enjoy doing include computer stuff, video games, coding, and messing around with electronics. While relaxing or on long car journeys, I also enjoy reading. My favourite book is Dune by Frank Herbert. For physical activity, I enjoy sailing, both in big and small boats. If I am in the mood to roll my ankle, I will do some trail running. My goal this year in English is to improve at writing, understanding, and comparing texts. I think this year will be difficult, I think, and I am not looking forward to it.

Introducing Aristotle Chang

First of all, I am one of the remaining original student of Brookes Westshore (5th year) along with Michael Penn for DP1.

Hello, my name is Aristotle Chang. I am Canadian as I am born in Vancouver (BC Children hospital, which I love apparently, cause I go there on a almost yearly bases and lived there for a few months.) However, my parents and ancestors are all of true Taiwanese decent. My only true hobby is hunting. This includes fishing and generally all types of sea creature in the West Coast. Not only do I catch them, I eat them. This includes, crabs, prawns (ebi) (EAT RAW), claims, oysters (kaki)(EAT RAW), sea cucumber, sea urchin (uni) (MUST EAT RAW. COOKING IT IS A WAR CRIME), horse barnacle, kelp, snails, and much more. I have also gotten my firearm license earlier this year and I hope to go out and hunt for elk in this year’s hunting season if possible (I have yet to get my hunting license, but I may hunt with my father who is in possession of one.) Other then hunting, I like doing all sorts of activities and is love learning random things (though I may not remember all the information). I guess I also play video games quite a lot, read a lot of manga, and watch some anime.

As for what I hope to do in English this year, take notes and not die.

Class Blog Introduction

Hello, some of you may know me already, for those who don’t, my name is Taylor. I was born in North Vancouver and moved to the island when I was 5. I love to surf, play volleyball, read, watch movies, and of course, listen to music. Some interests of mine are economics, business, formula 1, and marine biology. I like all genres of music, but my absolute favourite era is anything from the 50’s to the 90’s. My favourite artists are (in no particular order) Elvis, Queen, Aerosmith, Guns ‘n’ Roses, Johnny Cash, Jack Johnson, and a bit of Run D.M.C. My favourite movies are Top Gun (the original one), Days of Thunder, Saving Private Ryan, The Shawshank Redemption, Blue Crush, and Gleaming the Cube.

My expectations/ hopes for this year are to improve my reading comprehension skills and to read more in general. Last year I really struggled with understanding some of the concepts we studied without the use of my laptop. So I hope to focus on that this year!

Intro

Hello, my name is Mahad and I am Canadian but my parents are from Pakistan. I enjoy playing sports like basket-ball and cricket, I also enjoy listening to music and talking to my friends. I am expecting to learn the same things as last year but at a greater extent. Things like efficient writing and poem analyzations are familiar to me but I am hoping to improve even more this year.

Who am I?

My name is Fawaz Ilupeju, I am 16 and I’m in your class, obviously. I’ve lived in Canada for 3 years but I come from Nigeria, and a few other countries. I have a lot of hobbies, some of them are; sports, reading, hanging with friends. I am hoping to push myself more this year and improve on certain weak points, while making the most of my time.

Hello Class Blog! – Montana

Hello! I’m Montana Avila-Piloyan, or Monty, I’ve lived in Canada the majority of my life, however, both my parents are immigrants who met here in Victoria! My dad’s from Nicaragua, and my mom’s from Armenia, and they both had an odd mess of a child, which is me! The eldest of three, I’ve become incredibly interested in film, storytelling, theatre, choreography and music, essentially all of the arts. I’m a semi-professional dancer and love to play volleyball, and my dream is to become involved in movie-making! Much of my enjoyment can be found in English, making it one of my favourite subjects!

I really hope that we read a lot of plays this year, as I’ve surprisingly not read that many. I hope we get the chance to do creative writing as well and have the chance to talk about what makes good stories. I expect myself to be pushed this year, and currently, I’m mentally preparing for that, but I also know that the challenging nature of English will enhance my understanding, and overall benefit my knowledge for the future.

Class Blog Intro

My full name is Wing Lam, Chung, but most of people here address me by my English name — Semvia. I was born in Hong Kong, a place in Asia where is filled of skyscrapers so I found it weird when I just arrived here. I came to Canada 2 years ago, since grade 9. Studying in another country is a fun and precious experience which I would never regret I made this decision. I play volleyball a lot so I guess it can be said as my interest(?), but I do hate it at the same time. I also play other kinds of sports like basketball and badminton, although I am not amazing at all these. Other than sports, my favourite thing to do is to do nothing or just go on my phone.

In DP1 English, I expect I will learn to analyze texts and write efficiently. I also hope my organizing skills can be improved by the end of the year. Apart from those, using language is also a category that I have to work on. These are my expectations of the coming year.

Introduction – Michael Penn

Hi I’m Michael, I am from Victoria BC and I live on a farm in Metchosin. I like sleeping and learning languages. I hope that English this year will teach me to be a better writer, reader, inquirer and I really hope it helps me improve my work habits. I hope everyone has a great year!

Class Blog Intro

Hello fellow students and Mr. Macknight. Most of you know that my name is Aneesha. For those who don’t, I look forward to meeting you in the future. I was born in Rhode Island but have lived most of my life in Victoria. One of the best things about Vancouver Island is its natural beauty. This is why one of my favorite things to do is to go on walks with my dog. Another pass time of mine is to listen to music, mostly hip hop.

Regarding DP 1 English, my expectations are to learn new things and to read interesting books.  My hopes are that by the end of the year I improve my writing skills. Specifically, criteria D because I struggled with this in MYP 5. I will try to approach DP 1 English with my best effort.

Class Blog Intro

My name is Russell. I was born and grew up in Victoria. I like to get outdoors in my free time, and do things like hiking and trail running. My hope for this year is to do well, but not to fail any assignments in this class this year.

A Pastiche of Charles Dickens, “Great Expectations”

Passage 1: At that moment I realized that this shabby flat strewn with trash was my apartment; and that Philip Pirrip, once my best friend, and Georgiana, once my sworn love, had packed and left; and that happiness, contentment, purpose, calm, and tranquility, everything in fact that I valued, had also packed and left; and that the urban wilderness outside my apartment, intersected with streets and subways and elevated trains, with faceless people hurrying through it, was my home; and that the dark land beyond the city was the world; and that the vast unknowable void from which the screaming in my ears seemed to come, was the cosmos; and that the miserable, useless, despicable heap of self-pity curling into a ball amid the filth and shaking uncontrollably, was me.

Passage 2: A tearful man, all in maroon fleece, with little hair on his head. A man with a brown hat, and with brown shoes, and with a COVID mask tied round his neck. A man who had been mired in poems, and buried in plays, and puzzled by metaphors, and bored by similes, and lulled by iambs, and thrilled by rhymes; who sang, and chanted, and recited and howled; and whose eyes glittered in his head as he marked my essay by the Key.

Candide lives!

From Candide, Chapter XXIII:

Talking thus they arrived at Portsmouth. The coast was lined with crowds of people, whose eyes were fixed on a fine man kneeling, with his eyes bandaged, on board one of the men of war in the harbour. Four soldiers stood opposite to this man; each of them fired three balls at his head, with all the calmness in the world; and the whole assembly went away very well satisfied.

“What is all this?” said Candide; “and what demon is it that exercises his empire in this country?”

He then asked who was that fine man who had been killed with so much ceremony. They answered, he was an Admiral.

“And why kill this Admiral?”

“It is because he did not kill a sufficient number of men himself. He gave battle to a French Admiral; and it has been proved that he was not near enough to him.”

“But,” replied Candide, “the French Admiral was as far from the English Admiral.”

“There is no doubt of it; but in this country it is found good, from time to time, to kill one Admiral to encourage the others.”

Today, we merely fire such people, usually:

SAN DIEGO — The captain of a San Diego-based aircraft carrier battling an outbreak of COVID-19 on his ship was fired as commanding officer Thursday, days after his letter decrying conditions on his ship became public.

Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly announced the firing during a Pentagon news conference.

“At my direction, the commanding officer of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, Capt. Brett Crozier, was relieved of command by a carrier strike group commander, Rear Adm. Stuart Baker,” Modly said.

Capt. Brett Crozier wrote a letter late Sunday asking the Navy to remove 90% of the crew of the Theodore Roosevelt to halt the “ongoing and accelerating” spread of COVID-19 on board. That letter was published Tuesday by The San Francisco Chronicle and generated headlines nationwide.

On Wednesday, the Navy announced it was moving almost 3,000 sailors off the ship and working to find space on Guam for more.

Modly said he wasn’t sure whether Crozier leaked the letter personally, but he said Crozier didn’t do enough to ensure the letter didn’t get out, saying it was copied to many people outside the captain’s chain of command.

“It was copied to 20 or 30 other people,” Modly said. “That’s just not acceptable. He sent it out pretty broadly and in sending it out pretty broadly he did not take care to ensure that it couldn’t be leaked.”

That, Modly said, demonstrated “extremely poor judgment” in the middle of a crisis.

https://www.omaha.com/news/national/captain-of-uss-theodore-roosevelt-fired-over-leaked-letter-asking-navy-for-help/article_435110f2-ecf6-55ff-b6a4-5bd26a2a78e0.html

How artists increase impact by contrasting form with content

Artists of all sorts contrast form and content to increase the impact of their work on the audience. Here are some examples.

Ernest Hemingway, In Our Time:

They shot the six cabinet ministers at half-past six in the morning against the wall of a hospital. There were pools of water in the courtyard. There were wet dead leaves on the paving of the courtyard. It rained hard. All the shutters of the hospital were nailed shut. One of the ministers was sick with typhoid. Two soldiers carried him down stairs and out into the rain. They tried to hold him up against the wall but he sat down in a puddle of water. The other five stood very quietly against the wall. Finally the officer told the soldiers it was no good trying to make him stand up. When they fired the first volley he was sitting down in the water with his head on his knees.

Hemingway’s low-key, matter-of-fact description increases the horror of what he describes.

John Keats, “In drear-nighted December”: Here Keats uses a sing-songy rhythm that might be found in a nursery rhyme, but the content of the poem is tragic.

I
In drear-nighted December,
Too happy, happy tree,
Thy Branches ne’er remember
Their green felicity:
The north cannot undo them,
With a sleety whistle through them;
Nor frozen thawings glue them
From budding at the prime.

II
In drear-nighted December,
Too happy, happy Brook,
Thy bubblings ne’er remember
Apollo’s summer look;
But with a sweet forgetting,
They stay their crystal fretting,
Never, never petting
About the frozen time.

III
Ah! would ’twere so with many
A gentle girl and boy!
But were there ever any 
Writh’d not of passéd joy?
The feel of not to feel it,
When there is none to heal it,
Nor numbéd sense to steel it,
Was never said in rhyme.

Musicians can do similar things. Here is Stevie Wonder using a musical form from an 18th century European court—chamber music—to sing about the horrors of life in an urban ghetto in the 20th century:

And here is the Kronos Quartet using the instruments of chamber music to play Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze.” (If you don’t know Hendrix’s original version, you should find it on YouTube before you listen to the Kronos Quartet’s version.)

So, what does all of this have to do with Henrik Ibsen’s play, A Doll’s House? Plenty! Ibsen uses the comfortable, familiar form of a “well-made play,” a form that was immensely popular in the 19th century, just as TV situation comedies were immensely popular in the second half of the 20th century. Put very simply, the form involves typical, middle-class people; plot complications; and then a clever twist that puts everything right at the end. The characters were usually stereotypes.

Ibsen takes this form and puts into it radical, challenging ideas about women, marriage, money, sex, social hypocrisy, etc. A Doll’s House caused widespread outrage when it first appeared in the 1870s, and a good deal of that impact comes from Ibsen’s clever use of this old artist’s trick: using a form that leads the audience to expect one sort of thing, and then giving them something very different.

HL “Candide” Posts: General Feedback

Most of you made only a minimal effort on this assignment: a short paragraph or two with some general remarks about the story.

In a good personal response, you need to include quotations and page citations. You need to discuss more than just one or two incidents from the story. You need to dig deeper into the philosophical questions raised by the story. You need to analyze the *way* the story is written, and how that connects with the story’s content. And you need to edit and proofread your writing.

Only one of you met that standard, and I urge all of you to read that post and learn from it.

Welcome to the IB English A Literature class blog!

We will use this space for sharing initial responses, informal writing, etc. You will find that reading each other’s work will be tremendously valuable to you. The blog will also serve as a discussion forum where conversations begun in class can be continued, or new ones started. It may be a bit scary at first, but be brave! Sooner or later you will overcome your apprehensions and appreciate the blog’s value.

You will learn a tremendous amount by reading each other’s work. Sometimes you will think, “Ah, that’s really good, I could do that, too.” At other times you will think, “Ah yes, I make that same mistake, but I usually don’t notice it in my own writing.” Or you may think, “Wow, my writing is better than I thought.” Together, we can learn faster and make more progress.

Comments on this blog must be specific, kind, and helpful. This is not Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.