The Scarlet Letter -- Symbols

The Scarlet Letter arguably boasts the most number of distinct symbols used in any single American novel to date. Here's the list I started to compile. Anyone have any to add?

The prison door
The rose bush
The beadle
Pearl
Pearl's clothes
The scarlet letter
The scaffold
The A-shaped meteor
Dimmesdale
The red mark on Dimmesdale's chest
Chillingworth
The Black Man
The forest
The Indians
The governor's decaying garden
The governor's armor
Hester
Hester's cap
The brook
The sun and sunlight
The moon and moonlight
Mistress Hibbins

Word of the Year: Unfriend

Unfriend - the act of removing someone as a friend from social networking site Facebook - has been named word of the year. It topped a list heavy with tech-related terms in the New Oxford American Dictionary's Word of the Year list.

The verb, used across several social networking sites, has been defined by the dictionary as: "To remove someone as a 'friend' on a social networking site such as Facebook."

Christine Lindberg, a language researcher for Oxford's US dictionary, said: "In the online social networking context, its meaning is understood, so its adoption as a modern verb form makes this an interesting choice for Word of the Year."

There had been some debate across blogs and Twitter, about whether 'defriend' was the more commonly used term, especially on Facebook. However, Oxford spokesman Christian Purdy said researchers found 'unfriend' was more common.

Other tech-related words which made the short list were: 'hashtag', the way Twitter users tag their material; and 'intexticated', being distracted by texting while driving.

Encapsulation Scripts -- Format

As I noted in the earlier post, I am extending the due date for the encapsulation scripts to Monday, the 14th. And now, for the format: I would like you to take a look at the guidelines from the BBC for U.S. Stage Format. This should be used as your guide. Please make sure you define the characters and setting as indicated -- and, most importantly, include all spoken dialogue. I will leave it up to each group to determine how much more direction to include in the script. Remember, you are doing this as a helpful step in order to make it easier for you to produce the final product.

Click here for the US Stage Format from the BBC in PDF

Scarlet Letter -- Question Set #2

Since we did not have school yesterday, I am making available Question Set #2 so that you have a chance to look over the questions before meeting in your discussion groups on Wednesday. Unfortunately, the discussion group time will be shortened due to the fact that I had to move the vocabulary test to Wednesday. If, however, you would all like to start class early at 11:05, I will show up early to accommodate.

Click here to see the PDF of Question Set #2
I am also making available a PDF of the Reader Response Essay

N.B. I am going to give you the weekend to finish your encapsulation scripts. They will now be due on Monday. Here are some upcoming important dates to remember before Christmas break:

Wed., Dec. 9: Vocab test #1
Thu., Dec. 10: Class discussion + Question Set 2 due
Mon. , Dec 14: Encapsulation script due + Vocab test #2
Wed., Dec 16: Scarlet Letter Essay due
Thu., Dec 17: Question Set 3 due

And, looking ahead to the rest of the semester:

Mon., Jan 4: Vocab test #3
Tue., Jan 5: Encapsulation presentations
Wed., Jan 6: Scarlet Letter exam and data sheet
Mon., Jan 25: Presentations of 1st book, Term+data sheet

Word of the Day: Slubberdegullion

Gargantua

Slubberdegullion: A filthy, slobbering person

We all hope, I'm sure, that we'll never need to use such an infelicitous epithet as this in real life. But for those of you who might continue on with creative works, you may find that it comes in handy, like Sir Thomas Urquhart who used slubberdegullion and its many invective synonyms in his translation of Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel (1653):

The bun-sellers or cake-makers were in nothing inclinable to their request; but, which was worse, did injure them most outrageously, called them prattling gabblers, lickorous gluttons, freckled bittors, mangy rascals, shite-a-bed scoundrels, drunken roysters, sly knaves, drowsy loiterers, slapsauce fellows, slabberdegullion druggels, lubberly louts, cozening foxes, ruffian rogues, paltry customers, sycophant-varlets, drawlatch hoydens, flouting milksops, jeering companions, staring clowns, forlorn snakes, ninny lobcocks, scurvy sneaksbies, fondling fops, base loons, saucy coxcombs, idle lusks, scoffing braggarts, noddy meacocks, blockish grutnols, doddipol-joltheads, jobbernol goosecaps, foolish loggerheads, flutch calf-lollies, grouthead gnat-snappers, lob-dotterels, gaping changelings, codshead loobies, woodcock slangams, ninny-hammer flycatchers, noddypeak simpletons, turdy gut, and other suchlike defamatory epithets; saying further, that it was not for them to eat of these dainty cakes, but might very well content themselves with the coarse unranged bread, or to eat of the great brown household loaf.

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