The Snow Image by Nathaniel Hawthorne

"A Christmas Snow" by Tate Hamilton

Some reading for a snowy weekend:

The Snow Image: A Childish Miracle
(from Twice-Told Tales)
By Nathaniel Hawthorne

One afternoon of a cold winter's day, when the sun shone forth with chilly brightness, after a long storm, two children asked leave of their mother to run out and play in the new-fallen snow. The elder child was a little girl, whom, because she was of a tender and modest disposition, and was thought to be very beautiful, her parents, and other people who were familiar with her, used to call Violet. But her brother was known by the style and title of Peony, on account of the ruddiness of his broad and round little phiz, which made everybody think of sunshine and great scarlet flowers. The father of these two children, a certain Mr. Lindsey, it is important to say, was an excellent but exceedingly matter-of-fact sort of man, a dealer in hardware, and was sturdily accustomed to take what is called the common-sense view of all matters that came under his consideration. With a heart about as tender as other people's, he had a head as hard and impenetrable, and therefore, perhaps, as empty, as one of the iron pots which it was a part of his business to sell. The mother's character, on the other hand, had a strain of poetry in it, a trait of unworldly beauty,--a delicate and dewy flower, as it were, that had survived out of her imaginative youth, and still kept itself alive amid the dusty realities of matrimony and motherhood.

continue reading story...

Snow Update -- Exam, Bee, Everett Shinn

"Snowstorm on 34th Street," Everett Shinn

Since we are enjoying a snow day today, we won't have a chance to review for the final exam in class. (Larry, yes, we were going to review a la Jeopardy.)

The semester exam for American Literature is scheduled for Tuesday, January 12, 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.

The exam will be issued in two segments: multiple choice section at 10:00, and writing section at 11:00. You will have to turn in the mc segment before 11:00. Since this section will not take you that long to complete, you will have a break before beginning the writing segment, which will include 10 short answer response questions.

I have prepared a semester exam study sheet for you. You will find a copy of this on your desk when you return to school. You may also download it from the website in PDF format here.

N.B. The exam is closed-book, meaning that you will not be using book annotations or data sheets on the exam. All you will need is a pen.

Spelling Bee Update
If we have school on Friday, we will hold the Bee after Mass, around 10:00 a.m. as planned. I'll still need some of you to help me set up the room. Jennifer, will you bring the sound system? Anyone want to volunteer to videotape the Bee? I'm looking for someone to give me raw footage. I am planning to make a short documentary about the Bee. Sean and Marcella, I have papers I need to give you for judging.

Delay contingency: If we have a one-hour or two hour delay tomorrow, we will begin the Spelling Bee 15-minutes or so after school starts.

Snow day contingency: If we have another snow day tomorrow, we will hold the Bee Tuesday morning after assembly. We should be finished before the exam at 10:00, so you can all still be involved.

Since the snow is coming down, let me introduce you to American's number one snow storm painter: Everett Shinn. He is a Realist painter, which means he depicted life as he saw it. He is known for his New York City snowstorm scenes among other interesting work. Here is some of his work:

Enjoy the snow.

Encapsulation Projects

We definitely had some interesting and entertaining "encapsulations." I put the word in quotation marks because most of the projects seemed to be closer to abridged dramatizations.

Here are some strengths I saw/heard in the projects:

1. Subtle inclusion of Hawthornian literary elements and characters from stories other than the one being dramatized -- e.g., bare-branches forest scene, the minister's black veil, Hester & Pearl, Georgiana (in Lady Eleanore), etc.

2. Inclusion -- subtle or otherwise -- of elements that resonate with the class: e.g., a character reading from Clerestory, the return of Soapy, reference to "those whom we do not mention."

3. Use of varied accents and speech patterns to differentiate characters, especially in the audio presentations.

4. In some cases, excellent costumes (e.g., Lady Eleanore), props (e.g., Birthmark), and setting (e.g., Rappaccini's Daughter)

5. And, in at least one case (Birthmark), excellent frame composition (e.g.,painting reflected in the armoir mirror), lighting and sound.

6. Use of soundtrack music (e.g., Happy Days) and subtle humor.

The common weaknesses I suspect are more a product of the limited availability of time and technical expertise: e.g., sound ("turn down sound on the waterfalls"), lighting ("my, it sure is dark in this house"), sound ("I think we may need to use subtitles"), and sound ("would someone please stop the cars from driving down our street?").

Suggestions for future reference:

1. Oft-times, less is more. Limit the number of actors and characters involved.

2. Pay careful attention to what's going on in the background! It is easy to get too involved with the foreground. But viewers notice the background of every shot just as much as the foreground. Again: Less is more. Choose backgrounds that are simple and not distracting to what's going on in the foreground.

3. Carrying around scripts in a movie is, um, not the best technique. Memorize lines or use queue cards like the Birthmark people did (though, be careful of the wandering eye).

4. Don't let the credits and theme music overshadow your project. Integrate.

Lady Eleanore's Mantle is available on Youtube. Click the window above to view. Or, if you'd like to see the bloopers, click on the window below. NOTE: If any other projects are online, please let me know and I'll link to it here. If you'd like me to post it, send me your video file -- and I will post it for purposes of posterity and immortalization.