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.

Encapsulation -- Preview: Lady Eleanore's Mantle

Encapsulation projects are due on Tuesday -- a week from today -- in case anyone needs a reminder. Film projects should be ready on DVD format by then. Let me know if you need to make alternative arrangements. For now, I see one of the projects has its own trailer. From the Hof-Con-Son triumvirate, Lady Elenore's Mantle.

American Christmas Stories

scene from "Gift of the Magi"

If you think that all the best Christmastime stories are not American, consider a few of these short stories from great American authors for some seasonal reading (with thanks to Wacky Anne):

Gift of the Magi by O. Henry
The Burglar's Christmas by Willa Cather
A Christmas Dinner Won in Battle by Stephen Crane
The Twelfth Guest by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
The Christmas Banquet by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Christmas Dinner by Washington Irving

Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Clause

Francis P. Church's editorial, "Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus" was an immediate sensation, and became one of the most famous editorials ever written. It first appeared in the The New York Sun in 1897, more than a hundred years ago, and was reprinted annually until 1949 when the paper went out of business. It was in response to a letter from an 8-year-old girl

Dear Editor:

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, "If you see it in The Sun, it's so." Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O'Hanlon

The Editor replies: Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood. -- Francis P. Church

Chain Gang

The Chain Gang stories turned out quite well -- from glorifiedl escargot to a battle of walruses to a Russian creeper who gets what's coming to him, and everything in between, it was all very interesting. For future reference, in case you want to play this writing game at home with friends or family, here's what we did for our Chain Gang stories (you can always adjust the time periods and number of writers involved):

Writer #1 (5 minutes): Exposition -- establish protagonist(s), setting, and opening situation
Writer #2 (6 minutes): Introduce a conflict
Writer #3 (7 minutes): Develop the conflict in one or two incidents
Writer #4: (8 minutes): Climax -- incident that serves as a turning point
Writer #5: (9 minutes): Falling Action to Resolution

Writer #1 re-writes the whole story for clarity and consistency and gives it a title.

If you'd like to see another version of a Chain Gang in action, BBC Radio 7 recently finished a 13-part Chain Gang radio play, but I like the one they produced in 2007. It's called "Picture This" -- and here's the opening situation from episode one:

"It's a digital camera," Gary said helpfully, as Deena stared down at her birthday present.

"So I see." Deena pointed out, rather gently she thought, that she'd been angling for a holiday in Paris, something romantic. She'd rather hoped she'd be unwrapping a Eurostar ticket, quite frankly.

Gary shrugged. You had to take photos in Paris, hadn't you? But after buying the camera he couldn't afford the holiday as well. "Look, it's got telescopic zoom!"

That evening, she gave in and installed it on her computer. "Welcome, Deena!" flashed the screen in colourful writing, and in spite of herself, she was impressed. "Click here for your photos!"

Of course she knew the gallery would be empty, but she clicked anyway. And blinked. There it was, a picture of herself and Gary, smiling and waving. Over her shoulder she could see the Eiffel Tower.

Dazedly she scrolled through the album. Notre Dame. Montmartre. Gary joking around with a baguette. Happy pictures. Impossible pictures, of a holiday they hadn't taken.

And then Deena froze. Gary filled the screen again, but no longer clowning; instead, blood trickling from his mouth, eyes staring out at her vacantly. It was a picture of his death.

Go to episode 2...

Collective Nouns for Birds

crèche of penguins

You've heard of a "flock of birds" but did you know that each species of bird has its own collective noun? The Audubon Society has compiled a comprehensive list of collective nouns for birds. Here are just a few examples:

aerie of eagles
ascension of larks
band of jays
bevy of doves
bouquet of pheasants (when flushed)
brace of ducks
brood of chickens
cast of hawks
chain of bobolinks
charm of finches
colony of vultures
company of parrots
conspiracy of ravens
crèche of penguins
murder of crows
mustering of storks
parliament of owls
plump or waterfowl
raft of ducks
rafter of turkeys
sedge of bitterns

See the whole list...

Encapsulation Scripts

Feathertop takes a bow

I am posting the encapsulation scripts here so that you can all read through them over the short Christmas vacation. Familiarize yourselves with the stories, and certainly offer any helpful comments or suggestions should you have any.

The Birthmark [PDF]
"Let the attempt be made at whatever risk. Danger is nothing to me. This hateful mark makes me the object of your horror and disgust. Either remove this dreadful hand, or take my wretched life!"

The Bosom Serpent [PDF]
"Oh, there is poisonous stuff in any man’s heart sufficient enough to generate a brood of serpents. I myself have only one, some people have giant hordes, but you have none in your bosom, therefore you cannot sympathize with the rest of the world. It gnaws me! It gnaws me!"

Lady Eleanore's Mantle [PDF]
"Nay, your Excellency shall not strike him. When men seek only to be trampled upon, it were a pity to deny them a favor so easily granted -- and so well deserved!"

Ethan Brand [PDF]
"Leave me, ye brute beasts, that have made yourselves so, shriveling up your souls with fiery liquors! I have done with you. Years and years ago, I groped into your hearts and found nothing there for my purpose. Get ye gone!"

Rappaccini's Daughter [PDF]
"I know this wretched girl better than you know her yourself! She is as poisonous as she is beautiful! Rappaccini was a vile enough man to offer up his daughter to this fatal life! What then will be your fate? Rappaccini will not stop at anything!"

I am still in need of the script for "Feathertop." Pedro?

How to Compose An Email

For those of you who still need help with this: Here's a helpful (and essential) list of 20 questions you should answer before you hit the send button on any email. Join the resistance, and help fight email slobbery:

1. Is the subject line helpful?

2. Did you get right to the point?

3. Is the language clear?

4. Did you say too much?

5. Are your facts right?

6. Did you say what you're replying to?

7. Were you polite?

8. Were you discreet?

9. Is there a greeting and a closing?

10. Is the attachment welcome?

11. Did you use the shift key? Capitalize properly!

12. Did you break for paragraphs?

13. Will the reader get the shorthand? Avoid "slanguage"

14. Will the joke fall flat? Don't forward jokes!

15. Does this look like spam?

16. Do all these people need copies?

17. Should you sleep on it? Never e-mail in the heat of anger.

18. Does it have to be an e-mail?

19. Did you read it again?

20. Did you check the grammar, spelling, and punctuation?

See the whole thing at Grammarphobia.com

How To Write a Literary Essay

Just a reminder: You should consult your "How to Write a Literary Essay" packet, paying particular attention to the "seven steps." This is designed to help you write your reader response essays. It should be a valuable tool; use it! Excerpt:

Analyzing literature is a learned skill and a process you can master. As you gain more practice with this kind of thinking and writing, you’ll be able to craft a method that works best for you. Until then, here are seven basic steps to writing a well-constructed literary essay:

1. Ask questions*
2. Collect evidence
3. Construct a thesis
4. Develop and organize arguments
5. Write the introduction
6. Write the body paragraphs
7. Write the conclusion

* Read the "ask questions" section carefully.

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.

Favorites?

In-Class Essay: Lopsided Results

Artist's rendering of "The Birth-Mark"

Of those dozen of you who completed the in-class essay assignment today, nine wrote on "The Birth-Mark," two wrote on "Ethan Brand," and one on "The Minister's Black Veil." One hundred percent of the girls chose "The Birth-Mark" -- even those who are going to dramatize "Rappaccini's Daughter" and "Lady Eleonore's Mantle." I wonder if somehow this particular Hawthorne story was more vivid than the others? Or simply easier to write about?

Artist's rendering of Georgiana

Other results: The only Hawthorne story not chosen to be encapsulated and dramatized is "My, Kinsman, Major Molineaux." I guess no one wanted to get tarred and feathered.

History of the Pillory

Enduring the barrage of smelly eggs and rotting vegetables, dead cats or animal offal, sticky mud and human waste...

When we were reading The Crucible, I mentioned the various modes of public punishments used by the Puritans. The pillory, in particular, as described vividly on page 50 is important to The Scarlet Letter. Note, however, that Hester is sentenced only to "stand a certain time upon the platform, but without undergoing that gripe about the neck and confinement of the head." Here's the beginning of a brief illustrated history of the pillory:

Although Puritans left England to escape religious persecution, people living in the Massachusetts Bay Colony were expected to conform to strict, autocratic standards established by the community’s leaders. All of the leaders, of course, were men.

Seeking to remain essentially British, as they tried to purify the Church of England from within, the Puritans carried on with certain customs they had known before The Great Migration. One of those traditions was punishment in the pillory.

Tracing its history to the 12th century, the pillory was a common sight in towns throughout Britain and on the continent. It consisted of an upright board with a hole in the middle where a person's head was set. As often as not, a person's ears were nailed to the board. Usually there were two openings for hands.

Also known as a neck-stretcher, the pillory's purpose was to publicly punish (and humiliate) people for all kinds of offenses. Frequently, a pillory could be rotated, so members of the public could get a good look at the person on display, as depicted by William Pyne in The Costume of Great Britain (1805). The most famous pillory in London was at Charing Cross.

Sometimes people locked in a pillory had bricks, or other heavy objects, thrown at them. Not a few died as a result, since they were unable to protect themselves with their hands.

Others, like Daniel Defoe (the author of Robinson Crusoe) who spent three days in the Charing Cross pillory (beginning July 31, 1703) for writing a pamphlet (The Shortest Way with Dissenters), were showered with flowers by a sympathetic crowd. Most, however, endured the more usual barrage of smelly eggs and rotting vegetables, dead cats or animal offal, sticky mud and human waste.

Read full history and more...

Hawthorne Museum & Custom House

Remember The House of Seven Gables? Did you know the house was modeled after a real residence in Massachusetts? The house (above -- notice how the lighting affects the image) is now a Hawthorne museum, and it has its own website:

http://www.7gables.org/

One section of the site includes information (and a photo) of the Custom House -- or "Counting House" as it's called -- in Salem.

http://www.7gables.org/tour_countinghouse.shtml

The Counting House, circa 1830, is typical of the small buildings in which sea captains, or “supercargoes” like Salem-native, Nathaniel Bowditch, completed much of their business. This was a place to balance accounts, pay fees due, and figure profit before or after a sea journey. While this building dates slightly later than the time our merchant families were active in the Triangle and China Trades, it is a prime example of a counting house from Salem.

Approved Proposals -- Three-Book Project

The following are the approved proposals. The book in bold-face is the book on which you will be making a presentation on January 25. Your data sheet for that book will be due at that time.

Peter
Three books by John Steinbeck: Travels With Charley; The Short Reign of Pippin IV; and collection of short stories

Julianna
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain; Time and Again by Jack Finney; and The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov. Link: the element of time travel

Naomi
A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, and The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. Link: "coming of age in America" novels

Ashley
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller; Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut; and The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer. Link: anti-war themes

Jennifer
Little Women by Louisa Mae Alcott; The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton; and Peony by Pearl S. Buck. Link: The boundaries of love

Larry
Three books by Mark Twain: Collection of short stories; A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court; and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Sean
Three books by Chaim Potok: The Chosen; The Promise; and My Name is Asher Lev

Annmarie
Not Without Laughter by Langston Hughes; The Outsider by Richard Wright; and Contending Forces by Pauline Hopkins. Link: themes of racial segregation

Olivia
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee; The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison; and A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines. Link: themes of racial injustice

Joseph B
Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo; The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane; and Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut (or, alternate: Catch-22). Link: exposition of the horrors of war

Gabriela
Black Boy by Richard Wright; To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee; and Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Link: themes of racism

Elizabeth
Contending Forces by Pauline E. Hopkins; Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain; and Uncle Tom's Cabin by Hariet Beecher Stowe. Link: slavery and the treatment of "black people" before and after the Civil War

Marcella
Three books by Willa Cather: My Antonia; O Pioneers!; and A Lost Lady. Additional link: growing up in the American West