Poetry Response 1

I read the poem I'll be presenting to the class, "Evening Concert, Saint-Chapelle." This poem has beautiful imagery and gave me a vivid picture of the scene John Updike wanted to create. I really like that it compares the sun coming through the stained glass to the sound of the violins and their songs. It seems like he's describing the music almost like a religious experience, saying that the violins were sort of a recreation of the stained glass in the chapel. Or he may have been comparing the music of the violins to the lead between the stained glass pieces, as if to say that music is a heavenly experience that "hold[s] the glowing fantasy together." Then, the imagery shifts and Updike describes the whole scene as being "cased in thin but solid sheets of lead," as if to say that the experience was immortalized as a religious experience that he will remember for a long time, especially since he writes this in past tense, seeming to look back at a beloved memory. The only part of the imagery that really doesn't make sense to me is where he says "the glow became a milk." I understand that he means to say that the "glow" of the music was fading, but I don't know why he chose to use the word "milk" to describe that. Overall I really like this poem though, I think it gives a great visualization of how it feels and sounds to listen to beautiful music.

Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness was my least favorite of the three books. It was a slow read for me, and much of it took rereading and analyzing to understand the full context. I think it holds an important message, but maybe one that was more relevant during the peak of imperialism.

For Heart of Darkness I used the "text to world"/"creating trails" style of annotating because the concept was hard to grasp, and when I would read back through the chapter and annotate, "creating trails" helped me see the progress of the story and the message it was trying to get across. But I also used the "reading to writing"/"learning to write" style because I loved the subtle humor and sarcasm Conrad used to incorporate comedic breaks into a serious subject, and i would love to be able to do the same.

I also loved Conrad's use of symbolism in the title, referring not only to the Congolese jungle, but also to the deark heart of the Company and the way imperialism treated natives when claiming to be "civilizing" them. Heart of Darkness seemed to almost be hypocritical in the way that it chastised racism and imperialism, but also seemed to treat the natives and non-whites more like objects or livestock than humans, by referring to them as "machinery" or "savages," and assuming that their mental capacity was that of an immoral child's.

It was fascinating to read about imperialism through writing from a time when it was thought to be just. However, it was less interesting to me than the other two books we read because it had much less application to my life and the currect society we live in.

The Kite Runner

I had read The Kite Runner about two years ago, and the first time was definitely different than the second, although enjoyable both times.

For annotating this book, I used a lot of the "reading to writing"/"learning to write" style, because I love how detailed and descriptive Hosseini's writing is and I'd love to learn to do the same. He brings images to life for me, which is important with a setting and culture with which I'm somewhat unfamiliar. I also used the "text to self"/"establishing territory" style, because although the culture in which Hosseini's story takes place is very different from the world I live in, I found that there are similarities in people everywhere, and my emotional response to this book was very intense.

My emotional response to this book makes it stand out as one of the best and most touching stories I've ever read. Moreso the first time, but with each time I read this book I found myself so enveloped in the story that I felt the emotions of the characters almost like they were my own. I credit this mostly to Hosseini's writing style and effective story-telling, but also partly to the fact that I am aware how of life like the book is, which I think was done intentionally by Hosseini , so I suppose he deserves credit for that as well. Everything from the anger I felt towards the Taliban, to the shock and horror I experienced when Sohrab was found bleeding to death in the bath tub, and the joy and relief when I found out he survived, was so realistic. It made me cry a lot at how unfair the world can be, but also made me want to make a difference in the world. It made me want to change the lives of people like Hassan and his son so those unfair things can happen less often. For which I think again, Hosseini deserves credit. He is able through his writing to pass along such strong messages just by telling what first seems to be just the story of a simple man's life.

This book was amazing and I would seriously consider reading it a third time.

The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby was the first book I read this summer. Although I enjoyed it, it felt tedious at times, especially when annotating. To be honest, I haven't (yet) come to enjoy annotating, because I feel like it directs my attention away from the story and serves more as a distraction than anything, so I would prefer jotting down some reactions at the end of a chapter, or reading the chapter and going back through it to annotate. However, I realize that annotating will come in handy in college and that I should learn to like it.

Regardless of my feelings toward this process, for The Great Gatsby I mostly experimented with the "text to world"/"creating trails" style of annotation, because there were many social issues in this book that I felt not only painted a picture of society in the 1920's, but that are also relevant to modern day. The language was a bit hard to understand at times, so I felt that I often needed this type of annotation as well to analyze certain sentences or paragraphs that didn't at first make sense. My other reason for preferring this type was that the deeper themes in the book were hard to pick up on because the story seemed shallow at first glance--which is maybe why I found parts of it to be tedious. But I believe one of the big messages is that Gatsby is a metaphor for the classic Alger-style American dream, and how this idea is not always desirable, necessary for happiness, or even achievable. I also occasionally used the "text to self"/"establishing territory" style of annotating in this book, because there were many emotional and social situations that directly relate to my life, and if I read this book again I might be able to pick up even more connections. Sometimes I even used the "reading to writing"/"learning to write" style, because I found Fitzgerald's choice of vocabulary to be archaic and fascinating, and I would love to add some of his techniques to my writing style.

I found The Great Gatsby to be interesting overall, with a message that I hadn't thought about before and an exciting setting that I hadn't had the opportunity to learn much about.