Blog 6

MY BAD, excuse that error down there V, this is the REAL "blog6" lol.

so today in class, we devoted a whole discussion on our presentations of propagandas for next week, and i thought it was very beneficial and informing. the activity we had on what a "good" and "bad" presentation should be was ridiculously fun, it was hilarious; i enjoyed it so much.

aside from the fact that the activity was a BLAST, i realized on how much little details i've never thought about, contributes to a good presentation. for example, gestures and posture. it didnt even run through my mind that stuff like that can contribute to a successfull presentaion.

i had the "bad" presentation example that i volunteered to perform in front of class today. OMG, how bad is it for a presenter to have really bad eye contact with the audience and slouchy postures and gestures?! pretty bad. it wasn't interesting at all.

ok back to The Handmaid's Tale, if i were to choose between The Left Hand of Darkness or The Handmaid's Tale, i'd choose to read atwood's novel in a heartbeat, just because there were certain chapters were i felt waht offred was feeling when she talked about her life with her daughter and luke before she was taken away to live her life as a handmaid in gilead.

Blog 6

HELLO!

Blog 5

after reading atwood's, The Handmaid's Tale, it gave me this kind of weird feeling. i just didn't like it when rape was mentioned, it just made me feel hella uncomfortable.

Offred's character is what i want to dedicate this blog to. at first, she was very "resistant" at first in obeying the teachings and the lessons of the red center; she did not give herself wholly to the society of gilead, which i had mentioned in my essay we had in class yesterday. she sort of mocked the society and thought it was kind of nonsense. when she talks about her life before gilead, i feel sad. she mentions her husband luke and how she ponders if he's still alive or not, and her daughter that was taken away from her. i feel that the power of the society of gilead was too strong for her own will. she starts off a rather independent thinker and believer, and later falls into the traps of every handmaid, fear.

she has these little night meet ups with the commander and one time he had taken her out into the city for a little fun, his wife, serena joy, found out. at that moment, offred had felt the rush of fear run down her bloodstream and prayed and begged for God to help her, that she will accept anything and everything gilead wants her to. she made a complete turn-around at this moment, from being strong and an strong-willed offred, to a fearful and hysterical offred.

Blog 4

for the past two days, we've talked about propagandas. little did i know what they were! i thought porpagandas were only used to trick people into following rules or two somehow manipulate them, but there's more to it. there are several different kinds of propogandas, like fear and testimonial, a few of my favorite.

fear is a type of propoganda usually used to have people act in the desired behavior by using fear. for example: proactive shows horrible pictures of people suffering from severe acne to get people to use their "acne clarifying" product. from fear of stubborn acne that won't go away, proactive has used the fear propoganda to persuade people that their product will clear up their skin. the people their "selling" to buy into the whole advertisement thing because they are scared of their acne.

another one is a testimonial propoganda, and is usually a propoganda that uses well-known people like actors, actresses, and celebrities, to "sell" whatever it is they want to sell. for example: i'll use the proactive example from above. since proactive are persuading their audience to use their acne clearing product, to ensure them, they have jessica simpson to advertise it. who by the way is very well-known and ensures the audience to trust proactive's product.

i know this is a little out of nowhere, but i want to talk about that one literacy discussion we had in class a couple days ago. the whole class had a lot to say about our literacy discussion. some points that were thrown across was how literacy contributes to your social status/standing, and how when applying for jobs, literacy being important for communication and understanding, can be greatly affected if one has either a very low literacy rate or a very high literacy rate with differing outcomes. we all agreed that literacy is our way of communicating and understanding, but not only that, but our sense of literacy also shows our sense of knowledge and, again, can contribute to our social standing in our society.

Blog 3: Handmaid's Tale

Today in class i liked how Ms. Aaland helepd us figure out a strategy in trying to understand and interpret Offred's use of language and just the story and what's happening in general.

it was soooooooo funny how my critical friend Eileen and I kept laughing when we made our own remarks an questions to the material we'd finish reading. and also i've realized that when i read, i use that same strategy but i keep all my comments in my head, lol.

this book is very sexual, i think. when the commander plays scrabble with Offred, it's ironic because women in that society arent allowed to read or write, in other words, to be literate. but Offred's very much literate, she even sounds well-educated like i've mentioned in my other blog entries (her ussage of grammar and fragments as well as her dramatic irony and fragment sentences).

since its si bad to be literate in that society, is the commander attracted to Offred because she is capabale of such knowledge? is he even attracted to her? i think he might just be. he, having such a high ranking, and she, having probably the lowest status, from what i infer, is attracted to offred because she is different. he could have "ratted her out" when she had eye to eye contact with him or even when he discovered how educated she is, but he didn't.

also, another topoic that came up was, love. i feel that sex is considered a good thing in that society but love, is depised. all elaborate more on that on my next blog :] gnight everyone!

Blog:2 The Handmaid's Tale

For the past couple of days, we've been working on our wikis. at first i was very confused on what it was all about, but my groupmates were kind enough to clarify any of the confusion i had with the assignment. we took a closer look at the kind of language Offred uses throughout the chapters and have noticed that she uses a lot of dramatic effects such as fragments and her uses of punctuations to emphasize her point.

also, after reading a couple chapters, getting deeper and deeper into the book, a lot of sexual things happen, or she speaks about a lot of sexual stuff. like with the doctor, i dont recall what page, but i think its on p. 76? i dont have my book, but i'll once i get the chance, i'll update you guys on it. well anyways, Offred i believe was at the doctors and had called her honey, which by the way was against their society's rules. she was very descriptive in telling what happend, i was just a little surprised thats all. well the doctor made a move on her and she was very polite and courtious about it, only because she didnt want to get in trouble from the doctor (a higher ranking than her) when she says she doesnt want him to do anything to her. well i have to start working on my group's wiki presentation for tomorrow, so I'll continue this discussion on the next blog :] kbye!

Blog 1: The Handmaid's Tale

Reading this story over break was really long, but I like it better than The Left Hand of Darkness. at first it was kind of hard to really understand what was going on, but i think that applies to a lot of books. Anyway, for a moment I thought that the society that these women live in was a convent or somewhat similar to a convent, but then i later realize that it's a place where women are prevented from escaping so they could give babies. this was very weird.

In a class discussion i had today with my group, a lot of things were brought up. things like, their apparel, their winged hats. while discussing their apparel, my group and i had come to a conclusion that certain women in this society were not allowed to draw any attention to them. we've analyzed that it's to prevent them from, falling in love? there was a quote, " he looks at me, and sees me looking.....i drop my head and turn so that the white wing hide my face....." (p. 18) i think that eye contact was not allowed which is why the women there were required to wear special winged hats. this custom, is somewhat similar to religions where women are not allowed to wear a specific type of clothing.

another thing we've talked about is, why are the Guards, or the angels keeping the women in? we've discussed that the angels aren't necessarily good, but are guards to keep the women in and not out. but why keep the women in? well, i think its because the women there are very fertile, and the commander and his wife want them to make babies because, i think, im not so sure but, the commander's wife can't have babies.

"When It Changed"

After reading When It Changed, I feel that the author tried addressing to her readers that women are capable of the things men are capable of. For example, us females can very much take care of ourselves. I brought up in class that the song "Independent Women", by Destiny's Child sorta goes with this story lol:]

A question was brought up in discussion today, is this story a feminist story? Although I am a female myself, I'd have to say, yes, I do believe that When It Changed is a feminist story. Russ emphasizes greatly that women CAN survive without men, although we all now that's biologically impossible, through her writing, she showed that even the impossible is possible.

In some ways I agree with Russ in terms of men not being a necessity to take care of ourselves. but i disagree in terms that we can live without them . i mean, i don't wanna live in a society where absolutely NO men exist, and that when the day comes that i come across a man, i'd think he's an alien.

So this week, we finally had finished reading Le Guinn's, Left Hand of Darkness. in the class discussions, we came up with many points, one being Le Guinn's stress in gender. I've discussed with my classmates on how men are addressed as "people" and women objects. For example, if we were to name a boat, we name the boat a girl name, in most cases instinctively, and refer to it as "her" or "she". Even up to this day, although years before the whole situation of being sexist was more drastic, women today are still treated as "objects" by some men.

When we dicussed the book, an interesting topic came up, the relati0nship between Estraven and Genly. I thought, that throughout the whole book, Estraven and Genly were kind of dating. Both, evidently, were very suspicious and unsure of each other, just like how two people dating would feel before they get to know each other. then later on, Estraven protects Genly from suffering, just like a "knight in shining armor", and saves him. they both grow a closer relationship in terms of learning to trust each other (Genly also teaches Estraven to talk through their minds). Estraven dies in the end, and my inference from reading, i believe that Genly would be terribly heartbroken and sad because as soon as he and Estraven became more comfortable, he die :[

Estravn's death seems very ironic to Le Guinn's title, The Left Hand of Darkness. referring again to p. 233, that specific quote, I feel that the whole idea of Yin and Yang parallels with Estraven's death (Yin) and how his death was beneficial to Genly's mission (Yang).

Today in class, I'd have to say Saruul, Amy, and Catriona, had, by far, the most creative class discussion ever. I love love loooooved the whole pairing up and rotating inner/outer circle concept!
Also, I'd like to add that their discussion questions were very open-ended and had came up with many interesting opinions as well.
The question i had was a quote from p.233, about the "left hand of darkness" and its "right hand" which was light. I interpreted this quote as two factors, light and darkness, two of which work hand in hand and need each other for existence. For example, how we do know what light is? In order for us to really know what light is, we have to know what darkness is. And same goes for darkness; we need to know what light is to experience what darkness is. One of my partners, Paula I believe was her name, had mentioned that this particular quote was similar in the concept of the Yin and Yang.
I personally, loved the discussion i received because i was able to recall a poem i once had read in my sophomore year in Ms. Innis' 10th grade english class. I can't recall completely the title of this poem or who wrote it but I do remember that it had the same concept of the quote on p. 233, that one needs the opposite in order to exist. My own example: how would you know if you are healthy or not? You'd have to hav been sick at least once before in order to know your state of health.

The past chapters were extremely long and also was not easy to understand.
In the beginning, King Argaven was very unsure of Estraven and seemed to not trust him at all. later on, it was revealed why King Argaven had thought of Estraven as a traitor, Estraven wanted to share/give land? to its neighboring countries to avoid war, but Argaven was against it and sent him to leave.

In a class discussion this week, I can't recall what chapter, but the question of Estraven being a traitor (or not) came up. I personally don't believe that Estraven is a traitor and I disagree with King Argaven for thinking that he had committed treason. Estraven only wanted peace, and he thought that by sharing/giving territory to their neighboring countries, will help prevent war. But Argaven thought differently. He thought that Estraven was betraying him by wanting to give land and totally missed his whole point of sharing land to prevent war.

Since Estraven was exiled from Gethen, which i just found out was aka Winter -_-, he traveled around, just like Genly (how ironic!), and kept a diary of the place he stayed in. This chapter, the chapter of Estraven's journal entries, confused me a lot. But after having group discussions, it was clarified that it WAS Estraven narrating, and it was him writing in his journal.

Today was an inetersting discussion. The group i was in had discussed the parallelism of the Commensal to communsim and King Argaven and Tibe's control, as monarchy ruling. The Commensals left out information from their citizenz, kind of like the Communsists, in means of "protecting" them.

From chapters 6 through 7, it was packed with a lot of information that clarified a lot of unanswered questions i had. for example, kemmering and the process of kemmering was revealed in ch7. my hypothesis was correct! Kemmering is their way of sexual contact. it was actually really weird reading it, but what was more weird was when i found out that one of the male partner morphes in and out as a female. that's different. anther fact i'd like to address is, also in ch.7, when the narrator says, "you cannot think of a Gethenian as 'it'. they are not neuters. they are potentials, or integrals."(p94), I strongly agree! but i feel that Le Guin making the male gender dominant and addressing the characters as men, in a way, contradicts the whole idea of kemmering because during kemmering one out of the two males become a FEMALE. also, the book is interesting but what makes it hard to understand and to read is Le Guin's way of writing the chapters. she doesn't always give clues to what her made up words mean, for example, shethgrythor. i still have no idea what that means.

throughout chapters 8-10 a lot of things also was revealed. like the king, argaven was pregnant and was made fun of for being old and bearing a baby. and that Estraven is not a traitor for wanting to give away land. his reasons were to prevent war and create peace, but the king totally misinterpreted it.

The Left Hand of Darkness

When i had first read The Left Hand of Darkness, it was really confusing to understand. it's a book that is kind of out of my element, but it is pretty interesting. i really don't get much of what is going on and with whom. But i know it's definitely a story out of the ordinary. Gen li is a foreigner? and is somewhat being questioned by the mysterious Estraven. The group project we've done in class has helped me understand most of what is happening. talking with my group mates and discussing the events taking place in the story has clarified many of the questions i had. I find it interesting that kemmering in the book is a vow that two brothers make to each other to be together forever, well only up until one bears a child! Wow! that was something i definitely did not see coming. another event that i thought was also surprising, was when the brother that did not bear a child, would commit suicide. omg. that also was unexpected. getheren was mentioned to have seen his brother, which by the way had killed himself, in an all white scenary. i'm interpreting this all white scenary to be the snow and blizzard that this book describes as the story goes on. but im still also kind of confused, does it mean the blizzard, because in ch. 2 that's what it's titled, or does it mean heaven? because its where getheren saw the ghost of his dead brother, hode.