Insight Into Iyagovos: May 2011

Sunday 22 May 2011

Blog Portfolio Quarter 4

Recently, I've been playing in a role-playing game that a friend has been working on making. This is the story of the character that I played towards the end of that game.

He was born in a small village outside Kempen. Born to a poor father and mother. His brothers and sisters were younger than him, and Kell felt a responsibility to taking care of them. Growing up, he had noticed an aptitude for music in him, and one day, after his thirteenth birthday, after doing his chores, he approached a caravan that had arrived in the town and noticed a man selling some odds and ends. He noticed a flute, not a fancy one, but one made out of brass, with some dents in it. It seemed to call to him, and he spent what little money he had on it. He then began to pack his clothes, tell his parents that he was going on his travels in an attempt practice his art, and promised to send them some of the money he made each month. They tried to stop him, but he was too forceful, and told them that what little money they had would be better spent on his younger siblings.

He arrived in Kempen after a weeks travel. He had signed on with the caravan, offering to play what little music he knew for safe passage to the city. He slept roughly, as it was cold and damp at that time of year. The caravan guards mistreated him, as they felt they had to look after him, seeing as he was only a young boy.

Upon arrival in the city, Kell began to look for a place to stay. This was difficult, as he had very little money, and he eventually ended up sleeping on the street, for the night. In the morning, he found a place to busk for the day, and to his surprise, he made a fair amount of money, at least enough to pay for a room for the night.

He paid for the room, and left his meager pack there. He continued to busk, slowly, over 3 years, making enough money to pay for some clothing. It wasn't what a lord would wear, but they were good quality. This was the first purchase he'd made for himself since buying himself a weapon, so that he wouldn't be attacked in the street. His sword, and his clothing, along with his flute, were his only possessions. While Kempen had been good to him over the 3 years, and he'd made friends, he felt like he wanted to see the rest of the world.

He began to travel, leaving Kempen and heading towards the town of Zul, having heard of something of great importance going on there soon...

More coming soon!

Wanda Commentary

This poem is written in a very odd way. It breaks rules, it has odd diction, it uses dialect, and uses very powerful language. It is written as if talking to somebody else, but it is obviously referring to the poet herself, as the poet is also called Wanda. The poem is written using a funny diction. All of the sentences start with wanda, without the capitalization, showing either a lack of education from the speaker, or a lack of respect for the rules of grammar. The language is very aggressive, and self-deprecating. The fact that the speaker for the poem is speaking to herself seems to show some sort of illness, possibly schizophrenia. This poem is a poem that breaks a lot of grammatical rules. There are hardly any sentences, with a grand total of 4 being throughout the poem. This again shows some sort of illness, where the speaker is very agitated, and confused. She uses little punctuation, again showing a rushed and agitated atmosphere.

The tone of the poem is very dark and chaotic. The speech patterns are fast, and the language is very aggressive. Lots of the language talks about pain and hurting, and almost shows pity for herself. This gives the impression of maybe a drug addict or somebody going through very powerful mental and physical trauma. There is also a dialect done, which shows possibly somebody being attacked through racism. The setting of the poem is in the persons mind. It is talking to her self-conscious, and shows what the poet thinks about her self, in her deepest thoughts.

The fact that the person may be agitated, and simply scribbling down her basest thoughts could be for two reasons. Either she is a drug-abuser, or she has a mental issue such as schizophrenia.

In my friend Danny's blog, he mentions how he believes that the reference to Wanda being ac/dc relates to the song 'Back in Black'. He mentions that this means that she has two settings, one of which that relates to her liking black men, or that its relation to the song is that she wants to regain her culture. I disagreed with him, and mentioned that I believe that it is a reference to a multi-personality disorder.

Thursday 19 May 2011

This is insane.

A good friend runs an amazing blog, and this most recent article that she posted really got to me. I think everybody should look at it.

http://cheapsignals.blogspot.com/

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Ms. Morgan!

Really hope you have a good one!

Monday 9 May 2011

Old Pond Poem Analysis

If this was my poetry final, I would first of all notice the extreme opposites in the poem. The poem's use of polar opposites is what gives the poem its contrast, and something that makes the imagery used stand out to me. Another major observation is the way that the poem seems to move from a macro scale, where it is examining the landscape, to the micro scale, where it examines the actions of a single bug. To me, that shows how everything is important, and how everything massive has an affect on something minute. The use of separate sentences, such as 'up through time' and 'Splash!' puts emphasis on these sentences, and makes the emotion and description that those sentences have carry more weight.

The fact that the poem's title seems to be detached from the body of the poem, lends importance to the title. It seems to say that the Old Pond is the centre of attention, or maybe even the speaker, and that the poem is about what the pond experiences or notices in its surroundings.

I believe that the poem is speaking about what an effect a single object can have on its surroundings. The Old Pond seems to be something that has a hand in everything, it is what feeds the plants, what gives reflection to the mountains, and what gives the bug a habitat. The line, 'Up through time', tells how the tree's have experienced a lot of time, and that they change depending on how high up in the tree you go. The top of the tree is the youngest, and more likely to show the present, while the bottom of the tree is the oldest, and probably more likely to show what the past was like.

Response to Paglia's Commentary:

In the commentary on "Old Pond", Paglia analysis a variety of different things, and discovers things that I missed when reading the poem through by myself. She specifically notices the theme of the poem, and goes to great lengths to explain what she believes it is. She says that the theme is about nature being powerful and man being at the mercy of nature. On this, I disagree with what she says, because throughout the poem there is hardly any mention of man, and the only thing that I believe shows any relation to man is the grandness of the mountains. This shows how tiny man is, in the grand scheme of things, but I do not see what she means by men being at the mercy of nature. She also mentions how the overall shape of the poem is shaped to show diving, and moving from a very high point to a very low point. She says that the shape shows cliffs, trees and eventually diving.

The commentary was very well formatted and easy to follow, as it was organised chronologically, starting from the beginning of the poem, with the author and the context of writing being analysed as well. This gives some background on the poem as well, and some reason in to what was being written. What makes the commentary even more useful is how she sticks to only her observations, and then moves on to her interpretations. This helps in two ways: Firstly, it tells you what she notices in the poem, and secondly it tells us her personal opinion, something that helps with our own interpretation of the poem.

Feral Mother

She watches, her eyes wide
Her cubs, she watches with pride.
A lion, spies them sitting
He approaches.

She panics,
as the lion approaches.
She knows,
her children's doom.

A moment of clarity,
she stands, and runs.
The lion sees her,
and runs after.

The cubs flee,
their mother runs.
The lion's glee,
turns to disgust.

As the mothers speed,
outruns the lions power.
The cubs and mother escape,
to live and prowl the landscape.

Sunday 8 May 2011

Commentary on Harlem Dancer

In the Harlem Dancer, the poet, Claude McKay, uses a Shakespearian Sonnet. This helps the poem in two different ways. First of all, it gives the poem a structure. A Shakespearian sonnet allows for a structure of 14 lines with 10 syllables in each. This gives the poem a structure to follow. This structure gives the poem a rhythm, an integral part to this poem specifically. This poem is about dancing and singing, and the fact that the poem itself mirrors the rhythm of a dance lends to the theme. The iambic pentametre used by the poem gives the poem a rhyming structure, and lends itself to the theme of singing in the poem. The rhythmic cycle and rhyming structure is almost lyrical, and blends into the idea of a party very well.

A major theme that I interpreted in the poem is one of calm and strength. Throughout the piece, Claude McKay refers to her coldness, and her strength of stature. One line refers to her grace and calm. He mentions how to him she appears to be a proudly-swaying palm. This again gives us the image of strength. She is not distracted by the onlookers, and only seems to be performing from her heart, giving again an appearance of confidence and control.

Another motif that I dwell on while reading the poem is its use of metaphor. In the third and fourth line, metaphor is used to describe the womans voice. However, the metaphor used gives no room for misunderstanding. It describes a very singular sound, that of blended flutes being blown on a picnic day. I believe that this means a jazz-style melody, a very feminine one, as that is what I take from the metaphor. This is a very exact feeling, something that the poet describes. This, along with the other metaphors used in the poem help you to feel the exact feelings that the poet was feeling, and makes for a better and more profound experience while reading the poem

Wednesday 4 May 2011

To what extent does language define a culture?

In our school society, we all predominantly use English to communication. We do this for a variety of reasons, we grew up with the language, it is the language we're taught in, its the language our friends speak. Whatever the reason, we all use it. However, our language changes depending on who we speak to.

For example, lots of people in the world play online role-playing games, or MMORPG's, as they are colloquially known. This stands for Massively Multi-player Online Role-Playing Games. This is how they are known to people outside the group that plays the games. The style of speech that is used to express yourselves is very different to a linguist. This sentence: 'We need more dps on this boss. His enrage timer is going to tick soon. Tank, get the adds, and lock's pile on the dots. Heals are needed on group 1' means nothing to somebody that is outside of the MMO culture. It just sounds like odd words thrown into a fragmented sentence. However, to somebody that is well ingrained into that culture, the sentence means something very important. The same is true of a scientist. They could talk about variables, and molecule changes, reactions and data tables to another scientist, and they will understand this completely. A MMO player wouldn't understand at all.

However, there can be overlap. If somebody belonged to both cultures, they would be able to converse with both types of people. This can occur in many, many different cultures, with the way of speaking changing depending on who you are speaking to. I wouldn't speak to my English teacher the way that I talk to my guild in World of Warcraft, who I wouldn't talk to the same way as my girlfriend, who I wouldn't talk to the same was I speak to my parents.

An extension of this is macro-cultures: In the United Kingdom, we speak in a very different way to people in the United States. In the UK, there is a lot more irony in the speech, while in the US the style of humour in sentences is a lot more direct. This is reflected in all aspects of the culture, and is just shown predominantly in the speech. Advertisements are modified to reflect this, election campaigns and such. These change again in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Because we all speak slightly different dialects of English, we all have different things that appeal to us. The different amounts of people that speak these different dialects, and their different ways of thinking twists the language even more, so that each person has their own dialect, their own way of speaking. This special way of speaking is what makes people unique, and people being unique is what what makes cultures grow.