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As we (I?) count down the days to the end of this year, we were kindly asked (and threatened with the possibility of being exempted from possible exemption for the final) by our teacher to provide our feedback regarding the soon-ending academic year. Now, it is only appropriate that we (I?) get this done with as soon as possible so, hang on to the reading!
My growth as a student, pertaining to APLAC, I believe, is notable. This is especially so in respect to my writing. I've never actually hated writing. I never hated writing; the way walruses never hated singing; the way dragons never hated their breath. Truth is, my enthusiasm far outweighed my talent and the resulting prose was, well, to use an understatement, substandard. Such was the state of my writing prior to entering E122 during fourth period in late August of 2013. The rest of the story has been documented, evaluated and indexed in HISD's computerized treasure troves of grades. ;)
The skills of rhetorical analysis, fallacy-free argumentation, source-credibility analysis etc that I have acquired in this class have been instrumental in enabling me view everything around me from a different perspective.
Talking about the essays: I had a good time dismantling the rhetorical analysis prompt - or, I thought I did. (God! It better be!). Come July, though, I'm not excited to see the number next to the argumentation essay. That, I think, is because of the lack of practice on that section - which was wholly my mistake due to the total disregard I showed. Anyway, one must not jump to conclusions, right?
Books: THE THINGS THEY CARRIED!!!! Ooops! Did I say that out loud? Well, it is not an overstatement. I think it was the best book we (I?) read this year. Naturally, I am not a fun of chronologically disarrayed pieces of literature. It always appeared to me it was one of those markers of "fake originality"; like an author who'd refuse to punctuate or capitalize his work for "originality's" sake or like a sham artist that draws two squiggly lines on a white backdrop and tells you it's "crude, abstract, modern" art. Tim O'Brien, however, threw the ball the other side - that's all I can say.
On the other end of the spectrum, there was Truman Capote's In Cold Blood - which, true to its name, was written in cold blood. I found myself intrigued by the two murderers instead of the broad thematic message the author was trying to pass. Trying to understand the driving motive behind Perry and Dick kept me from finding the book's relativity to today. Perhaps, that was Capote's intention all along - who knows?
Then, there is Al Gore! Bizarre, isn't it? Seriously, the never ending sarcasm and humor in the class played a big part in keeping me focused on the topics at hand. Hermione told Ron he had the "emotional range of a teaspoon": I have the "attention span" of said cutlery. So, I couldn't help but chuckle when Mr. Thomas said - sarcastically, of course - "...Al Gore gave us this wonderful thing called the Internet...". The class' response to that statement showed that it had passed as an esoteric reference - much to my disappointment. Although it is known that Mr. Gore did not invent the internet - and that he never claimed to have done so, there is something catchy about that statement, which has evolved to something of a punchline. However humorous, though, we must not undermine his notable contributions and give credit where it's due. Hence the title of this blog post.
So long!
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