Yo, this is Colby W. in 6th period creative writing class from the Language Arts Lab giving you the wrap up of today's event.
After a few minutes to get settled in and say what's up to everybody, we were given specific assignments based on our class.
Cody D. gave the best alien-friendly explanation of a school, classroom, and Mr. B that has ever fallen on human ears. If he gets around to e-mailing it or dropping it down here as a comment, you can see for yourself.
When Mr. B proposed that every simile is the truth and then later that every metaphor is a lie, we got into some heavy duty conversation about truth and lies, art and communication. Cody offered up his own quote of the day:
"Artists get rich from lying about art; politicians get rich from the art of lying."
Or something like that.
[Editor's note: Cody actually quoted "Artists lie to tell the truth; politicians lie to hide it." My research and memory so far suggest that maybe V said that in "V is for Vendetta." Googling led me to "Art is the lie that tells the truth," attributed to Pablo Picasso. (That's his "Man with Pipe" above and to the right. It's in the permanent collection of the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth.)
Is there any other source information out there?]
People in Communication Applications were asked to prepare a speech for the school board stating why Mr. B shouldn't be fired because his room looks like a stockroom for boxes, extra books, and tables.
We in his Creative Writing class were given the job of developing ideas for poems about his room. Since I didn't give mine in class I will grace you with its sweet sounds right now.
This room is messed up
That's what I think
It came as a suprise
When something didn't stink
Tables, no desks,
Empty boxes on the flo'
If I was an Administrator
This room's teacher would have to go
7 classes, 1 room, 7 teaching ways
Since the teacher is Mr. Benton,
Give that man a raise!
19 comments:
Cody D. get your stuff into Blogland. We need you.
That Picasso painting looks a lot like B's room!
From our lesson yesterday... um 8/31/07 3rd period? I have an argument against Kalish. She suggested that the arrangement of a classroom that was tightly structured with desks and limited space for movement affected and limited students' thinking. Just because the room has desks in it doesn't mean it stifles your creativity and free thinking. It's basically the people around you that do that. See, if the teacher is in the room, then no, you wouldn't cuss or say anything too much out of the ordinary, but, if it was just your peers in a room full of straight desks, you know they wouldn't care what you said or how you said it. As long as you get your point across in your own way, you can say anything.
See if my mom's not home, I blast my music all day, and my music helps me think and be creative, especially while i blast it. But when mother's in the room it annoys me because I have to turn it down. That makes it so I cant think as well, plus annoyed at the fact that she's here and I can't think as well.
So, I think any limitation on our thinking just has to do with what people are in the room.
Kelli -
First, doesn't the way someone arranges a room help form your opinion of what he or she will find acceptable? Even if a person is not present, his or her choices have an effect on you.
But more to the point: it is not just appropriate but necessary to choose the way you express your thoughts (and which thoughts you express) according to the people around you! If the people around you speak English, you can't communicate with them in Irdu! If the people around you don't cuss, will cussing help you get your point across? No. Writing, speaking, or communicating in any way requires that we learn what we can about our audience and choose the most effective way of expression.
Oh I know you've been waiting for my poem. It makes me feel like I have the intellect of a second grader. Could be a good thing... perhaps I'll write children's books.
I like the room.
It reminds me of mine.
messy, though through bad organization everything is right.
I have an action figure
a vase
a table
boxes
empty cups stacked within each other
a television
book shelves with books.
This room has my favorite painting on the wall.
I don't have a trashcan, but this room does and it's just as messy.
I like the dirty floor...
It reminds me of my room.
Hannah -
As we noted in class, your poem responds to and identifies a certain quality of the room - an "at-home-ness" that shows up in Kelli's comment, too. (above) Your poem (or notes and ideas en route to a poem) does indeed have a childlike quality appropriate to the comfort of home. As for its simplicity and self-critically proclaimed second grade intellect, it can indeed be a good thing. Is there a more well-known American poem than this one by William Carlos Williams? Maybe not.
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.
And there's this one "A Station in the Metro" by Ezra Pound with a slightly more elevated but equally simple:
THE apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
These are pivotal, critically acclaimed works in the history of American poetry! As simple as your own, they beg the question: why?
Since no one else has dug farther into the Cody D. quote, I offer this line (spoken by Evey in V for Vendetta:
My father was a writer. You would've liked him. He used to say that artists use lies to tell the truth, while politicians use them to cover the truth up.
Why?
I think it's because it's less of a hassle. The simplicity gives me the opportunity to not think as hard about things. I'd rather read
easier. Kind of nostalgic.
Or lazy?
Art is not for the casual or the lazy or the whatever
Talking about my arguement... and Kelli's. I totally understand that
thought doesnt need to be limited by where you are. But Mr. B's
response is right on. That's what I was just thinking. The way a room
looks has a lot to tell about the people in it [and at school, the
people in charge of it]. If the room is straight and orderly, you're not going to want to start using all sorts of slang because it won't be appropriate for where you are, and what you say probably won't be taken seriously. That's why I say that where you are affects the way you think. It's a screening process inside your head. Is this thought
appropriate for where I am now?
Art is what you prefer.
In other words, Hannah, "I don't know much about art, but I know what I like." That's the classic line given to the wannabe art critic to show his or her ignorance and give artists a big laugh at her or his expense. Now I don't buy the snobbery of the artists who "know art," but I really believe that there is much, much more to art than someone's preference. But if you had written instead that art is more than just someone's preference, I would probably be arguing the other side. It's a complicated question.
Just yesterday I read an article in The New Yorker (August 27) talking about the politics of Aaron Copland's music. According to the article, Copland's seminal works ("Appalachian Spring" and "Fanafare for the Common Man" are the ones I know best.) express an anti-elitist, inclusive ideology associated with leftwing politics. In other words, by writing music that ordinary folks would hear and appreciate (and "prefer"?) he was demonstrating socialist leanings. (The composer did in fact embrace such viewpoints.) When the Cold War and McCarthyism arrived on the scene, he was scorned and criticized. Music for the masses? Must be a communist. Art for the ordinary?
The complications of defining art extend way beyond the world of art itself.
If I would've visited this page sooner, I would have been able to
Clarify the V for Vendetta quote (seeing as how I just watched that
movie yesterday and wrote down the quote because its brilliance caught
me off guard).
Just for future reference...Mr. B Owns.Tadaa!
And speaking of brilliance, how about that virtuoso alliterative tour de force when he introduces himself to Evet? Oh my! It's been added to tne new blog of resources for the language lab: tviewlalabplus.blogspot.com
I'm not going to argue with ya Mr. B.I'm not an art critic... I just
like simple things.I am lazy, I'll admit it. I like simple things.And
Kalish, I agree with you... and not just because you're my best friend.
Hannah - Argument is the way you learn! Unless you're doing the Shut-Up argument or the Debate Club argument. By refusing to argue, you prevent me from learning from you. As for lazy - it's NOT what you are! It's what you choose! Get over it!
Ah, thats cool. Alright i agree.
I liked Cody's alien poem. I have never been in a class like this before. I actually have to think harder than I usually do.
Just a reminder: the piece that Cody read in class and that someday we may be able to read for ourselves here in this blogspace was not a poem. It was an explanation of the classroom to an alien. There are two kinds of writing: poetry and prose. Cody's work was prose.
And, by the way, when you were in elementary school, you learned to write "stories," and "story" came to mean whatever you were writing in school. Grow up. Use the correct words for what you write.
And, finally, without seeing what Cody wrote (hint!) and being in a classroom where some others wrote and read poetry, calling his work a poem is very understandable and not a big deal.
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