Okay, not technically Spock. Leonard Nimoy. Still.
"Under the Pines" by Jonathan Coulton is a rather strange song. It's not my favorite song ever, but it is stuck in my head, which is a good enough reason to use it for this assignment.
1. Why do I like this song? The first time I heard it, I thought it was a sweet little love song. In a way, it still is. Lyrics like "I am in love/But it's only a fantasy" and "How was I supposed to know/That I would end up so brokenhearted" could easily fit into a more, shall we say, "conventional" love song. And then ...I looked up the lyrics, wrenching my mind into the Realm of Creepy. I just love the weirdness of this song, how he sings so sweetly about something so utterly bizarre.
2. Paraphrase the song. Oh dear. Leonard Nimoy had a one-night stand with Bigfoot, who then left him. Bigfoot did not feel as deeply as Nimoy did about it. ("We had one night/That's all it was to you") Nimoy is now slouching around in a lovesick manner and, apparently, writing love songs.
3. Do I notice any stylistic devices? Allusion, for sure. Jonathan Coulton alludes to Nimoy's Star Trek role as Spock in the line "I wish I really had no emotion." Other than that...rhyme, of course, and rhythm. There is very flowery language, but I don't believe that any of it is a metaphor or simile.
Lyrics: http://www.jonathancoulton.com/wiki/index.php/Under_the_Pines/Lyrics
Song: (skip to 2:00 if you don't want to watch the rest of his intro, but it is quite amusing.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iD88hcBZbvs
25 September 2010
16 September 2010
And now, boys and girls, it's time for "Storytime with Kenneth the Fish."
The deafening bell was followed by a brief stampede. The boy had left me behind, and so I waited quietly on the cool surface of the desk. A long period of nothing ensued.
Again with the bell! This time the stampede was inward. A face loomed into view, hovered for a moment, and then I was thrust aside to another desk, from which I promptly fell onto the seat. How rude.
The girl came in just as the bell rang, AGAIN. Her face above me looked confused. "Kenneth?" she asked the boy behind her.
"It was sitting on my desk," he said. She gave him a quizzical look and sat on me. What. The. Hell.
Being a piece of paper sucks. Already that day some kid had scraped his pencil across my front, and then I had a blue-jeaned girl butt on me. Those little metal things hurt, you know.
Again with the bell! This time the stampede was inward. A face loomed into view, hovered for a moment, and then I was thrust aside to another desk, from which I promptly fell onto the seat. How rude.
The girl came in just as the bell rang, AGAIN. Her face above me looked confused. "Kenneth?" she asked the boy behind her.
"It was sitting on my desk," he said. She gave him a quizzical look and sat on me. What. The. Hell.
Being a piece of paper sucks. Already that day some kid had scraped his pencil across my front, and then I had a blue-jeaned girl butt on me. Those little metal things hurt, you know.
07 September 2010
The Ultimate Teaser
That was a Star Trek reference. You didn't get it, did you.
In a week or two, you will be among the privileged few to know the story of the year that never happened. Our robotics team performed rather badly at the 2009 FRC Sacramento Regional (all shall be explained, don't you worry) and yet, I managed to have the more fun than any other time in my life, concentrated into three days. The main characters are my rather non-sequitur friend Jeremy, the deceptively quiet programming mentor Tim, our mentor Mike, always joking, other members of our team, and the communal entities that are other teams. I will do my best to describe the excitements and disappointments of those three days.
My main problem with this assignment was thinking of a good story to tell. Things I originally wanted to write about - Westminster Abbey, for example - have no conflict to speak of. This story at least has some quote unquote drama, rather than a list of stone statues and plaques. Now I just have to make sure I don't ramble off into an unnecessarily long account of....well...any of it. Poker until 1 am, dinner with the Athenians (Team 852), getting lost while walking around at night, Zombie Tag...
(oh man, you should have seen it, it was the most epic thing ever...)
In a week or two, you will be among the privileged few to know the story of the year that never happened. Our robotics team performed rather badly at the 2009 FRC Sacramento Regional (all shall be explained, don't you worry) and yet, I managed to have the more fun than any other time in my life, concentrated into three days. The main characters are my rather non-sequitur friend Jeremy, the deceptively quiet programming mentor Tim, our mentor Mike, always joking, other members of our team, and the communal entities that are other teams. I will do my best to describe the excitements and disappointments of those three days.
My main problem with this assignment was thinking of a good story to tell. Things I originally wanted to write about - Westminster Abbey, for example - have no conflict to speak of. This story at least has some quote unquote drama, rather than a list of stone statues and plaques. Now I just have to make sure I don't ramble off into an unnecessarily long account of....well...any of it. Poker until 1 am, dinner with the Athenians (Team 852), getting lost while walking around at night, Zombie Tag...
(oh man, you should have seen it, it was the most epic thing ever...)
02 September 2010
Salutations.
I’m Bea, as you may have guessed. This is my first year in Creative Writing, and therefore my first year in an English-related class that I was able to choose. I’m quite enjoying it so far; it’s much more my sort of thing than 5-paragraph persuasive essays.
In case you’re wondering, here’s the – for want of a better word – thinking that went into the blog title. I have been told that my interests seem contradictory, that they don’t quite fit into others’ idea of one person. For example: I plan on a career in science. I love chemistry and am quite interested in astronomy as well. I am in two science classes and on the Robotics team. I am utterly in love with Star Trek: The Next Generation. The first classification I fall into is that of a science nerd. Then I tell the person that I’m enrolled in an online school of wizardry. No, seriously. Yes, like spells and stuff. No, I can’t read your mind. Yet.
Most people have trouble imagining that someone could take both science and magic seriously. They seem like opposites, no? Opposites…opposites attract. I’m not a magnet, though. I’m not polar, they come together into one person in me. In chemistry, two different substances react to form new ones.
Opposites React.
These are recent developments. Until about the eighth grade, it was all Harry Potter, all the time. Virtually all I did was read fantasy novels. Therefore, it makes sense that the first story I remember writing in school was fantasy. I believe the story was called “Weird Wire,” and had something to do with witches. It did not make a huge impression on me (the only thing I remember was learning to indent when the dialogue switched speakers), but it was a start.
I suppose I reached Critical Fantasy Mass somewhere in middle school and had to start spitting it back out. It started with some idle, vaguely map-like doodles that developed into an entire continent. After that came countries, cities, peoples, mythologies, and language. My favorite part of a novel or movie is between the introduction and the first plot complication, when the author takes you around to look at the world. I determined to create the most complete fantasy world in existence, and thus Raoltha was born.
I rarely finish a task once I start it. It’s something I’m working on. Raoltha is currently in stasis as I try to think of a potentially epic conflict for it. I hope to become better at creating plots this year, plots that don’t sound totally contrived, or plots where the villain has an actual motivation. That’s always nice.
My greatest influence is likely Tamora Pierce. Her books are all fantasy, set in medieval-ish times with more modern values. She focuses on strong female heroines, like girls choosing to become knights or joining the police force. Quite aside from the characters influencing me, her writing has had an effect as well. They’re good books, no doubt about that, but they are also easy to pick apart. I can see on the second reading where she starts threads that unexpectedly tie back together at the end. I can tell why she picked this trait for that character. I think it’s quite useful to see how successful books work when trying to create your own.
Something I didn’t mention above: I hope to work on conciseness. “No, really?” you say, scanning the wall of text above. “Shocking, I know,” I reply.
171 days of school to go. There’s time.
In case you’re wondering, here’s the – for want of a better word – thinking that went into the blog title. I have been told that my interests seem contradictory, that they don’t quite fit into others’ idea of one person. For example: I plan on a career in science. I love chemistry and am quite interested in astronomy as well. I am in two science classes and on the Robotics team. I am utterly in love with Star Trek: The Next Generation. The first classification I fall into is that of a science nerd. Then I tell the person that I’m enrolled in an online school of wizardry. No, seriously. Yes, like spells and stuff. No, I can’t read your mind. Yet.
Most people have trouble imagining that someone could take both science and magic seriously. They seem like opposites, no? Opposites…opposites attract. I’m not a magnet, though. I’m not polar, they come together into one person in me. In chemistry, two different substances react to form new ones.
Opposites React.
These are recent developments. Until about the eighth grade, it was all Harry Potter, all the time. Virtually all I did was read fantasy novels. Therefore, it makes sense that the first story I remember writing in school was fantasy. I believe the story was called “Weird Wire,” and had something to do with witches. It did not make a huge impression on me (the only thing I remember was learning to indent when the dialogue switched speakers), but it was a start.
I suppose I reached Critical Fantasy Mass somewhere in middle school and had to start spitting it back out. It started with some idle, vaguely map-like doodles that developed into an entire continent. After that came countries, cities, peoples, mythologies, and language. My favorite part of a novel or movie is between the introduction and the first plot complication, when the author takes you around to look at the world. I determined to create the most complete fantasy world in existence, and thus Raoltha was born.
I rarely finish a task once I start it. It’s something I’m working on. Raoltha is currently in stasis as I try to think of a potentially epic conflict for it. I hope to become better at creating plots this year, plots that don’t sound totally contrived, or plots where the villain has an actual motivation. That’s always nice.
My greatest influence is likely Tamora Pierce. Her books are all fantasy, set in medieval-ish times with more modern values. She focuses on strong female heroines, like girls choosing to become knights or joining the police force. Quite aside from the characters influencing me, her writing has had an effect as well. They’re good books, no doubt about that, but they are also easy to pick apart. I can see on the second reading where she starts threads that unexpectedly tie back together at the end. I can tell why she picked this trait for that character. I think it’s quite useful to see how successful books work when trying to create your own.
Something I didn’t mention above: I hope to work on conciseness. “No, really?” you say, scanning the wall of text above. “Shocking, I know,” I reply.
171 days of school to go. There’s time.
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