Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Monday, March 25, 2013
Bloodsucking Fiends
Go back a few entries to the Readers Guide discussion questions for Bloodsucking Fiends.
Post a comment responding to at least 3 questions to begin a discussion online about the book.
Continue to work on your blog and the "Fiends" exercise
Post a comment responding to at least 3 questions to begin a discussion online about the book.
Continue to work on your blog and the "Fiends" exercise
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Bloodsucking Fiends
Complete handout Quiz on Part II of Bloodsucking Fiends.
Continue to work on your exercise of parody from the other day.
Continue to work on your blog.
FINISH BLOODSUCKING FIENDS for discussion on Monday!
Continue to work on your exercise of parody from the other day.
Continue to work on your blog.
FINISH BLOODSUCKING FIENDS for discussion on Monday!
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
PARODY
par·o·dy
ˈpær
ə
di Spelled [par-uh-dee] IPA noun, plural -dies, verb, -died, -dy·ing.
noun
1.
a humorous or satirical imitation of a serious piece of
literature or writing: his hilarious parody of Hamlet's soliloquy.
2. the genre of literary composition
represented by such imitations.
3. a burlesque imitation of a musical composition.
4. any humorous, satirical, or burlesque
imitation, as of a person, event, etc.
5. the use in the 16th century of borrowed material in a musical
setting of the Mass (parody Mass).
verb (used with object)
6. to imitate (a composition, author,
etc.) for purposes of ridicule or satire.
7. to imitate poorly or feebly;
travesty.
Source: www.dictionary.com
CONVENTION: A common feature that has become traditional or expected within a specific genre (category) of literature or film. In Harlequin romances, it is conventional to focus on a male and female character who struggle through misunderstandings and difficulties until they fall in love. In western films of the early twentieth-century, for instance, it has been conventional for protagonists to wear white hats and antagonists to wear black hats. The wandering knight-errant who travels from place to place, seeking adventure while suffering from the effects of hunger and the elements, is a convention in medieval romances. It is a convention for an English sonnet to have fourteen lines with a specific rhyme scheme, abab, cdcd, efef, gg, and so on. The use of a chorus and the unities are dramatic conventions of Greek tragedy, while, the aside, and the soliloquy are conventions in Elizabethan tragedy. Conventions are often referred to as poetic, literary, or dramatic, depending upon whether the convention appears in a poem, short story or novel, or a play.
Mini
Writing Exercises
1. Write a paragraph that describes a
monster (whether it be a vampire or another magical being that you know
well). Make sure that this
description fits with the conventions of the genre to which the being belongs
(i.e.—a vampire might have fangs; a zombie might eat brains, etc.). Use rich language and adjectives to
create a vivid image for your reader.
2. Parody
a vampire attack (or a part of one) in a paragraph. Use the Moore reading for ideas of conventions you might want to twist.
Friday, March 15, 2013
Bloodsucking Fiends, PART II
Work on multiple choice quiz for CLASSWORK credit.
Continue to work on your blogs and last call for Susquehanna entries.
For Tuesday, read Part II of Bloodsucking Fiends (to pg. 192)
Have a great weekend!
Continue to work on your blogs and last call for Susquehanna entries.
For Tuesday, read Part II of Bloodsucking Fiends (to pg. 192)
Have a great weekend!
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
PUBLISHING!
It's time to think about publishing again, aside from entering contests. When was the last time you published your work on the internet? 9th grade?
Well, you've certainly come a long way since then. If you do remember where your blog is, you can use that or create a new one.
Go to blogger.com to create a new blog.
Go through your files, your writing that you feel can be put online.
Create posts of short stories, poems, photography, etc. you are justly proud of.
This is new project for next period, so take this assignment seriously. You will be grateful later to have done this.
HMWK: For Friday, read to page 117 in Christopher Moore's Bloodsucking Fiends. There will be a quiz!
Well, you've certainly come a long way since then. If you do remember where your blog is, you can use that or create a new one.
Go to blogger.com to create a new blog.
Go through your files, your writing that you feel can be put online.
Create posts of short stories, poems, photography, etc. you are justly proud of.
This is new project for next period, so take this assignment seriously. You will be grateful later to have done this.
HMWK: For Friday, read to page 117 in Christopher Moore's Bloodsucking Fiends. There will be a quiz!
Monday, March 11, 2013
Christopher Moore's new book
http://www.npr.org/2012/03/31/149542710/art-mystery-and-posh-pigments-in-sacre-bleu
Excerpt: Sacre Bleu
Wheat Field With Crows
Auvers, France, July 1890
On the day he was to be murdered, Vincent van Gogh encountered a Gypsy on the cobbles outside the inn where he'd just eaten lunch.
"Big hat," said the Gypsy.
Vincent paused and slung the easel from his shoulder. He tipped his yellow straw hat back. It was, indeed, big.
"Yes, madame," he said. "It serves to keep the sun out of my eyes while I work."
The Gypsy, who was old and broken, but younger and less broken than she played — because no one gives a centime to a fresh, unbroken beggar — rolled an umber eye to the sky over the Oise River Valley, where storm clouds boiled above the tile roofs of Pontoise, then spat at the painter's feet.
"There's no sun, Dutchman. It's going to rain."
"Well, it will keep the rain out of my eyes just as well." Vincent studied the Gypsy's scarf, yellow with a border of green vines embroidered upon it. Her shawl and skirts, each a different color, spilled in a tattered rainbow to be muted under a layer of dust at her feet. He should paint her, perhaps. Like Millet's peasants, but with a brighter palette. Have the figure stand out against the field.
"Monsieur Vincent." A young girl's voice. "You should get to your painting before the storm comes." Adeline Ravoux, the innkeeper's daughter, stood in the doorway of the inn, holding a broom poised not for sweeping but for shooing troublesome Gypsies. She was thirteen, blond, and though she would be a beauty one day, now she was gloriously, heartbreakingly plain. Vincent had painted her portrait three times since he'd arrived in May, and the whole time she had flirted with him in the clumsy, awkward manner of a kitten batting at yarn before learning that its claws may actually draw blood. Just practicing, unless poor, tormented painters with one earlobe were suddenly becoming the rage among young girls.
Vincent smiled, nodded to Adeline, picked up his easel and canvas, and walked around the corner, away from the river. The Gypsy fell in beside him as he trudged up the hill past the walled gardens, toward the forest and fields above the village.
"I'm sorry, old mother, but I've not a sou to spare," he said to the Gypsy.
"I'll take the hat," said the Gypsy. "And you can go back to your room, out of the storm, and make a picture of a vase of flowers."
"And what will I get for my hat? Will you tell my future?"
"I'm not that kind of Gypsy," said the Gypsy.
"Will you pose for a picture if I give you my hat?"
"I'm not that kind of Gypsy either."
Vincent paused at the base of the steps that had been built into the hillside.
"What kind of Gypsy are you, then?" he asked.
"The kind that needs a big yellow hat," said the Gypsy. She cackled, flashing her three teeth.
Vincent smiled at the notion of anyone wanting anything that he had. He took off his hat and handed it to the old woman. He would buy another at market tomorrow. Theo had enclosed a fifty-franc note in his last letter, and there was some left. He wanted — no, needed to paint these storm clouds before they dropped their burden.
The Gypsy examined the hat, plucked a strand of Vincent's red hair from the straw, and tucked it away into her skirts. She pulled the hat on right over her scarf and struck a pose, her hunchback suddenly straightening.
"Beautiful, no?" she said.
"Perhaps some flowers in the band," said Vincent, thinking only of color. "Or a blue ribbon."
The Gypsy grinned. No, there was a fourth tooth there that he'd missed before.
"Au revoir, Madame." He picked up his canvas and started up the stairs. "I must paint while I can. It is all I have."
"I'm not giving your hat back."
"Go with God, old mother."
"What happened to your ear, Dutchman, a woman bite it off?"
"Something like that," said Vincent. He was halfway up the first of three flights of steps.
"An ear won't be enough for her. Go back to your room and paint a vase of flowers today."
"I thought you didn't tell futures."
"I didn't say I don't see futures," said the Gypsy. "I just don't tell them."
***
He set his easel at the pitchfork junction of three dirt roads. Three wheat fields lay before him and a cornfield behind. He was nearly finished with the painting, the golden wheat under an angry blue-black sky swirling with storm clouds. He loaded his brush with ivory black and painted a murder of crows rising from the center of the picture into an inverted funnel to the right corner of the canvas. For perspective, so the painting wasn't entirely about color on canvas, although many in Paris were beginning to argue that all painting was just color, nothing more.
He painted a final crow, just four brushstrokes to imply wings, then stepped back. There were crows, of course, just not compositionally convenient ones. The few he could see had landed in the field, sheltering against the storm, like the field workers, who had all gone to shelter since Vincent had started to paint.
"Paint only what you see," his hero Millet had admonished.
"Imagination is a burden to a painter," Auguste Renoir had told him. "Painters are craftsmen, not storytellers. Paint what you see."
Ah, but what they hadn't said, hadn't warned him about, was how much you could see.
From Sacre Bleu: A Comedy d'Art by Christopher Moore. Copyright 2012 by Christopher Moore. Excerpted by permission of HarperCollins.
And more Moore (pun intended) :
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125676630
Auvers, France, July 1890
On the day he was to be murdered, Vincent van Gogh encountered a Gypsy on the cobbles outside the inn where he'd just eaten lunch.
"Big hat," said the Gypsy.
Vincent paused and slung the easel from his shoulder. He tipped his yellow straw hat back. It was, indeed, big.
"Yes, madame," he said. "It serves to keep the sun out of my eyes while I work."
The Gypsy, who was old and broken, but younger and less broken than she played — because no one gives a centime to a fresh, unbroken beggar — rolled an umber eye to the sky over the Oise River Valley, where storm clouds boiled above the tile roofs of Pontoise, then spat at the painter's feet.
"There's no sun, Dutchman. It's going to rain."
"Well, it will keep the rain out of my eyes just as well." Vincent studied the Gypsy's scarf, yellow with a border of green vines embroidered upon it. Her shawl and skirts, each a different color, spilled in a tattered rainbow to be muted under a layer of dust at her feet. He should paint her, perhaps. Like Millet's peasants, but with a brighter palette. Have the figure stand out against the field.
"Monsieur Vincent." A young girl's voice. "You should get to your painting before the storm comes." Adeline Ravoux, the innkeeper's daughter, stood in the doorway of the inn, holding a broom poised not for sweeping but for shooing troublesome Gypsies. She was thirteen, blond, and though she would be a beauty one day, now she was gloriously, heartbreakingly plain. Vincent had painted her portrait three times since he'd arrived in May, and the whole time she had flirted with him in the clumsy, awkward manner of a kitten batting at yarn before learning that its claws may actually draw blood. Just practicing, unless poor, tormented painters with one earlobe were suddenly becoming the rage among young girls.
Vincent smiled, nodded to Adeline, picked up his easel and canvas, and walked around the corner, away from the river. The Gypsy fell in beside him as he trudged up the hill past the walled gardens, toward the forest and fields above the village.
"I'm sorry, old mother, but I've not a sou to spare," he said to the Gypsy.
"I'll take the hat," said the Gypsy. "And you can go back to your room, out of the storm, and make a picture of a vase of flowers."
"And what will I get for my hat? Will you tell my future?"
"I'm not that kind of Gypsy," said the Gypsy.
"Will you pose for a picture if I give you my hat?"
"I'm not that kind of Gypsy either."
Vincent paused at the base of the steps that had been built into the hillside.
"What kind of Gypsy are you, then?" he asked.
"The kind that needs a big yellow hat," said the Gypsy. She cackled, flashing her three teeth.
Vincent smiled at the notion of anyone wanting anything that he had. He took off his hat and handed it to the old woman. He would buy another at market tomorrow. Theo had enclosed a fifty-franc note in his last letter, and there was some left. He wanted — no, needed to paint these storm clouds before they dropped their burden.
The Gypsy examined the hat, plucked a strand of Vincent's red hair from the straw, and tucked it away into her skirts. She pulled the hat on right over her scarf and struck a pose, her hunchback suddenly straightening.
"Beautiful, no?" she said.
"Perhaps some flowers in the band," said Vincent, thinking only of color. "Or a blue ribbon."
The Gypsy grinned. No, there was a fourth tooth there that he'd missed before.
"Au revoir, Madame." He picked up his canvas and started up the stairs. "I must paint while I can. It is all I have."
"I'm not giving your hat back."
"Go with God, old mother."
"What happened to your ear, Dutchman, a woman bite it off?"
"Something like that," said Vincent. He was halfway up the first of three flights of steps.
"An ear won't be enough for her. Go back to your room and paint a vase of flowers today."
"I thought you didn't tell futures."
"I didn't say I don't see futures," said the Gypsy. "I just don't tell them."
***
He set his easel at the pitchfork junction of three dirt roads. Three wheat fields lay before him and a cornfield behind. He was nearly finished with the painting, the golden wheat under an angry blue-black sky swirling with storm clouds. He loaded his brush with ivory black and painted a murder of crows rising from the center of the picture into an inverted funnel to the right corner of the canvas. For perspective, so the painting wasn't entirely about color on canvas, although many in Paris were beginning to argue that all painting was just color, nothing more.
He painted a final crow, just four brushstrokes to imply wings, then stepped back. There were crows, of course, just not compositionally convenient ones. The few he could see had landed in the field, sheltering against the storm, like the field workers, who had all gone to shelter since Vincent had started to paint.
"Paint only what you see," his hero Millet had admonished.
"Imagination is a burden to a painter," Auguste Renoir had told him. "Painters are craftsmen, not storytellers. Paint what you see."
Ah, but what they hadn't said, hadn't warned him about, was how much you could see.
From Sacre Bleu: A Comedy d'Art by Christopher Moore. Copyright 2012 by Christopher Moore. Excerpted by permission of HarperCollins.
And more Moore (pun intended) :
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125676630
Christopher Moore website and interview
Read and respond with a comment to Christopher Moore interview. What is your experience with contemporary vampire fiction? Classical vampire fiction (Dracula)? Have you read Twilight or Anne Rice?
www.chrismoore.com/writing_vampire.html
Christopher Moore quotes:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/16218.Christopher_Moore
Christopher Moore quotes:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/16218.Christopher_Moore
Read first chapter online:
Watch the following videos and the videos on the video bar.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBsNmM3ADp0&feature=related
Vampire videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVPxAgy7lBA
Vampire videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVPxAgy7lBA
http://www.innsmouthfreepress.com/blog/?p=1755
Vampire lore by region:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire_folklore_by_region
Read to pg. 117 for Friday
Bloodsucking Fiends
New book: Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore
Reading Group Guide
Questions for Discussion
1. Everyone has been exposed to Vampire lore, either through books, movies, or television. How does Jody's transformation into a vampire differ from how you always thought someone became a vampire? In what ways is it similar?
2. Jody and Tommy's relationship moves at a rather alarming pace, and within a week of meeting each other, they are in love. Is love at first sight possible? Or in their case, at first bite? Why do they connect so instantly?
3. The book is filled with religious connotations, whether intentional or not — from the mention of "the pyramid" (The TransAmerica Tower), to the use of crosses to ward off vampires, to the Animals being referred to as "Crusaders." How intentional do you think this was on the part of the author? What do these add to the story?
4. The book touches upon the idea of euthanasia — the practice of ending the life of a terminally ill person in a painless or minimally painful way in order to limit suffering — in that Elijah Ben Sapir, the vampire who creates Jody, only kills those who are about to die or whose lives are limited in some way. What are your feelings about "mercy killings"? Do vampires have an ethical standard?
5. When Simon threatens Jody after she refuses to turn him into a vampire, she ends up killing him in the front of his truck. Jody then blames the killing on Elijah, however, and never confesses it to Tommy. Why not admit to it when Elijah has been restrained?
6. Why are Jody and Tommy "set up" as the culprits in the recent crimes? What would it mean if they were caught? Why do these crimes need to be pinned on anyone? Couldn't the criminals cover up thecrimes in another way?
7. By the end of the novel, both detectives — Cavuto and Rivera — begin to believe in the supernatural and that vampires could exist. To what extent do you believe in the supernatural, either vampires, ghosts, or even just that some people may or may not have psychic ability?
8. Tommy uses Anne Rice's The Vampire Lestat, which of course is fiction, as his "Owner's Manual" for learning about Jody and her new powers. Discuss the author's use of fiction within fiction in order to tell a story. Have any members of your group read The Vampire Lestat? How do the two books compare?
9. Once Jody becomes a vampire, she finds that she has many new and different abilities, including superstrength, heightened senses, and superspeed. Which do you think is her most needed new superability?
10. Though Jody finds herself immortal, she also retains many of her normal human characteristics and failings, including vanity, fear, anger, and disgust. Discuss how even though she has become immortal, and can protect herself from many of the regular dangers of everyday life, she is still unable to disassociate herself from normal human emotion.
11. At the end of the book, the reader is left with the impression that Jody is about to turn Tommy into a vampire. If she does change him into a vampire, how do you imagine their story continues? How would it continue if she does not?
Enhancing Your Bookclub
1. Would you be willing to give up your normal life — being able to go out in the daylight, not being immortal — in order to become a vampire? You'd be able to live forever, have superstrength and -speed, among many other different gifts. Would it be worth it? Why? Why not?
2. To read more about vampires, take a look at the following titles: The Society of S by Susan Hubbard, Vamped by David Sosnowski, The Book of Renfield: A Gospel of Dracula by Tim Lucas, and Happy Hour at Casa Dracula by Marta Costa.
3. Learn more about vampires: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampires.
Christopher Moore is the bestselling author of You Suck, A Dirty Job, The Stupidest Angel, Fluke, Lamb, The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove, Island of the Sequined Love Nun, Bloodsucking Fiends, and Practical Demonkeeping. Visit the
official Christopher Moore website at www.chrismoore.com.
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Historical Fiction Work Period
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Good morning everyone! Thank you for allowing me to teach you these past seven weeks; it has been an absolute pleasure getting to know all of you! Your kind words in your card mean more to me than you will ever know.
Agenda:
You have the entire double period to work on your historical fiction! PLEASE finish it up today.
If for some reason I do not have it in my hands by the end of the period it needs to be emailed to me by midnight tonight.
Good morning everyone! Thank you for allowing me to teach you these past seven weeks; it has been an absolute pleasure getting to know all of you! Your kind words in your card mean more to me than you will ever know.
Agenda:
You have the entire double period to work on your historical fiction! PLEASE finish it up today.
If for some reason I do not have it in my hands by the end of the period it needs to be emailed to me by midnight tonight.
mrp06393@sjfc.edu
Monday, March 4, 2013
In the Lake of the Woods Final Activity/ Projects
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Good morning everyone! I am interested to hear your final thoughts on In the Lake of the Woods. Therefore, your "reading quiz" is more of a writing prompt.
Agenda:
-Reading quiz (this should only take 10 minutes)
-Please work on you historical fiction projects. Remember, I need them in my hands on Thursday!
Good morning everyone! I am interested to hear your final thoughts on In the Lake of the Woods. Therefore, your "reading quiz" is more of a writing prompt.
Agenda:
-Reading quiz (this should only take 10 minutes)
-Please work on you historical fiction projects. Remember, I need them in my hands on Thursday!
HOMEWORK:
-Historical Fiction Projects
-Catch up on blog posts
Friday, March 1, 2013
Work Period--Historical Fiction
Friday, March 1, 2013
HAPPY FRIDAY! I hope you all have a great weekend.
Agenda:
-We will finish the film adaptation of In the Lake of the Woods
-You will have the rest of the period to start/finish historical fiction. PLEASE USE CLASS TIME EFFECTIVELY!
HOMEWORK:
-Finish reading In the Lake of the Woods
-Work on historical fiction
-Reading Quiz on Tuesday
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