“In Babylonian mythology, the primeval sea seen as a dragon goddess. The wife of Apsu, the ancient god of the fresh waters, Tiamat was the mother of all the gods. In the famous creation myth of the War of the Gods, she fights against the younger gods, but is killed by Marduk, who, splitting her body, makes heaven of the upper half and earth of the lower.”
Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
“The famous foundling reared by apes in the African jungle was created in 1912 by Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950), Tarzan has had countless adventures in novels and films, in which he communes with animals, rescues damsels in distress and discovers long lost civilizations. The first novel of 24 in which he appears is Tarzan of the Apes (1914). In the ‘monkey language’ that Burroughs invented for him, his name means ‘white’ from tar, and zan, ‘skin.’ He is given this name by his foster-mother, Kala the ape. The name came to be adopted for any apparent ‘he-man’ and was bestowed by the media on the Conservative politician Michael Heseltine (b. 1933), not only for his height and blond hair but also with reference to an incident of 1976 when he brandished the House of Commons mace to protect it. Tarzana, now a suburban residential section of Los Angeles, was named in honour of Tarzan.”
Excerpted from: Crofton, Ian, ed. Brewer’s Curious Titles. London: Cassell, 2002.
“What detective did Edgar Allen Poe invent? C. Auguste Dupin, the coolly logical amateur sleuth of three stories published in the 1840s: ‘The Murders in the Rue Morque,’ ‘The Mystery of Marie Roget,’ and ‘The Purloined Letter.’”
Excerpted from: Corey, Melinda, and George Ochoa. Literature: The New York Public Library Book of Answers. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference
“It is impossible that it could be true and therefore it is without real value.”
Excerpted from: Bernard, Andre, and Bill Henderson, eds. Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections. Wainscott, NY: Pushcart Press, 1998.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference
Tagged fiction/literature, literary oddities
“Ever since William Empson published Seven Types of Ambiguity (1930) this term has had some weight and importance in critical evaluation. In brief, Empson’s theory was that things are not often what they seem, that words connote at least as much as they denote—and very often more. Empson explained thus: ‘We call it ambiguous…when we recognize that there should be a puzzle as to what the author meant, in that alternative views might be taken without sheer misreading….An ambiguity, in ordinary speech, means something very pronounced, and as a rule witty or deceitful.’ He uses every word in an extended sense and finds relevance in any ‘verbal nuance, however slight, which gives room for alternative reactions to the same piece of language.’ ‘The machinations of ambiguity,’ he says, ‘are among the very roots of poetry.’
He distinguishes seven main types, which may summarized as follows:
In varying degrees, Gerard Manley Hopkins’s poem The Bugler’s First Communion exemplifies all seven types.”
Excerpted from: Cuddon, J.A. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. New York: Penguin, 1992.
Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on The Catcher in the Rye if you need it. It’s a brief introduction to the novel; I’ve never used it, but if I did, I would probably present it as a way of gauging student interest in taking a pass at the novel.
If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
OK, as we reach the end of spring break (boo hoo!) here is a short reading on John Steinbeck and the vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that accompanies it.
If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
Because Linda Rockstroh, the author of this charming and clever little book taught me English in high school, I take particular pleasure in offering a review of it. As you will doubtlessly infer from the synopsis and, injunctions against the practice aside, the cover of the book, this is a mystery story conceived and written for younger readers.
That said, and because I am a teacher who focuses on issues of basic literacy, if I taught younger children—8-to -12-year old kids are probably this book’s intended audience—I would buy 40 copies of this book posthaste for use in my classroom.
Conventionally, this is a mystery. The ten-year-old protagonist, Holly Stone, aka the Holly Hollywood of the title, moves from Hollywood, California to the small town of Lebanon, Indiana. There she immediately and more or less simultaneously becomes involved in two new friendships—which earn her the “Hollywood” moniker—and a mystery. You’ll need to buy the book to resolve the mystery because I find synopsizing an annoying exercise that too easily gives up spoilers.
What I can tell you about this book is that although it is a genre (again: mystery) story, it nicely incorporates some vocabulary-building devices that I think any teacher or parent will welcome. One such technique is as simple as it is elegant. Because Holly is a budding cinematographer, each chapter is titled with a term of art from the world of film production. Ms. Rockstroh—a filmmaker herself, incidentally—underwrites each chapter heading with a brief and edifying definition of the named term, which is a difficult balance to achieve. She also uses Holly’s internal dialogue to define appositively the words she uses in the dialogue. For example, on page 14, Holly, who speaks to the reader in the first person, relates that obsession is her “new favorite word” and defines that abstract noun as “…something you’re hung up on and can’t get out of your head.” That’s a tried and true strategy for vocabulary building, but also tricky. As you can see, it’s done well in this book. However, it doesn’t take too many uses of this device for it to become tedious. In the hands of this author, happily, no such overuse occurs here.
Another fictional device that is stock in mysteries is the cliffhanger at the end of a chapter. This is another technique used with just about perfect restraint in this book; again, my own tendency would be to yield to this strategy because of its ease, and write a book characterized by the tedium of its chapter conclusions. Again, you’ll no such excess in this novel.
One of the great sins, in my estimation, that writers commit when producing material for children is writing overly precocious characters. One sees in this in family-oriented situation comedies: a child makes an ambiguous, often ribald remark which canned laughter then backstops. That’s a precious affectation, usually inauthentic and insincere, and mostly annoying and off-putting. Ms. Rockstroh commits no such errors of literary judgement in her book. That makes Holly Hollywood a relatable and genuine character for young people reading this book or for educators designing lessons around it.
At the price for which this book was on offer at Amazon when I bought it ($5.99 in early April of 2019), this book is a great value and therefore well worth a chance. Even at full retail (I assume a corporate publishing house would charge between eight and fifteen bucks for a book this size) this book provides great value for parents and their children–who will all but certainly enjoy it.
“Pathetic Fallacy: The ascribing of human traits and feelings to inanimate objects or nature, or the use of anthropomorphic images or metaphors. Also ANTHROPOPATHISM
‘John Ruskin coined the name and a later writer, James Thurber, created our favorite example of the pathetic fallacy in a cartoon caption for The New Yorker: ‘It’s a naive domestic Burgundy without any breeding, but I think you’ll be amused at its presumption.’”
William and Mary Morris, Harper Dictionary of Contemporary Usage
Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.
“Odin, the chief Norse god, made a sacrifice to himself, plucking out one eye and hanging for nine days and nine nights from the world tree Yggdrasil, pierced through his side by his magical spear. Gunghir [sic]. This allowed his soul to wander and gain insight into the nine realms of existence as well as to learn two sets of nine magical songs and rune spells. This shamanic sacrifice is told in the Norse Havanal epic: ‘Downwards I peered; I took up the runes, screaming I took them, then I fell back from there.'”
Excerpted from: Rogerson, Barnaby. Rogerson’s Book of Numbers: The Culture of Numbers–from 1,001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World. New York: Picador, 2013.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged fiction/literature
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