10/25 - Fielding Last Minute Questions and Allusion

Today's class was started with Mr. Rivers giving us the opportunity to ask some last minute questions regarding our essays, due tonight by midnight. Below are some questions that were asked, and their responses:

1) Is paraphrasing out of the question?
Rivers stated that paraphrasing was perfectly fine, and is probably better for film evidence. However, he also mentioned staying specific to preserve the craft analysis, and to properly cite the evidence.

2) What is the minimum word count?
The minimum word count is 1000 words, but it can go over that limit and even over 1200, given that it is done for the sake of creating a good essay and not being too wordy and just trying to stuff your essay with filler material.

3) What is being focused on with the MLA formatting?
To answer this, Rivers mentioned that there are some things that he will be strict about:
- Skills we've seen before, such as basic MLA formatting (REMEMBER TIMES NEW ROMAN, 12 PT. FONT DOUBLE SPACED), and that he wants the essay to be stylized by us, and not come out as some "Mad Libs" essay like a limited 40-minute essay would be like. Remember to keep the quality within your work.

4) Are quotes necessary from both texts?
Rivers made the point of saying not necessarily, as your film evidence may just be paraphrased for the sake of analyzing craft moves within a scene. Novel evidence would most likely be textual evidence, so from the book you've read, yes, from the film, maybe not.

5) Should theme be explicitly stated?
While the theme should come up within that paragraph dedicated to it, there is no point where you have to write "The theme is..." in your work.

With that, Mr. Rivers asked us to analyze an email from another student that asked about topic sentences, and we discussed in groups about which would be better, but Andre brought up the idea that both could be used, which was what was recommended to the student.

Moving past essay questions, we started notes on allusions. We started by asking what allusions do, and so we broke them down into three parts: if the tone was critical or paying homage, defining and rewarding the audience, and reinforcing themes that may be tied to the allusion. We will use these ideas to talk more about Ready Player One after our essays. Next, we went into the difference between allusions and illusions. Illusions are visual tricks, such as pretending to levitate a crystal ball when it's just a ladle in your sleeve, and allusions are literary or historical references to enhance a situation. For example, according to Rivers, if Ian betrayed him in a game of Capture the Flag, he may call him a Benedict Arnold (Famous turncoat in the American Revolution). We also talked about a scene from The Simpsons, where Homer is in a room that is covered in markings with a line similar to "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" from The Shining to pay homage to that scene where Wendy finds his novel and it's just pages and pages of that line. Finally, we talked about tone in allusions and went to another example from the Simpsons family, but this one was from The Simpsons Movie, where Bart puts on "Mickey" ears and states that he is the mascot for an evil corporation. This is a critical shot at Disney, which works perfectly as satire. Positive alternates of allusions pay homage or respect or reverence for the mentioned work. We went slightly into how the allusions in the show Stranger Things create nostalgic tones, but the period ended soon into the conversation.

So how does any of this apply outside of our classroom? Well, think about allusions in history classes. Since history tends to repeat itself, one event might mirror another quite well, so comparing the two might help you understand what happened with both events. This is also true in reading the news, as allusions might be made in an article about a current event to help readers understand and reward those who do. Allusions are apparent in everyday life as well, as many conversations will hold references within them that just make you go, "I understood that reference."