Great Gatsby Notes

"What little I've accomplished has been the most laborious and uphill of work"


Read for Pleasure


Share what we think and learn from each other


EPI Graph- Quote that gives us a clue at the beginning of the chapter to give the reader a clue of what the chapter or book is about


Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, just remember that all the people in the world haven't had the advantages that you've had."


West Egg Village-important


Midas, Morgan, Maecenas


West Egg, Land formation


Two old friends whom I scarcely knew at all.

Remix Post-Realism

American Realism became popular during the early days of the 20th century, it's found in literature, art, music, and many other forms.


Earlier this week(Yesterday), I came up with a question, "Could American Realism resurge as a way to combat discrimination towards minorities?"

If you're not familiar with Realism, in literature, it's a way to write about people as the really are, to write about people as people.


So, could Realism resurge because of the racial violence? Well, if you haven't noticed, it already has in the past few years(Stronger than ever because of President Trump) made its way back into the mainstream, and not just in literature, it's found in songs, art, photography, etc.

Allow me to explain how realism would be used as a way to combat discrimination, there are multiple groups of individuals who have certain views about certain people. There are people like me who see Latinos as Hard Working members of society, working towards the same goal as everyone else, to achieve the american dream, to provide a better life for the next generation. Then there are individuals who are on the exact opposite of the spectrum, who see Latinos as "Dangerous Illegals who steal our jobs" and need to be sent back to their home country. There are individuals like me who view people of Islam as members of our diverse community, exercising the Freedom of Religion as guaranteed in the Constitution(First amendment, enacted 1789 and Revised in the Early 1990s during the George H.W. Bush  Administration). Then there are the other individuals who view the Islamic Followers as "Dangerous Terrorists set out to destroy America."


Now, on to the really exciting stuff. How to we combat this discrimination? Well, we fight, verbally, of course. Through words and wisdom, through peace and acceptance of all races, religions, sexuality, and gender, through art and music, through writing and many other ways. Some excellent examples include the famous Novel The Grapes of Wrath or Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, stories about the life of Migrant workers during the Great Depression and how they were treated, the Circuit and other stories by Dr. Francisco Jimenez, stories about a young Mexican Immigrant's experience growing up during a very prejudice time in history when he arrived in a Farming community where the Dominant ethnicity was White, Farewell to Manzanar by James D. Houston and Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, stories of a young Japanese-American living years in an Internment camp, when he family had left Japan years before the Second World War, and through leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr's speech "I have a dream," to push for equality in the segregated south, to push for acceptance of integration at a time where racism was still dominating the country. We can all fight discrimination in any way, shape, or form we choose; Whether it's art or music, to writing a string of mindless paragraphs like I'm doing now, American Realism is making a comeback, whether you've noticed it or not.

Examples of American Realism:

Naturalism, Realism, and Modernism

Naturalism- "People don't want to work as machines," deterministic of the individualistic ethos, life is bigger than the individual's point of view


Realism- Post-WWI, early modern values, Write about people's lives as they are


Modernism- Life is new and confusing all the time, No god




(only a few notes legible from my shit handwriting)

Remix Video Notes

Everything is a Remix

Remix- Hay day of Hip-Hop

Technology has made Remixing a Folk art.

The Arrangement and Transformation of Samples

Myths of Creativity:

-Stories, humans are too meager to create anything divine.

-Light Bulb is the most popular metaphor for creativity


How do we create?

-Domain Knowledge: Learn the language

-Copying: Emulation

Gonzo Journalism

-Transformation- Create variations of existing things

Video Notes

Sarah's video:
-Points out our difference between Shakespeare's writing vs. Today.

-'To be or not to be' Hamlet feels that his situation is hopeless, options: Take arms against his uncle, or accept it.

-What is the afterlife?

Bodkin- Blunt needle

Fardle- Run away from home sack

 TED Remix:

-Every country on Earth is reforming Education, Economic or other reasons.

-How do we educate our children to have a cultural identity?

-Raise standards of Education

-Education system is incredibly obsolete

-Based on social structure

Economic/Intellectual-havoc

ADHD is not an Epidemic, we are being forced to pay attention to boring things and losing interest.

The Arts are Victims of Anesthetic epidemic.

Education is modeled in an industrial manor.

Divergent Thinking- Essential capacity for Creativity

We are all Divergent Thinkers, and we lose it as we get older.

Great learning happens in groups

Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

Response to a quote.

Dr. Preston brought up Robert Burns' quote "The Best laid laid plans of Mice and Men Often go astray." I actually feel as if we can all relate to this quote.

Now, another quote I agree with is from the film "V for Vendetta," and V states:

'Behind this mask there is more than flesh, behind this mask is an idea, and ideas are Bulletproof..."

Music as Literature

Can we consider music as literature? In my opinion, yes. If you haven't noticed, every song tells a story, whether it's Johnny Cash spinning a yarn abut a ghostly band of Outlaws to Queen singing about how they grew up in the shadow of the Attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan(Hammer to fall, Lyrics: Growing up in the shadow of the Mushroom cloud).

Songs can deliver a message to everyone who listens to it, it can bring them together or drive them apart. What do you think?

What's the difference between a Novel, a poem, a rap, a song, an opera, and a symphony? A novel is a collection of stories, a poem is a short story, a rap is a story with rhythm, an opera is a story sung for several hours, and a symphony is a story that you must create the words to. They're all stories, just presented in a different fashion.