English grade 11&12: 2011

Sunday, 26 June 2011

The Revolution Of Egypt, 2011

Friday, 24 June 2011

Thoughts on Hamlet by Lee Lady (January, 2002)

Here is someone's comment of Hamlet. I thought, it is quite interesting. I would share with your guys.

Hamlet as Comedian:

(Act 2, Scene 2)

Polonius. Do you know me, lord?

Hamlet. Excellent well, you are a fishmonger.

Polonius. Not I, lord.

Hamlet. Then I would you were so honest a man.

Polonius. Honest, lord! H. Ay, sir, to be honest, this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.

Polonius. What do you read, lord?

Hamlet. Words, words, words.

Polonius. What is the matter, lord?

Hamlet. Between who?

Polonius. I mean, the matter that you read, lord.

Hamlet. Slanders, sir, for the satirical rogue says that old men have grey beards, that their faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and plum-tree gum and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams; all of which sir, although I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it not honesty to have it thus set down; for you yourself, sir, should be old as I am if, like a crab, you could go backward.

It is a joke Hamlet made, which if told well will get a big laugh from the audience, but at the same time he's talking about a murder he's committed. In contemporary terms, Hamlet's lines here, and in fact much of his humor, is what would be called a "sick joke." In fact, I think that one of the things that fascinates us about Hamlet is the contrast between the way he charms us and enlists our sympathies with his conversation and, on the other hand, the dreadful nature of the things he does. In a contemporary movie, we would rightly regard a character who kills people and then make jokes about it as a psychopath. But the fascinating thing is the way that Shakespeare sets things up so that we see Hamlet as a tragic hero. (by Lee Lady)

Personally, I like this comment. In Hamlet's comic dialogue, there is an irony. What Hamlet is saying is comic, but the feeling behind the comedy is extremely antagonistic. It is the way I think of Hamlet today.

Thursday, 23 June 2011

The Power of The Powerless-Director by Cory Taylor

The Power of the Powerless" explores Czechoslovakia's legacy of communist rule and the struggle against it: From the iron-fisted Stalinist government of the 1950s; through the vibrant and politically active Prague Spring of the 1960s; the hard-line backlash of the 1970s; and finally the bloodless revolution of 1989.
Czechoslova

Czechoslovakia's "Velvet Revolution" is one of the most stirring episodes of people-power in recent history. Students demonstrating in the streets of Prague, Czechs and Slovaks brought an end to forty years of communist tyranny through bloodless revolution in 1989.

Four notorious totalitarian leaders in recent world history

Mussolini

Castro

Hitler

Mao Ze Dong

Most notorious totalitarian leaders in recent world history are: Hitler, Mussolini, Mao Ze Dong and Castro. They all were dictators with strong control power in their countries. They all controlled mass communication, weapons and economy. They also instituted secret police to monitor their citizen and prevent revolution.

Three Modern day Totalitarian countries

I picked North Korea, Venezuela and Iran as totalitarianism countries in modern days.

Five Factors	Descriptions
Dictator	In totalitarian country, always there is a strong dictator who has total control power of its government. Also, they inherit their power into their family member or same interest group member in most times. North Korea : Kim Jung Il (After Kim Il Sung) Venezuela : Hugo Chavez Iran : Seyyed Chamenei (After Khomeini)
Control of Mass Communication	All newspaper, magazine, and book publishing, as well as radio and television are centrally controlled and directed by dictators.
The Secret Police	Dictators terrorize their citizen in ways radically differently cruelly to protect their dictatorship.
Control of Armament	Dictators control weapons to provide no legal means of effecting a change of government, revolutions.
Control of Economy	Dictators control the countries’ economy to exploit its population for foreign conquest and world revolution.

Wednesday, 22 June 2011

The Lion King - Final Battle

The philosophy between Simba and Hamlet

The Disney cartoon movie Lion King is one of the most successful films in the animation movie history. I think Simba is pretty much like “Hamlet” in the animal kingdom. He is the only son of the King, and his uncle killed Simba’s father and put the bad result to Simba. He ran away forms the Lion Kingsland. He had been despaired of his life, but he made couple of good friends and Nala (female Lion who loves Simba). They rescued and helped Simba to revenge the enemies. The storyline is very similar with Hamlet, however, the philosophy is totally different with Hamlet. Shakespeare put more effect on Hamlet than Disney. Hamlet has more sophisticate features; he is a prince with the black clothes, twisted character and hysterical speech. The famous speech of Hamlet is “to be or not to be.” Obviously, he is obsessed by revenge. It is the main point that made the tragedy. The dark reality expressed the conflict of the inner human being. The revenge can not make the happiness. On the contrary, in the animal world, Simba is a positive, energetic, and growing lion prince. The one quote from Simba, which I like the best, is “As long as you live here, it's who you are. You'll understand someday.” Different attitude makes difference consequences.

Monday, 13 June 2011

AUTUMN

Whoever has no house now will never have one.
Whoever is alone will stay alone
Will sit, read, write long letters through the evening
And wander on the boulevards, up and down...

Autumn Day Rainer Maria Rilke

Its stain is everywhere.
The sharpening air
of late afternoon
is now the colour of tea.
Once-glycerined green leaves
burned by a summer sun
are brittle and ochre.
Night enters day like a thief.
And children fear that the beautiful daylight has gone.
Whoever has no house now will never have one.

It is the best and the worst time.
Around a fire, everyone laughing,
brocaded curtains drawn,
nowhere-anywhere-is more safe than here.
The whole world is a cup
one could hold in one's hand like a stone
warmed by that same summer sun.
But the dead or the near dead
are now all knucklebone.
Whoever is alone will stay alone.

Nothing to do. Nothing to really do.
Toast and tea are nothing.
Kettle boils dry.
Shut the night out or let it in,
it is a cat on the wrong side of the door
whichever side it is on. A black thing
with its implacable face.
To avoid it you
will tell yourself you are something,
will sit, read, write long letters through the evening.

Even though there is bounty, a full harvest
that sharp sweetness in the tea-stained air
is reserved for those who have made a straw
fine as a hair to suck it through-
fine as a golden hair.
Wearing a smile or a frown
God's face is always there.
It is up to you
if you take your wintry restlessness into the town
and wander on the boulevards, up and down.

P.K.PAGE

Patricia Kathleen Page was born in England, in 1916, when she was 3 years older, Page's family moved to Canada. Because her father was in the military, the family spent time in different cities, including Calgary, Montreal, and Saint John, N.B.

Page began publishing her poems in periodicals in the late 1930s and also began writing books.

Page published more than a dozen books — spanning poetry, fiction, non-fiction and children's literature — and also developed a parallel career as an accomplished painter, after studying under artists in Brazil and New York.

She was died in 2009, and she was 93 years old.

She was one of our early explorers in poetry. She's one of the ones who made it possible for Canadian poets to believe in themselves," B.C. poet Lorna Crozier told CBC News.

Saturday, 11 June 2011

A country in the world where Orwell’s fears have come true

That is North Korea. Indeed, There is no one who wants to be a North Korean. It is the totalitarian horror place where we can only see in fiction, and the brutal level is same as the place in 1984. Orwell predicted almost every aspect of nastiest political regime; everyone may surprise that how this kind country exists in the real world.

Kim’s exhortations to his citizen — “Let us live our own way”, “Adore Kim Jong Il with all your heart” — are reverberations of the slogans of 1984, which echoes in my ear. “Big Brother is watching you.” “War is peace.” “Freedom is slavery”.
Do the citizen delay in North Korea? – No way! Ruler keeps educating citizen that way. In Winston’s diary, he wrote, “Thoughtcrime does not entail death. Thoughtcrime is death.” And, that happen in North Korea. There is no personal opinion and privacy in North Korea. Any perceived words against the regime are punishable by death, or at least go to jail. Forbidden free- speech, love, cellphones and Internet.

Kim Jong Il is getting piggy while citizens are becoming ant’s waist. People are starving while he is drinking Cognac. Birthday gifts for his son, 27 years old, are transported by train while children are dying because of the lack of nutrition. In 1984, the high rank party member only…… has a big office and drink good red wine there.

He is surely the weirdest leader in the world. He isolated North Korea from the rest of the world.

Tuesday, 24 May 2011

5)Create a chart with the titles of the films on the top, and “Film’s opinion of free speech”, “Government’s opinion of free speech” and “How the lead characters resisted” on the left side. Complete the chart.

4)“Mindless entertainment would replace recreational free thinking.” With reference to the film Fahrenheit 451, and maybe SUAS, can you provide evidence for this statement?

I don’t think the Mindless entertainment would replace recreational free thinking. The mindless entertainment as a popular juke permeates our life present. I did not watch it frequently because it might addict my brain loss the activity.
In the film of Fahrenheit 451, books were forbidden in their society. The citizens could not read the books, and then they use strange television. In Fahrenheit 451 when Linda was watching television, she answered questions from the TV show, then she got feedback form the mindless TV show.
In SUAS Natalie had spoken "Just so you know, we’re ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas." after this speech, she lost her fans because of the mindless report of the Media. I think the Media just want to make a news to entertain people, they are exaggerated the speech of Natalie.

3) What does the term “dystopia” mean, anyway? Can you give me another example, say one from real life?

Dystopia means a place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one.
After the catastrophe of Haiti, there became a dystopia county in the world. People kill and steal each other, without any control.

English grade 11&12