Woody Allen; Love & Death

Please continue reading the play "Death" by Woody Allen.

We will screen a film by director, writer, actor Woody Allen. If all goes well we may watch a second or third film.

As you watch, please pay attention to the camera shots Allen is using to tell his story: the use of voice over (VO) to 'tell a narrative story', plot, characterization, theme/message, basic camera shots: close-up, medium shot, full shot, long shot, extreme long shot, deep focus shot, and the basic camera movements: high angle, low angle, pan shot, crane shot, zoom, etc.

Additionally, the use of farce, hyperbole, mistaken identity, and absurdity are rampant in the film. Notice how these comedic techniques are used in the film. You, too, can use these techniques in your own writing!

Homework: Complete reading Without Feathers by Thursday of next week. Here are some helpful notes:

• A Brief, yet Helpful, Guide to Civil Disobedience: People were protesting the Vietnam War when Woody Allen wrote this book. Even this serious topic is humor-fodder for writers. The allusion to The Trojan Women is referring to a Greek Tragedy (see: God) about the women of Troy banding together to protest the Trojan War.
• Match Wits with Inspector Ford: In the 70’s books such as 5-Minute Mysteries were very popular. The idea was that the author gave you a very short mystery or crime. The answer to the “riddle” was in the back of the book. A fan of whodunits will enjoy this parody.
• The Irish Genius: This is a parody (similar to Lovborg) but dealing with the poet William Butler Yeats. Yeats was an Irish culture fanatic and wrote “Irish” lyrics celebrating Gaelic and Irish legends. His poems drip with allusion and Allen plays around with this idea by providing fake “footnotes.”
• God, a Play: Poking fun at Greek Theatre, Allen is also joking about writers and the process of writing a play and the challenges of performing it. Allen was a playwright before he became a film writer. So you can assume the Writer character is partly autobiographical. Of course, the character of “Woody” is also Allen’s alter-ego in the play. Enjoy the absurdist ideas of the piece. By the way, the machine reference in the play is a reference to: Deus Ex Machina (or God from the machine) referring to a contrived ending of a play (a God comes down and fixes the characters’ problems).
• Fabulous Tales and Mythical Beasts: Bestiaries were an old fashion (Medieval) form of the nature guide. They were all the rage in the 1500’s.
• But Soft, Real Soft: There is a scholarly debate over who really wrote Shakespeare’s plays. Many critics say that Marlowe (another Elizabethan playwright) wrote Shakespeare’s work. Others say Queen Elizabeth or Francis Bacon wrote the plays. Probably, odd as it may seem, Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare’s plays. The title refers to a line from Romeo and Juliet.
• If the Impressionists Had Been Dentists: The Impressionist painter Van Gogh kept close correspondence with his brother Theo. Later a song and a movie were made from Van Gogh’s private letters. The title tells the rest of the joke.
• No Kaddish for Weinstein: Kaddish is a Hebrew prayer of mourning usually recited at a person’s grave. Woody Allen often jokes about Freudian Psychoanalysis or therapy. He is using a comic technique of the non-sequitur (or surprising a reader by saying something unrelated to its subject or something that makes no sense or is nonsensical.)
• Fine Times: An Oral Memoir: Another parody of a book review and autobiography of a fictional character. This one is about Flo Guinness, a speakeasy owner in the 1920’s. Alcohol was prohibited (illegal) in the early 1920’s and later repealed. Guinness is the name of a popular beer. Allen references many famous 1920’s musicians and people.
• Slang Origins: The English language has so many weird expressions and sayings. Allen pokes fun at them in this “essay.”

Martian Chronicles Quiz; Woody Allen

This afternoon, after our quiz on the Martian Chronicles, please go to the library to pick up our last book: Without Feathers by Woody Allen, a collection of humorous writings.

When we return from the library, please join me in reading "Death".

1. Visit Woody Allen's website and read his bio. More info on Woody Allen is posted here

Please read about Woody Allen. Answer the following:
1. How did Woody Allen get started in his show business career? What jobs did he have and how much did they pay?
2. Name 5 of Woody Allen's plays, books, or films.
3. What awards or honors have been bestowed or given to Woody Allen due to his work in writing and film?

2. Complete any late homework.

During period 8, please go next door with Without Feathers and let's read together a bit.

HOMEWORK: Using the info below, please continue reading Woody Allen's collection.

As you read his collection Without Feathers, understanding "the joke" can be helpful with a little background. Those of you who read widely will probably find more humor in his work. See the information below to help you figure out what you're reading.
Much of Allen's humor requires a little knowledge about form, content, or knowing a little bit about his life (or the life of a Jewish New Yorker intellectual). To help you, please refer to this page for explanation of the allusion and humor in Woody Allen's book.

• The title: Refers to Emily Dickenson’s poem: “Hope is a thing with feathers.” Ergo, if you have no feathers, you have no hope.
• Selections from the Allen Notebooks & The Early Essays: Both these essays parody the publishing industry’s love affair with memoir, creative non-fiction, and publishing a well-known author’s private writings after they have died. Hence, the humor of these weird insights into the famous “Woody Allen” journals. Traditionally, creative essay form always used the same form: the word “ON” and then the subject of the essay.
• Examining Psychic Phenomena: The supernatural is always a good subject to parody. In this case, a review of a newly published “non-fiction” book on Psychic Phenomena. Look up Psychic Phenomena on the internet to see the sort of thing Allen is parodying.
• The Guide to Some of the Lesser Ballets: When you attend an opera or ballet, inside your program you often get the story synopsis. Since opera is usually in another language, and ballet is hard to follow if you don’t know the story, these sorts of program notes are helpful in interpreting the performance. Allen, of course, is poking fun.
• The Scrolls: A few years before the book was published, the Dead Sea Scrolls were uncovered. In the early 70’s this sort of thing caused a lot of controversy between religious scholars and scientists. They wondered if these scrolls were part of the Bible. Allen is also Jewish, so the humor relates to this fact as well.
• Lovborg’s Women Considered: The playwright Henrick Ibsen is the bane and love of many literary scholars and theatre students. Woody Allen is poking fun of the field of literary criticism (scholars who write about books, authors, and their “private” lives).
• The Whore of Mensa: Allen is parodying the hardboiled detective novel made popular by writers like Dashielle Hammett (The Maltese Falcon). Think of Humphrey Bogart as the narrator and you’ll have the idea. Mensa is a national program/club – entry into which is based on I.Q. The idea then of whores who intellectually stimulate their johns is a very funny idea.
• Death, A Play: Allen was a philosophy major in college. He is also interested in psychology. The two main philosophical ideas this play refers to are existentialism and Nihilism. Existentialism is a type of writing or the study of answering the question: what is the meaning of life? Existentialism tries to explain what the meaning of life is. Some people believe we are alive for a reason, others are Nihilistic and say that there is no point in our existence, that there is no purpose to our lives. Kleinman is representative of everyman. He represents all of us. We sometimes don't know what our purpose in life is (Kleinman doesn't know his purpose in the play, for example). By the way, we are all being "stalked" by death, just as Kleinman is being stalked by the maniac. Death is the great equalizer. All living beings are going to die. Along with LOVE, DEATH is one of the most common themes in literature. Woody Allen made this play into the film: Shadows and Fog.

HOMEWORK: Read Without Feathers: pp. 7-106 (44-106 you have already read!)

Martian Chronicles: Day 6; Draft due!

By now, if you followed directions and were somewhat productive, you should have at least 2, perhaps 3 short story drafts completed for the Bradbury project. Using these drafts, create another short draft (500-1,000 words roughly) where you connect the themes, characters, or settings found in your first two drafts. You want (when all put together) 3 interrelated stories similar to the style Bradbury uses in The Martian Chronicles: he reuses his setting (ex. Mars), advances time so that each story is placed in chronological order (January 1999, August 2030, August 2057, etc.), reuses characters (such as Hathaway, Sam Parkhill, or Col. John Wilder), and many stories deal with the corruption of the innocent Martians and their culture--in fact most stories and the collection as a whole echoes the fears of The Cold War (see your notes on the 1950's).

All three of your drafts should be arranged to create a mini-chronicle and turned in to the sub or my in box by the end of Thursday's class.

HOMEWORK: Please complete The Martian Chronicles: "The Watchers", "The Silent Towns", "The Long Years", "There Will Come Soft Rains", and "The Million Year Picnic".

Expect a quiz on the short story collection when you return from Memorial Day break. You should be familiar with recurring characters, major stories (the longer ones) and their plots, and themes found in the collection. Be able to connect your notes on Bradbury to the significance of the writing style or the book, as well as using your notes, research, and reading to explain how the 1940's/1950's, the Homestead Act, and the early pioneering days in America helped inspire Bradbury in his stories. 

Martian Chronicles Day 5; Bradbury Short Story Project

Last class you were asked to write a 500-1,000 word short story either taking place in a researched decade, or in the future. Today, go back to your previous story draft and attempt the following:

1. Write a new draft of a new story. Use your previous draft (see previous post below) and take a minor character, setting, or event mentioned in that story.
2. Now, advance the clock a few years to make your story use a setting in the future. You can age your minor character, show how other events in the future affect your setting, or write another story that has a similar event or theme as your first story, but with different characters.

Use the stories in Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles as models.

3. If you finish your second story draft today, feel free to begin your last story draft (due Thursday). This story should link your first two in some way. This means, by the end of this project, you will have 3 interrelated stories. Use The Martian Chronicles as a model.

All three drafts of your work should be turned in to the sub or my in box by the end of Thursday.

HOMEWORK: Please read the following stories in The Martian Chronicles: "The Naming of Names", "Usher II", "The Old Ones", "The Martian", "The Luggage Store", and "The Off Season"

"Usher II" alludes to the classic short story "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe. You can read the story here, if you'd like. Many authors use allusions when writing their work. 

Decade Short Story; Martian Chronicles: Day 4

Continue to research your decade. When you have an idea for a short story (about 500 words to 1,000 words in length) begin writing a short, short story that either:

• A. takes place in that setting (historical fiction) or
• B. takes place in the future, but is related (perhaps metaphorically) to your time period. 

Use Bradbury as a model. Note what he does with his shorter stories: how he introduces a setting, a character, and a situation. Then note how he complicates or develops that situation. Finally, the characters undergo some sort of change or through their conflict, they learn something valuable about WHO they are, or HOW the past has made them who they are or kept them from being who they could be. Of course, there is more to his style than just this, but it might be a good jumping off point for your own story.

When writing: consider:

• Who is my main character(s)?
• Who is this protagonist NOW?
• Who will this protagonist be in the future or after the events in the story? (How will the protagonist change?)
• What parts of the past (use your decade research for ideas) provide conflict or problems for my main character?
• If my story is historical fiction: feel free to make up details. (use pictures from the internet, for example, to help create a setting...but people and events can also be completely fictional). 
• If my story is set in the future: use the decade research to create a central metaphor for the story: example: many of the Martian Chronicles stories use the Homestead Act and the opening of the west (real events in the 1860's) as a metaphor for the pioneering astronauts settling Mars (fiction).

These are short stories so give it a go. Write. Use your time in the lab to write. Try to finish at least 1 story today in the lab. It's only 500-1,000 words. Go. Write.

HOMEWORK: Please continue reading The Martian Chronicles: "The Shore", "Interim", "The Musicians", "Way in the Middle of the Air".

Martian Chronicles: Day 3

You have a college preparation assembly today. When we return to the lab, continue researching your decade.

HOMEWORK: Keep reading The Martian Chronicles: "The Settlers", "The Green Morning", "The Locusts", "Night Meeting" (pp. 72-86)

Martian Chronicles: Day 2

Please turn in your homework (see post below for details).

Please read the short story "And the Moon Be Still as Bright" and complete the graphic organizer for participation credit for this story. Complete the story and organizer for homework if needed.

During period 8, please return to the lab to complete the following task:

1. Choose a decade that you would like to research. You may pick any decade in time (period of 10 years). You may pick a culture or country outside of the U.S., if you'd like. 
2. Once you have chosen a decade, please research the trends, events, styles, and important facts/history or details. Take notes of the important events. You may use the graphic organizer to help you organize your notes or write your notes in your journal.
3. You will need these notes for our writing assignment (to be given Monday). 

HOMEWORK: Please complete the reading of the following stories "The Settlers", "The Green Morning", "The Locusts" for Wednesday, May 14.

The Martian Chronicles: Day One & Decade Research

This afternoon we will read the following stories in class:

• Rocket Summer (whole class reading)
• Ylla (whole class reading/small groups)
• The Summer Night (small groups) (allusion to Byron's poem: She Walks in Beauty)
• The Earth Men (alone or in small groups)
• The Taxpayer (alone)
• The Third Expedition (alone, probably as homework for Monday)

As you read Ylla and The Earth Men, complete the graphic organizer for each story. You may consult and work together with your group to accomplish this task. Discuss the story together after reading it. Turn in the graphic organizer by the end of class today.

During period 8, please return to the lab to complete the following task:

1. Choose a decade that you would like to research. You may pick any decade in time (period of 10 years). You may pick a culture or country outside of the U.S., if you'd like. 
2. Once you have chosen a decade, please research the trends, events, styles, and important facts/history or details. Take notes of the important events. You may use the graphic organizer to help you organize your notes or write your notes in your journal.
3. You will need these notes for our writing assignment (to be given Monday). 

HOMEWORK: Please complete the reading of all the stories between pages 1-48 (whatever you didn't finish during class). For the following short stories, please write a 1-3 sentence SUMMARY identifying the major character(s), the plot/conflict, and the possible theme: "The Earth Men" & "The Third Expedition." Turn the two summaries in for participation credit next class.

Also: please bring your books with you to class Monday!

Poetry Chapbook; The Martian Chronicles

During period 7, please complete and revise/proofread and correct your poetry chapbook. Please send me your final PDF file (from the print menu you can save your work as a PDF) at bradley.craddock@rcsdk12.org.

During period 8 (or when you are finished with your chapbook period 7) please read the following and take notes on the graphic organizer (to be turned in as participation credit):

Please visit Bradbury's website and take some notes about the author and Martian Chronicles.

Here's a few more things to note:
Please read the following article:
100 Years of Martian Fiction. Find three key points you learned about the topic and write these points on your graphic organizer.

Here's a few other authors who have written about Mars:
Authors who have written about life on Mars. And a few video clips about the red planet:

John Carter of Mars and the Mars books author: Edgar Rice Burroughs
Red Planet and its author: Robert Heinlein.
Life on Mars (David Bowie)
The Martians Discover a Telephone (Sesame Street)
Mission to Mars (Brian De Palma)

What did you find interesting? Add it to your graphic organizer.

Finally, here's a little history to help you understand how Bradbury is using issues of his day and infusing them into his work:

• The Frontier in American History
• 1940's American History
• Sputnik
• 1950's

From these articles, please summarize some of the things you have learned. Please turn in your notes by the end of class today as participation credit. We will then go to the library to pick up The Martian Chronicles.

HOMEWORK: None. Please bring your books back with you next class. We will begin reading the collection.

Poetry Chapbook Project

Prepare your chapbook:

• Put all your NEWEST poem drafts into one Microsoft Word document file. 
• From your DOCUMENT ELEMENTS tab (located next to HOME/LAYOUT on the menu bar) add a cover and page #'s as a header or footer. 
• Insert a page break between poems. 1 poem per page, please.
• Please make sure you create a title for your "collection": this should be your cover page and your name should be added somewhere on it as well. Feel free to add a graphic if you'd like.
• Create a table of contents. The DOCUMENT ELEMENTS tab will help you.
• After setting up your book, please add a short reflective essay as an introduction after your table of contents. Reflect on your poetry.
• How would you describe your style of poetry?
• What may be some broad themes in your poetry?
• What pieces show off your craft and skill?
• Is there anything else you want the reader to understand about your poetry?
• Skip a page between your table of contents and your introduction before you present your poetry.

Rubric:

CONTENT:

• A: Awesome! You have more than TEN poems crafted in your chapbook.
• B: Brilliant! You have 7-10 poems collected in your chapbook. Or your chapbook project was an A above, but late.
• C: Average! You have 5-6 poems collected in your chapbook. Or your chapbook project was an B above, but late.
• D: Below average! You have fewer than 5 poems in your chapbook. Or your chapbook project was an C above, but late.
• F: Did not turn in project.

CRAFT:

• A: Amazing! The application of various poetry techniques learned in class is evident, overall making the poems stronger, more universal, more artistic, and overall excellent work! There are minor or very few grammar errors in your work. 
• B: Better! You have applied some poetry techniques and strengthened your poetry craft, but poems may need some more work to make them amazing. A few grammar errors weaken the overall effect of your poetry, but the work is understandable and effective. Overall, good job!
• C: Constructive! You have improved your work, but may not be utilizing poetry techniques effectively, or your work is lacking something that would make the draft better. Your work was created, you did the assignment and will get average credit like an average student. Some grammar errors that make reading difficult. Not bad, overall.
• D: Developing! You have poems in your chapbook but many of them have not been revised or improved. If you had the time or inclination you probably would have been more constructive. You threw some words together like a passionate writer, but your work is either careless or lacking focus, making your work developing. Several grammar and syntactical errors that make reading difficult. Okay.

FORMAT: (points added for the following):

• You have a cover page with your unique title and your unique name.
• You have a table of contents.
• You have a short introduction/reflective essay.
• You have your poems separated by page breaks and appropriately formatted
• Your poetry is correctly formatted for verse.

HOMEWORK: None.