Me, myself and I (Thank you Miss Pascale Picard)

I don’t really like talking about myself but I’ll do it for you guys!

I’m a very sportive guy. I’ve been playing hockey for about 10 years and I love it. I play three to four times a week. I’ve also been playing guitar since secondary 2nd and it’s one of my favorite hobbies. I enjoy listening, playing or writing music. This session, I didn’t have a lot of time, but I always found a little 5 minutes to play my guitar. When I’m out of the class, I turn into a guitar god and set the fretboard on fire!

Here is a photo from the good ol’ time (notice the hair !)

My 6 words memoir is:

Down to earth, but quite dreamy

I wish everybody a nice christmas and a happy new year

alright take care!

Podcasting time!

Alright, so this week was all about analysing two of my peer’s podcast. The first one is from Vincent Marquis.

The song that is analysed is A Moment of Violence. It’s a song by the american band Streetlight Manifesto. For those of you that don’t have a clue about who they are, they’re a punk-ska band from New Jersey. They were formed out of two different ska bands.

The song A Moment of Silence was written to denouce and complain about rich and hig ranked people that takes advantages of the flaws our system has. The theme, for instance, is fraud. It is somehow a wake up call by the narrator to tells people we have to stop those thieves.

Without any doubts, this song can be considered literature. It is full of figurative language and the author really succeeds at creating great pictures with the lyrics. Moreover, the use of irony (ex; Why does it seem the ones who have everything have nothing inside?) and literary techniques like hyperbol (ex; I never did lose a battle) make it literature. The text rhymes and there are a lot of implicit meanings in it. 

The second one is from Hyacinthe Thomas.

The song analysed is The Resistance by this great english band called Muse. The latter won 5 mtv music awards and 8 emmy awards. Plus, the sold around 10 millions album worldwide and this, before the release of their fifth studio album The Resistance which has had a big commercial success. The subject of the song is political coruption and freedom and it is based on George Orwell’s book 1984.

The lyrics incorporate many literature elements such as metaphors (ex; love is our resistance), symbols (heart), implicit meanings and hyberbole (ex; i would wait a thousand years).  There’re some alliteration, assonance and the lyrics rhyme. Moreover, there are many implicit references to George Orwell’s book.

So both songs have something in commun. In fact, they both talk in a negative way of our government. It means that our capitalist system may has some serious issues. It’s sad that people constantly try to take advantage of others. It is somehow worrying that our money is managed by those people. I think it’s deplorable because we are powerless.

 The end is near!!:)…

Blog post #8

Hi folks!, the session is flying by… post #8 already!

The reading of DJMH is almost done now. There are only two chapters remaining. Here’s a brief list of what happens in chapter 6-7-8.

A- Jekyll becomes Hyde without taking the liquid.

1- Jekyll becomes Hyde without taking the liquid.

2- Mr. Hyde Murders si Danvers Carew.

3- Jekyll feels remorses for what Hyde did. He wants to redeem his past. Hyde seems to disappear and that leads Jekyll to come out of his secclusion.

4- Jekyll struggles with his evil side once again. One day, while he was sitting in a park, he tranforms into Hyde without the potion.

5 – Mr. Hyde is taking more place. Jekyll refuses to see anyone and haggles with his friend Lanyon.

6- Jekyll desperatly tries to find the missing ingrdient that would let him brew the potion so that he could stay under Jekyll’s form.

7- Jekyll commits suicide while Poole and Utterson enter his room.

 

 Is it Jekyll’s fault that he becomes Hyde and kills carew? Why or why not?

Of course it is! He is the one who created the potion. Even if, at this time in the story, he’s having hard time controlling his two sides, he is the one and only person to blame. He is responsible of his acts.

Next on the list is Blog #9….

Take care!

Time to launch the mighty evil Research Project!

First of all, I think Stephenson’s novel is a pretty mysterious story so far. I don’t like it that much though. There are great long descriptions but I don’t understand them all the time. The vocabulary is pretty advanced and I sometimes have hard time trying to figure out the meaning of a sentence. For what I understand, it’s very well written and elaborated.

And now…….the Research Project !

The subject my team and I are working on is «crime in the Victorian society». I listed here 5 websites that will be helpful to our research.

http://www.victorianweb.org/history/crime/index.html                                                                                                        

http://www.ourwardfamily.com/1800’s_britain.htm

http://www.suite101.com/content/crime-and-punishment-in-victorian-england-a121431

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_morality

http://www.hiddenlives.org.uk/articles/poverty.html

-Those sites offer a great description of the society (history, lifestyle, thoughts, law system…) so that we can understand better the context of the crimes committed at this time.

-Some of them contain examples of real crime that were committed and reported.

-Most of them give statistics related to crimes 

We can’t wait for you to see our presentation!  See you soon… 

 

Ethical Issues in Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Apart from hearing the name a couple of times in my life, I don’t know much about those two legendary characters. Nonetheless, I will give my point of view on two statements that are related to the story.

1. Our nature is dependent on where and how we are brought up.

I strongly agree on this statement that is ; our nature is dependent on where and how we are brought up. I think our education is very dependent on the environment surrounding us. It helps or it does harms to the process of personality development. For example, young kids living in south Africa don’t get the same eduction and the same values we get here in north america. We are told and « trained » to have our own opinion and money often plays a big role in our decisions and actions. Not to say our values are better or worst than theirs, they’re just different. Our parents also play a crucial role in our development. Two people with the same genetic code would grow up mentally different if they were brought up by different parents. They are the ones who teach us what’s good or bad according to their life experiences.

 2. Everyone has it in them to kill someone else

I could not disagree more with this one. Even though we all have an evil side to our personality, it doesn’t mean we are all able to steal someone else’s life. I think people who are able to do that suffer from mental disorders. Thinking of it is one thing, but commiting a crime this serious is morally unacceptable for a person mentally healthy. Just thinking of commiting a crime of this genre gives me shivers.

Alright folks! you disagree on some points? 

Comment!

Edgar Allan Poe

First, I read the french version of The Tell-Tale Heart a couple of years ago while I was attending high school. I liked it. I Think Poe is one of the best when it comes to playing with readers’ feeling and creating pictures and suspense. His word choice is what makes him stand out from others.

Interesting facts…

The cause of his death remains a mystery. His death certificate has been lost. There has been many speculations on the circumstances of his death such as delirium tremens, heart disease, cholera, syphilis and many others… 

Poe enlisted in the Army under the name of Edgar A. Perry. He claimed he was 22 years old while he was 18.

Poe’s mother died a year after his father abandoned the family. He was adopted by a successful Scottish merchant named John Allan.

My experiences…

I recently read The Lottery from Shirley Jackson which has Gothic elements in it. I’m not a big fan of books so the list ends here. However, I’ve seen some great movies like Nightmare before Christmas or Sleepy Hollow.

We, humans, seem to be attracted by the fear of the unknown. Horror movies are always pushing the boundaries of our imaginary and the feelings they create keep us coming back for more. 

For more informations about Edgar Allan Poe, please visit the following links….

www.online-literature.com/poe/

www.poestories.com     

www.eapoe.org

“A poet looks at the world the way a man looks at a woman” – Wallace Stevens

To me, poetry is all about creating nice pictures with words.

 I like poetry when it’s not too hard to understand. Some of the greatest metaphors i’ve heard are simple ones. Poems do not have to be complicated to be beautiful.

Here’s some writing exercises using Mr. Williams models…

Path to Freedom

As the prisoner

climbed over 

the gate

first the right hand

stealthily

then the man

stepped awkwardly

into the pit of

the inescapable

jail.

This is just to say

I have done

the exercises

that were in

the book

 and which

you were probably

saving

for homework

forgive me

they were short

so easy

and so fun.

Who’s Wlliams Carlos Williams?

Carlos was an American poet associated with modernism and Imagism. He was also a pediatrician and general practitioner of medicine.                               

Thank you Mr. Williams for letting me use your poems as my models. It was a fun exercise to do!

Movies VS books

Translating words into images is not always an easy thing to do. Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. Books have advantages over movies and those will be discussed.

Books that have been made into movies often lack details. In fact, moive producers have to represent the story in a certain length time. To do so, they must cut details that helps people to understand the plot or the setting. Moreover, reading books may take longer time than watching movies but it helps people to relax. Reading half an hour before going to bed is a good way to fall asleep. From another point of view, reading books involves creativity. Whereas imaginating a place or a character’s face, creativity is involved. Often, when a book is adapted, people are disappointed by the appearance some characters have. In fact, they imagine those charcarters the way they would like them to be.

To conclude, books have advantages over movies. They create an atmosphere that is hard to recreate in a movie. They help to relax and involve creativity. Books are unique and they can’t be replaced by movies.

Types, definitions and examples of IRONY

VERBAL : Saying one thing and meaning another

Ex : I say to my friend i would love to own a car like his even though i think it’s garbage.

[It’s ironic in the way that i said the exact opposite of what my thoughts were]

SITUATIONAL : Events turn out differently than expected

Ex : You dream of climbing the everest and then you die while climbing it.

[This is ironic because you die trying to fulfill your dream]

DRAMATIC : When the audience knows more than the characters.

Ex :  Two people having a crush on each other but being too shy to make things happen. We often see that in movies…

[The audience knows they could be happy together but the characters don’t]

 

Alright…  Class dismissed for today!

Blog #1!

Hi folks!,

                   Here’s my short poem…..