The Lady Inevitable

My dad used the phrase "delay the inevitable" in conversation today, and for a split second I thought he said "the Lady Inevitable." I soon realized what he'd really said, but I still got an amazing image of fate in the form of Lady Inevitable. She wears a mask and a luxurious old-style gown, like an elegant masquerade guest, and carries something as she follows you, closing in slowly. Maybe she carries a book, or your electric bill, or your death. You won't know when she'll arrive until she does; maybe you can delay the Lady, but she'll always be Inevitable.

THE NOSE

Yup. The Nose.

1. What does Ivan Yakovlevich do for a living?

He's a barber! (on a side note, Kovaloff's valet is also named Ivan. That had to have been intentional...?)

2. What does Ivan find in a loaf of bread?

A nose! *gasp*

3. How does his wife respond to Ivan's discovery?

She's all like, "You drunkard!" (not sure how that's relevant but according to our oh-so-reliable narrator, it's true)

4. What does Ivan set out to accomplish?

He wants to get rid of that stupid nose!

5. When Ivan tosses the "package" in the river, for a brief moment he is happy; then he is arrested. What does this scene suggest about the role of happiness in Ivan's life/community/society?

Happiness is fragile, and subject to the arbitrary will of authorities (in this case, the policeman)

6. Where does the title object belong, and how does it finally get there?

on Kovaloff's face
it just magically fixes itself back on one morning
y'know, 'cause that makes so much sense
THE END

WELCOME TO THE INTERDISCIPLINARITY

Despite my previous post being organized into two columns, this one will be formatted in rows! Hope no one like, freaks out or anything.

Drama/Romeo & Juliet

Disciplines include:

• English (analysis of storyline, deciphering archaic English, etc.)
• history (provides insight into 16th century England's culture & values; research on 14th century Italy required for costumes & set design)
• psychology (interpreting characters' emotions; also improves empathy skills by literally putting yourself in your character's shoes)
• public speaking (which, as I'm sure everyone knows, is according to polls scarier than death)
• memorization
• working as a team

Study of hiccups

Disciplines include:

• human biology (study of hiccup mechanism, which involves several different organ systems, including nervous, muscular, respiratory, and digestive)
• human evolution (hiccups are thought to be a remnant of ancestral regurgitation process that we never quite evolved out of)
• chemisty/pharmacology (to prescribe medication)
• application of scientific method
  • hypothesis of cause/cure -->
  • test (blood work, MRI, etc.)/perscription of medication -->
  • did it work? -->
  • restart from the beginning
  • repeatedly

Personally experiencing over two years of chronic hiccups have also brought me into the following disciplines:

• psychology (individuals react to my hiccups in a variety of ways, including:
  • concern
  • pity
  • shock
  • utter consternation
  • mistaking them for something else [most common guesses are sneezing, choking, and seizure/random spazz-out]
  • laughing
  • turning really awkward
  • freaking out about how cute these girl's hiccups are [nice little perk]
  • suggesting that I drink water [luckily people don't do this often, because when they do I struggle to contain myself]
  • and FINALLY
  • acceptance [standard protocol has become saying "bless you," because it allows other people to acknowledge the hiccup without having to think of something original every time])
• study of consciousness (one of the theories my doctors have given as to why I've had persistent hiccups with no apparent cause [even after extensive testing] is that it's a conflict between my conscious and subconscious minds [i.e. I'm too stressed and my subconscious is saying "Hey Lisa, quit your AP classes and calm the hell down" and I'm like "WHAT ARE YOU DOING YOU'RE MAKING THINGS WORSE" and so the vicious spiral continues])

LAUNCH/DRAFT

I have two concurrent goals (one relatively short-term and more immediately important, thought not lasting; the other is more long term and arguably more important, although less immediate), so I'm gonna write about both, in two columns!

What am I passionate about? What do I want to do?
I want to be an amazing Juliet for our production, and at the same time deepen my knowledge of Shakespeare so I can kick some AP test butt in May :D	I want to cure myself and others of chronic illness. No doctor has cured me yet, and I'm sure there are countless others facing the same impasse. I'm confident that once I acquire the knowledge necessary to understand my illness and others' (which I'd like to say is only a matter of individual research, but I think it's more realistic to say it will take years of study. Good thing I'm going to college), I have both the intelligence and the personal sympathy (gained only by experience) to be an outstanding doctor.
How can I use the tools from last semester (and the Internet in general)?
I can personally say that our study of Hamlet has (indirectly) helped me immensely in my study of Romeo & Juliet. As compared to the first time I read the play in LeClair's class, this time around it looks so much more like English! And our adventures in memorization have definitely improved (and helped me codify) my strategies: see both my original and follow-up posts on the topic.	I know that the Internet contains an immense amount of educational and informational resources about almost everything. I've learned that the problem is not whether or not information is available; it's whether or not we seek it. (I used to stare at ingredients lists and be like "carr-a-gee-nan? what's that? well, whatever" but now [especially considering the advice I've gotten from my nutritionist] I'm like, "Dude! I'm not ingesting that if I don't know what it is" so I look it up and FIND OUT. Granted, the Internet [in this case, a virtually unlimited supply of "facts" and oftentimes conflicting advice] is no replacement for actual experts on anything, but it's certainly better than being completely clueless, especially on subjects that you wouldn't ask an expert about anyway [which includes pretty much anything that doesn't kill you, i.e., almost everything].)
What will I need to do in order to "feel the awesomeness with no regrets" by June?
I guess I need to figure out how to tailor my schedule in order to accomodate this commitment. In other words, I need to make sure that everything that I really need to do (such as homework, and getting enough sleep) gets done so I don't regret committing to the play (especially because I almost didn't: in order to focus on school, I haven't done a spring play since freshman year. I debated for a long time about R&J, but I had several compelling reasons that I did not have for either of the spring plays that I missed, including the fact that I can count it as part as my English curriculum [Shakespeare = excellent literature analysis and AP essay fodder], and that this is my last chance! My swan song!).	This question may not be entirely relevant to this particular goal, since it will span many years. In fact, this goal might actually have to suffer in order to achieve my other, more pressing short-term/high-school goals such as the play (see left) and my multiple AP classes.
What will impress/convince others (both in my life and in my field)?
If I'm lucky enough to get a prompt on my AP test that I can work to fit Romeo & Juliet, I'm gonna be able to refer to every scene by name, I'll have a complete understanding of Juliet's emotional conflicts throughout the play (having almost literally lived them myself), I'm gonna have an arsenal of Juliet monologues on command, and I'll probably have half of everyone else's lines memorized too. If the gods offer me the proverbial chance, I'm gonna write a Shakespeare essay like the AP graders wouldn't believe!	I can see the newspaper headline now: Sick Girl Cures Self After X Years Of Hiccups (where X = at least 2.5 [in other words, clearly too many]). You would read it, wouldn't you?
How will I move beyond 'What If' and take this from idea --> reality?
Lucky for me, I've already started this one! I even have 5 of my monologues memorized already :D	This goal is a little tricker. It's a bit hard to define the start point here: I've kind of already started my research. I've been focusing on researching all the medications I've taken (9 total) to see if the comparisons between the medications that did and didn't work shed any light on the cause of my hiccups. However, I've been stumped because the information I'm trying to work with is extremely technical, and honestly over my head. This is where I need intensive study, so I intend to major in neuroscience or a related field to get the education I need. So, I may be unable to move forward with this very much until I'm enrolled as a college student, but I doubt my motivation (or the cause thereof [heh]) will disappear by then, so I'm fine with waiting on this one.
Who will be the peers, public, and experts in my personal learning network?
For Romeo & Juliet, I have two sets of peers. First of all, there's my fellow actors in the cast, and secondly there's everyone in Dr. Preston's AP English class. If Dr. Preston likes this idea (which I'm sure he will), I hope to give a refresher presentation on the play sometime in March for everyone who has read the play already, but might not remember it well enough to write an essay on it for the AP test. And then, hopefully you guys can come to the play to see it LIVE!	In my study of hiccups and/or neuroscience, I have (at the moment) all my doctors, plus my brother (who is majoring in neurobiology). As soon as I get to college, my learning network will expand immensely — I'll have all my professors to learn from, plus all the other students in the major. If I wanted to, I guess I could probably try to expand my learning network into that sphere even sooner, but for reasons stated before I think I have enough on my plate for now. This is still an important goal for me, and I will revisit it this summer.

Lit Terms 6

Last lit terms list! That means we've mastered them ALL :D

Lit Terms 5

The penultimate lit terms list!

THE TIME OF MY LIFE

Admittedly, I was a little uncertain at the ability of a large group of teenagers (even AP ones) to self-organize a discussion about Dickens, and rather cynically expected to bullcrap some discussion notes for the assignment and spend the rest of the period working on calculus. However, I was proven wrong! I believe Daniel was the main mastermind of 3rd period's discussion, in which a few volunteers from each book (Great Expectations and Tale of Two Cities) summarized the plot for the readers of the other. I actually found this REALLY helpful, because during Dr. Preston's lectures on Great Expectations, I heard a lot about the different characters' personalities/relationships/etc. but not much about the plot, which is just as important to understanding the novel. So, I consider it time well spent!

WHAT'S THE STORY?

It seems to me that Charles Dickens wrote A Tale of Two Cities to show that all people are basically the same, regardless of their country of birth or social class. By that, I don't mean to say that all people are good; the novel has plenty of "bad" characters, such as (by the alignment system) the Marquis St. Evrémonde (Neutral Evil), Madame Defarge (Lawful Evil [I say "lawful" because I'm using the revolutionaries' cause, not the aristocrats', as a point of reference]), and Barsad (Chaotic Neutral). I guess what I really mean to say is that you can never use "always" to apply an alignment to all members of a specific country, caste, or job; every individual turns good or evil based on what's in their heart (wow that's cheesy), not their birth. This is why Charles Evrémonde (French aristocrat) turns out to be a stand-up guy, while his uncle (also a French aristocrat) is a total jerkface; and why Sydney Carton (an English lawyer) goes from being unsuccessful/lazy barrister to giving his life because of his love for Lucie, while Mr. Stryver (also an English lawyer) goes from being a successful barrister to... being a successful barrister (even though he also loves Lucie, he still fails to give a crap about anything). Even events can't be blamed for characters' good/evil tendencies; Doctor Manette was (arguably) harmed more personally/severely by the Marquis St. Evrémonde than Madame Defarge was (by my count, 18 years in the Bastille > sister's death), but he still manages to forgive Charles by allowing him to marry into his family, while Madame Defarge swears death on all the Evrémondes, including the perfectly innocent Lucie.

In one of our earlier lectures, I believe Dr. Preston said that during his life, Charles Dickens had the opportunity to observe almost all levels of the social hierarchy in England. My guess is that he saw hearts of gold as well as hearts of stone everywhere, not just concentrated in one group. To bring this message to more people, he wrote A Tale of Two Cities to contrast (or I guess a better wording would be to show similarities between) Londoners and Parisians, aristocrats and commoners, and haves and have-nots.