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Mar. 14th, 2007 08:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethStupid book. Stupid topic. Speak English!
... yes I know they technically are.
It's not just the specialist vocabulary. I'm sure if I'd either (a) done English Language A level like a sensible person would before a degree or (b) read the book from the start all the way through instead of just the chapters we've been told to I'd have more of an idea what all these *bleep* words mean.
It's stuff like "prevent in Milton's usage means anticipate" or "fondly means foolishly".
!
I mean, yeah, okay, fair enough, language changes
but how am I supposed to know?
And more importantly, why am I supposed to know?
A modern day reader is going to get something quite different out of the poem, unless they've been reading all this background gumpf too.
Okay, if we're studying how to create effects, yes, we need to know what effects it's trying to create. A bit. Or what has been created anyways.
But couldn't they pick some better examples?
Even rhyme schemes... no, especially rhyme schemes! We're told the rhyme is abbaabba etc etc
but then we look at the poem and it bloody isn't
this century
in our regional accent
and then you start to think, what's the bloody point? everyone says this stuff differently! if I want things to rhyme I have to know who'll be speaking! And, yeah, I can make the letters at the end of a word match, but even so, not matching the sound is likely to be!
And rhythm? Forget it. Dumdi dumdi dumb. Depends on stresses, and everyone stresses language in different patterns depending on, once again, regional background.
Plus I'm reasonably sure the teacher told us something last lesson that contradicts both plain sense and the textbook we're allegedly using (the one the reader cuts off around the edges). Said it was pentameter when it's hexameter. If the teacher can't decide, how are we supposed to?
I'll have to check my notes about that because if I'm right that would be a Thing.
And what's with iambic anyway? The other book calls it, um, rising duple? Possibly? I can't exactly remember which one they call rising, on account of if you're beating time it's the other way around, but if that's so then it would be rising... er, possibly. ANYways, it says right in the words which is the stressed one and how may dumdi bits it has. Far easier! Why have dumb words for it that have no relation to numbers or stress patterns? But noooo, that would make sense!
... *rereads* ...
... *sighs* ...
Okay, my original plan to do reading between episodes was probably actually a better plan than trying to plough through the chapter all at once. Because if I do that I end up reaching critical mass and going boom all over LJ.
Also a better plan would be not attempting to do all the reading on the Wednesday, even if the reader is set out that way, so you do a class Tuesday and have reading to go after it before Thursday. Because if I get a bit ahead I might be more bored in class but I won't be so driven nuts on Wednesdays, so.
Study skills! Acquisition thereof! I shall remember to print it out for my PDP folder.
:eyeroll:
*goes off to watch DS9. hopes things will go boom. that aren't me.*
*also, takes a painkiller*
... yes I know they technically are.
It's not just the specialist vocabulary. I'm sure if I'd either (a) done English Language A level like a sensible person would before a degree or (b) read the book from the start all the way through instead of just the chapters we've been told to I'd have more of an idea what all these *bleep* words mean.
It's stuff like "prevent in Milton's usage means anticipate" or "fondly means foolishly".
!
I mean, yeah, okay, fair enough, language changes
but how am I supposed to know?
And more importantly, why am I supposed to know?
A modern day reader is going to get something quite different out of the poem, unless they've been reading all this background gumpf too.
Okay, if we're studying how to create effects, yes, we need to know what effects it's trying to create. A bit. Or what has been created anyways.
But couldn't they pick some better examples?
Even rhyme schemes... no, especially rhyme schemes! We're told the rhyme is abbaabba etc etc
but then we look at the poem and it bloody isn't
this century
in our regional accent
and then you start to think, what's the bloody point? everyone says this stuff differently! if I want things to rhyme I have to know who'll be speaking! And, yeah, I can make the letters at the end of a word match, but even so, not matching the sound is likely to be!
And rhythm? Forget it. Dumdi dumdi dumb. Depends on stresses, and everyone stresses language in different patterns depending on, once again, regional background.
Plus I'm reasonably sure the teacher told us something last lesson that contradicts both plain sense and the textbook we're allegedly using (the one the reader cuts off around the edges). Said it was pentameter when it's hexameter. If the teacher can't decide, how are we supposed to?
I'll have to check my notes about that because if I'm right that would be a Thing.
And what's with iambic anyway? The other book calls it, um, rising duple? Possibly? I can't exactly remember which one they call rising, on account of if you're beating time it's the other way around, but if that's so then it would be rising... er, possibly. ANYways, it says right in the words which is the stressed one and how may dumdi bits it has. Far easier! Why have dumb words for it that have no relation to numbers or stress patterns? But noooo, that would make sense!
... *rereads* ...
... *sighs* ...
Okay, my original plan to do reading between episodes was probably actually a better plan than trying to plough through the chapter all at once. Because if I do that I end up reaching critical mass and going boom all over LJ.
Also a better plan would be not attempting to do all the reading on the Wednesday, even if the reader is set out that way, so you do a class Tuesday and have reading to go after it before Thursday. Because if I get a bit ahead I might be more bored in class but I won't be so driven nuts on Wednesdays, so.
Study skills! Acquisition thereof! I shall remember to print it out for my PDP folder.
:eyeroll:
*goes off to watch DS9. hopes things will go boom. that aren't me.*
*also, takes a painkiller*