Practice Diction Analysis

In Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian" the dark, hopeless diction emanates the desperate solitude the man finds himself stuck in. The author describes the nature around the man with words like "dark" and "thunderclap" as a way to paint a picture much like the ones found in many of today's horror films. The word "gnashing" puts a fierceness into the passage, letting it be known that this is no calm evening about town but a daunting, unwanted venture.

Finalmente!!!!

I’ve never been a huge reader. Sure I can acknowledge a good but when it’s thrown my way but I’m not constantly out searching for the next new book that will get me through the weekend. Reading is just not really my cup of tea, in my free time at least. I really struggled this semester mainly due to the fact that I don’t find it easy to stir up the motivation to just sit somewhere and read, let alone blog about it when I’m done. English is really only enjoyable for me when I get to learn new words to throw around like a member of 17^th century British royalty and just watch how people’s faces take that subtle turn from really being into what you’re saying to where they are so lost they need a map to get back on track. I think I sat in my room and just read once the entire semester which left my reading to get done here at school. I’d read a lot in anatomy and government which are two classes I have a lot of free time in. I read a whole book pretty much in 5-10 minute intervals where I could sneak in a little reading. The book I read, Little Brother, was really interesting though. When I finished reading the first chapter I went and told my thirteen year old brother all about it to the point where he thought it sounded so cool that he’d pick it up and give it a try too. That’s when you know a book is good. Not gonna lie though, I’m glad to be done with the required reading and blogging.

Finished my book

Now I’m sure for some people in our class this is no big deal because it seems like all they do when they get home is read and read and I understand that. My girlfriend locks herself in a different world where I can’t get a hold of her when she gets caught up in a good book and that’s all fine and dandy! But I don’t work that way. I really like my book which was called Little Brother by Cory Doctorow but even then I only read during school in classes I wasn’t really caught up in or the occasional time at home when there was absolutely nothing on TV that caught my interest. But by golly I did it, all 390 ish pages of it. It was about a kid that was a techno-genius who happened to be in the wrong place during a terrorist attack in San Francisco and was accused of being an accomplice in the whole thing. He was interrogated illegally and eventually was released. He found that the government had begun to use outrageous means to keep track of people in a hope to find other potential terrorists so he vowed to use his knowledge of technology to sabotage the government to the point that the public would see that an unknown student somewhere was single handedly bringing down an ad hoc government institution made only to overly “protect” against future terrorism. It had a little bit of everything though. There was some romance, some mystery, some drama; it was pretty epic…not gonna lie. I’ll be doing that book review project on it so if you like how this sounds I’ll be giving more info about it whenever I get around to doing that….until then….stay classy San Diego!

Currently.....we meet yet again.....

Past two weeks pgs read : 160
I finished my book though! That's a big deal for me at least haha

Sentences of the week:
 "We win freedom by having the courage and the conviction to live every day freely and to act as a free society, no matter how great the threats are on the horizon." - Little Brother (Afterword)
"So close the book and go. The world is full of security systems. Hack one of them." Little Brother (Afterword)
"She kissed me then, and I kissed her back, and it was some time before we went out for that burrito." Little Brother

Close Reading Bingo

"Salinger uses words with mainly negative connotations that are easy to understand yet are somewhat hostile." http://bradey.blogspot.com/

Salinger first describes the parents as “touchy as hell”. http://letsgetawesome5.blogspot.com/

The style of writing makes the reader feel as though they are just having a simple conversation with the author, no fancy diction or confusing literary devices, the author just puts it all out on the table.  http://fifteen-to-twentyseven.blogspot.com/


Baker describes the appearance of the lobby of his work as a place with “towering volumes of marble and glass,” and he also uses figurative language when he mentions the escalator “as the handrails slid on their tracks, like the radians of black luster.”  http://mbutchko.blogspot.com/

This suggests that Holden Caulfield is somewhat uneducated.    http://bookwormsfiresidereading.blogspot.com/
Best analysis I read today      http://contemplationsxjones.blogspot.com/

Currently (Ahora)

Book : Little Brother

Author : Cory Doctorow

Pages read this week : 72

Total pages read : 225

http://thoughtful-attempt.blogspot.com/2011/10/style-mapping.html

http://harknessmonster.blogspot.com/2011/10/style-mapping.html

Style Mapping

In "The Mud Below" the Anne Pnoulx uses blunt, discordant language to suggest the blue collar outlook found in the society that the story takes place while showing how uncivilized and rough bull riding can be. In Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian" the use of a melodiously scholarly dictum that nearly seems archaic portrays a feeling of older times, more socially dictated times in which one follows the bonds of society instead of breaking the mold. And in Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre" the language oozed of a fancy intricacy that made the descriptive portions of the book seem like they drug on even though the story line itself was very well written.