With the year coming to a close, I would like to say how proud I am of all of you, and everything you accomplished this past year. If you peruse the blog and Turnitin.com you will find a considerable amount of written work, not to mention all the major novels, poems, short stories, and plays you explored. I am not sure if you noticed, but most of the pieces dealt with human relationships. I did my best to ensure that your experience transcended an “English Class” and became more about personal development. Who knew we would be going through this unprecedented world wide experience. This should help you remember that no matter what anyone tells you, it is a round world we live in. We are all in this together. Further, my experiences as a Fulbright scholar, TEA co-operating teacher, English teacher, world traveler, and Global Citizen reinforced to me that people are integrally all alike. We also read so many of the same authors. We just need the right translation. Always remember...
“We read literature to know we are not alone.”
This quotation remains with me to this day. With the focus in education shifting to more testing, factual information, and reading passages instead of complete works, I worry that people are moving away from novels. Personally, I felt misunderstood most of my life (still do) and being immersed in a novel made me feel safe. People often say “fiction is fake,” but nothing can be farther from the truth.
I am reminded of author James Baldwin, seeing him in past interviews from the documentary: I am Not Your Negro. In every interview, he tries to explain his experience and no one on the panel appears to understand. I can see why fiction became such a valuable outlet for him, another way of trying to make others see the world as it exists. Reading between the lines is vital, especially with the landscape we live in now.
I have never been much of a phone person, and I do not use social media. This year, I replaced scrolling through my phone with carrying a physical book with me. As a result, I have explored quite a few collections of poems, novels, plays, and nonfiction since January. I read The Plague by Albert Camus, Arias by Sharon Olds, reread sections of Les Miserables by Victor Hugo and An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen, explored Tinkers by Paul Harding, as well as currently revisiting The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Hugo. For nonfiction, it was The Instruction and The Old Soul’s Handbook by Ainslie MacLeod, White Fragility: Why it’s so Hard to for White People to Discuss Racism by Robin Diangelo, and Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life by Joshua Fields Millburn. In every case, I found myself questioning the world around me and discovered answers in a book. I also reconnected with drawing and painting. Playing some guitar. This came from literature. Reading helped me focus, see what is important and move away from daily minutiae. I hope you will continue to read literature in your life, disconnect from the anger in the world and find peace.
Whatever you choose to do in the coming year, do your best to recognize the “ghosts” and make the best decisions for you. Life is about finding balance. Making choices, which means NOT choosing everything and enjoying nothing. A career and family. No matter what you do, you will have to choose to give one of these more of your time. Will you become a parent? Get married? Which order? None? The choice will be up to you. Know that you and you alone will choose. Be kind to yourselves. Also, if you see an opportunity to travel – take it! Explore the world. Take a cue from Ashoke Ganguli for Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake: “We all came out of Gogol’s Overcoat. One day you will understand.”
So, what is it that you need? Just remember...Everything you ever needed to learn, you learned in Mr. P.’s Class...
Life is unfair.
Everyone morns in their own way...some wear an inky cloak others will remarry a week later.
Ghosts may haunt you but you can exorcise them if you are true to yourself.
You are free to eat all the macaroons you want...but you must be ready to handle the consequences.
Nothing but a comma, a breath separates life, from life everlasting...so go out! Enjoy your friends, hmmmm?
We create our own versions of the past from our memories...so make your moments count.
All women turn into their mothers that is their tragedy....no man ever does, that's his
Life is unfair
To thine own self always be true.
It doesn’t hurt to get insurance.
Be careful with what you sign your name to, what you post...your word is forever.
When you say, "Hi! How are you feeling today?" Mean it.
We all just want to be more human.
To be premature is to be perfect...
Life is unfair.
There is always a subtext to the plot.
You are a symbolic character in search of the right foil character. A confidant or confidante. Choose wisely.
Finding the right translation is everything.
It’s all about timing, pacing, and blocking.
You do not always need to call the code team...it is okay to make mistakes.
Always wear the right costume to befit the scene.
Make sure we can hear your voice…
…Unless it is not your turn to speak.
Be kind to the Dr. Ranks of the world. They may not be flashy, but they love you.
Kill people like King Claudius and Pastor Manders…with kindness.
Know your lines. Prepare carefully…
…but, remember, there is something to be said about improvisation.
Treat the dress rehearsal like a Broadway performance.
If you screw up your lines, do not start over, just keep going.
Sometimes we have to play the Third Watchman, Student 4, Helen, or Lane for a while, before we are cast as Hamlet, Marjorie, Mrs. Alving, Jack, Nora or Vivian.
Some of us will NEVER be Hamlet, Marjorie Mrs. Alving, Jack, Nora or Vivian and that's okay, too. We need Susie, Horatio, Lane, Dr. Kelekian, and Helen because they are the ones who make it possible for main characters to exist.
Do not disguise the best of yourself. Be seen.
Be kind to your family and loved ones
Life is unfair.
Your future is NOT mapped out for you.
Choose a partner who respects you, one who is your most trusted friend. No someone who wants you to go to a nunnery, stay in the house, avoid boring conversation, forget your child, or only loves you because your name inspires absolute confidence.
Being kind to yourself in all the above…
…is the most wonderful thing of all.
I wish you all the best of luck in your endeavors,
Mr. Pellerin
P.S. Feel free to leave a farewell comment to me and/or your classmates in this blog space.
Mr. P. says, "Always remember your five-year-old essence. Be kind to yourselves."
Overview: This is your final assignment for me, but it is more for you. I would like you to spend some time reflecting on your life as a reader and writer of literature. You are an A.P. student, after all. When you go off to college, or whatever your next phase may be, it will be possible to NOT read anymore novels or write for reflection. I hope this will not be the case, but this project is a way of helping your future self reconnect with the dreams and aspirations you have presently. Given our current state, I hope this assignment helps you put your thoughts in order and meditate on where you are and where you would like to be.
Directions: You will create a time capsule to be opened 20 years from now. It will contain a letter to your future self, personal mementos, lists of your Tops Fives, a drawing or photograph of your ideal bookshelf, and a book you would like your future self to read. We will share on our final Google Meet class. See full directions, below:
Time Capsule
I. Container – Any size is fine. A shoe box works best. It will probably stay in your closet waiting for you to open it years from now. You may decorate it or not depending on how you feel. The only criterion is that it must be labeled somewhere – Do not open until 2040.
II. Letter – Write a letter to your future self. Include the following in your letter:
How do feel about yourself at present? What obstacles are you dealing with at present? (Use your journal to cull ideas from our global citizenship work).
What positive things are happening? Think about Mr. Rogers and his positive ideas of self.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years? How will school turn out? What job do you expect to have? What will your love life be like? What will you relationship with family and friends be like?
Where do you see yourself in 10 years? Do you expect to be married? Children? Traveling? Working?
Reflect on the course. What worked for you? What did you learn? What lessons or units were most effective and why? What books, stories, poems had the greatest impact on you? What concepts will you take with you? Has your reading and/or writing style changed? Are there any other general, memorable moments?
Reflection on your Ideal Bookshelf
Reflection on your Top Fives
Tell yourself what book you want to read and why.
III. Mementos – You may include anything that you want your future self to see from your present.
IV. Book – This is essential. What book would you like to give your future self to read? Is there a novel from high school you never read, and would like to someday? Is there a favorite you'd like your future self to revisit? Explore the possibilities. V. Top Fives - Lists of your all-time, desert island Top Fives of all media (See my lists at the bottom of the post)
VI. Your Ideal Bookshelf – Visit the website. Use the handout (see below), create a vivid image, or photograph of your ideal bookshelf. What books changed your life? What books shaped you into the person you are today. Can you see yourself in the list? Here are some "prompts" to help you make your list. (See my ideal bookshelf, at the bottom of the post).
My Favorite Book
The Book That Changed My Life
The Book I Read Again and Again
The Book I Love the Most
The Best Book I Ever Read
The Book That Makes Me Cry
My Favorite Trashy Novel
The Book That Changed With Me
The Book That Makes Me Feel Inspired
The Book I Couldn’t Put Down
The Nonfiction Book That Felt Like Poetry
The Author Who Makes Me Race to the Bookstore
The Book That Made Me Fall in Love With Poetry
Mr. Pellerin's Ideal Bookshelf
Mr. Pellerin's Top Fives (I had trouble narrowing some lists down)
Fiction
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, Translated by Julie Rose
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
Selected Stories by Andre Dubus
The Minority Report and Other Stories by Philip K. Dick
The House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III
Plays
Wit by Margaret Edson
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Glengarry Glenn Ross by David Mamet
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
Non-fiction
Patient by Ben Watt
The Writing Life by Annie Dillard
The Instruction by Ainslie MacLeod
Little Girl Blue: The Story of Karen Carpenter by Randy L. Schmidt
Between the World and Me by Te-Neishi Coates
Townie by Andre Dubus III
Songs
Temptation by New Order
The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get by Morrissey
I Am Enough for Myself by Sinead O’Connor
Rainy Days and Mondays by The Carpenters
Here’s Where the Story Ends by The Sundays
Olympian by Gene
All Your Tears by Mojave 3
Brittle Heart by Brett Anderson
Sit Down by James
Megan by The Smoking Popes
Albums
Vauxhall & I by Morrissey
Singles 1969-1973 by The Carpenters
Louder Than Bombs by The Smiths
Les Miserables (10th Anniversary)
Amplified Heart by Everything But the Girl
Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic by The Sundays
Gospel Oak by Sinead O’Connor
Some Kind of Wonderful (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
The Stone Roses
Chronicles by Rush
Destination Failure by Smoking Popes
Out of Tune by Mojave 3
Eddie Reader
A Charlie Brown Christmas (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Overview: Jordan Harrison's Marjorie Prime explores our relationships with family, much like Henrik Ibsen did in his time with A Doll House. However, Harrison also delves into the ways in which memory shapes our choices and future. By doing so, he attends to the new challenges we face in our psychologically conscious world. Today we read Part II, Scene 1
Questions to Ponder: By using the conceit of a Prime, how do the characters reinvent their loved ones into what and who they want them to be? How do the Primes and the living, in turn, reinvent themselves? How are we all like Marjorie, when it come to memory retrieval? How do the ideas of Existentialism apply to these ideas and this play? Are there any questions or concepts you found interesting or confusing that you would like to explore in class?
Overview: Jordan Harrison's Marjorie Prime explores our relationships with family, much like Henrik Ibsen did in his time with A Doll House. However, Harrison also delves into the ways in which memory shapes our choices and future. By doing so, he attends to the new challenges we face in our psychologically conscious world. Today we finished reading Part I.
Questions to Ponder: By using the conceit of a Prime, how do the characters reinvent their loved ones into what and who they want them to be? How do the Primes and the living, in turn, reinvent themselves? How are we all like Marjorie, when it come to memory retrieval? How do the ideas of Existentialism apply to these ideas and this play? Are there any questions or concepts you found interesting or confusing that you would like to explore in class?
Overview: Jordan Harrison's Marjorie Prime explores our relationships with family, much like Henrik Ibsen did in his time with A Doll House. However, Harrison also delves into the ways in which memory shapes our choices and future. By doing so, he attends to the new challenges we face in our psychologically conscious world. Today we read Part I, Scene 1, pages 1-13.
Questions to Ponder: By using the conceit of a Prime, how do the characters reinvent their loved ones into what and who they want them to be? How do the Primes and the living, in turn, reinvent themselves? How are we all like Marjorie, when it come to memory retrieval? How do the ideas of Existentialism apply to these ideas and this play? Are there any questions or concepts you found interesting or confusing that you would like to explore in class?
TERM THREE GRADES IN ASPEN - YOU HAVE UNTIL TOMORROW TO EMAIL MISSING WORK.
Recap of Today's Class: We reviewed the last section of the play, and I explained its essence. We started reading the play on page 56, and finished. We see Vivian's last moments. There are no more flashbacks, as we have reached the present. Vivian is on a morphine drip and is no longer conscious. In a surprise moment, E.M. Ashford enters and sits with Vivian. She reads The Runaway Bunny" which, thematically, presents the same idea as Donne's Holy Sonnet, "If Poysonous Mineralls." Vivian need not hide from love. She can embrace it. Vivian dies and walks toward the light. Jason, unfortunately, calls the code team and makes a mistake. He is in the same place as Vivian, when she visited E.M. Ashford as a young student. Will Jason learn from his mistake? Or will he continue? I included the YouTube link, so you can see the film if you wish. It is also available on Amazon if you wish to see it in better quality.
Enjoy your vacation! We will begin Marjorie Prime when we return on Monday, April 27th.
Overview and Homework: As we discussed, below you will find materials to prepare you for our next class session. I provided a link for our Google Meet on Monday. With regard to late work, please email any work you complete to my K12 account, and make sure it is dated and labeled by Friday, April 17th. The last assignment is the close reading essay for Wit, titled "Just a Comma" (The essay may be posted to Turitin.com, also by the 17th). I provided the video of myself teaching the lesson, below. You will also find the complete prompt, assignment, and film clip to make it easy for you to proceed.
Mr. P. gives tips for writing this essay, from last week's post
"Just a Comma" Assignment, Prompt, and Film Clip
Essay Prompt: The following dialogue is an excerpt from Wit a play by Margaret Edson, produced in 1999. Read the passage carefully. Then write a well-organized essay in which you analyze how Edson reveals her values about the importance between literary analysis and real life experiences through characterization and other literary devices.
VIVIAN. (Hesitantly) I should have asked more questions, because I knew there was going to be a test. I have cancer. Insidious cancer, with pernicious side effects – No, the treatment has pernicious side effects. I have stage four metastatic ovarian cancer. There is no stage five. And I have to be very tough. It appears to be a matter, as the saying goes...of life and death. I know all about life and death. I am, after all, a professor of seventeenth century poetry...specializing in the Holy Sonnets of John Donne...which explore mortality in greater depth...than any body of work in the English language. And I know for a fact that I am tough. A demanding professor. Uncompromising. Never one to turn from a challenge. That is why I chose to study John Donne...while a student of the great E.M. Ashford. (Professor E.M. Ashford, fifty-two, enters, seated at the same desk as Dr. Kelekian was. The scene is twenty-eight years ago. Vivian suddenly turns twenty-two, eager and intimidated.)
Professor Ashford?
E.M. Do it again.
VIVIAN. (To the audience) It was something of a shock. I had to sit down. (She plops down).
E.M. Please sit down. Your essay on Holy Sonnet VI, Miss Bearing, is a melodrama with a veneer of scholarship unworthy of you...to say nothing of Donne. Do it again.
VIVIAN. I, ah…
E.M. Begin with the text, Miss Bearing, not with a feeling.
“Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for thou art not soe.”
You've entirely missed the point of the poem, because you've used an edition of the text that is inauthentically punctuated. In the Gardner edition –
VIVIAN. That edition was checked out of the library –
E.M. Miss Bearing!
VIVIAN. Sorry.
E.M. You take this too lightly, Miss Bearing. This is metaphysical poetry, not the modern novel. The standards of scholarship and critical reading...which one would apply to any other text are simply insufficient. The effort must be total for the results to be meaningful. Do you think that the punctuation of the last line of this sonnet is merely an insignificant detail?
The sonnet begins with a valiant struggle with death calling on all the forces of intellect and drama to vanquish the
enemy. But it is ultimately about overcoming the seemingly insuperable barriers separating life, death and eternal life. In the edition you chose, this profoundly simple meaning is sacrificed to hysterical punctuation.
And Death – capital D – shall be no more - semi-colon! Death – capital D – comma – thou shalt die – exclamation point!
If you go in for this sort of thing I suggest you take up Shakespeare. Gardner's edition of the Holy Sonnets returns to the Westmoreland manuscript source of 1610 – not for sentimental reasons, I assure you, but because Helen Gardner is a scholar. It reads:
And death shall be no more, comma, Death thou shalt die.
(As she recites this line, she makes a little gesture with a comma.)
Nothing but a breath, a comma separates life from life everlasting. Very simple, really. With the original punctuation restored, death is no longer something...to act out on a stage with exclamation marks. It is a comma. A pause.
This way, the uncompromising way...one learns something from the poem, wouldn't you say? Life, death, soul, God...past, present. Not insuperable barriers. Not semicolons. Just a comma.
VIVIAN. Life, death, I see! (standing) It's a metaphysical conceit, it's wit! I'll go back to the library and re-write the paper –
E.M. (Standing, emphatically) It is not wit, Miss Bearing, it is truth. The paper's not the point.
VIVIAN. Isn't it?
E.M. (Tenderly) Vivian, you're a bright young woman. Use your intelligence. Don't go back to the library, go out. Enjoy yourself with friends. Hmmm. (Vivian walks away. E.M. slides off.)
VIVIAN. I, ah, went outside. It was a warm day. There were students on the lawn, talking about, nothing, laughing. The insuperable barrier between one thing and another is…just a comma? Simple human truth. Uncompromising scholarly standards. They're connected. I just couldn't...
TERM THREE GRADES IN ASPEN - YOU HAVE UNTIL THE END OF THE WEEK TO EMAIL MISSING WORK.
Recap of Monday's Class: We reviewed the last section of the play, and I explained the essence of the scene. We started reading the play, again, and ended the session on page 56. In a series of flashbacks, we see how cruel Vivian could be in the classroom. She seeks kindness, now, but she was unable to show her students kindness. The last scene we read today shows Susie caring for Vivian, telling her that she must make a decision about the code team. Vivian chooses DNR. If her heart stops, she wishes it to stop. We will continue reading the play on Thursday.
Overview and Homework: As we discussed, below you will find materials to prepare you for our next class session. I provided a link for our Google Meet on Monday. With regard to late work, please email any work you complete to my K12 account, and make sure it is dated and labeled by Friday, April 17th. The last assignment is the close reading essay for Wit, titled "Just a Comma" (The essay may be posted to Turitin.com, also by the 17th). I provided the video of myself teaching the lesson, below. You will also find the complete prompt, assignment, and film clip to make it easy for you to proceed.
Mr. P. gives tips for writing this essay, from last week's post
"Just a Comma" Assignment, Prompt, and Film Clip
Essay Prompt: The following dialogue is an excerpt from Wit a play by Margaret Edson, produced in 1999. Read the passage carefully. Then write a well-organized essay in which you analyze how Edson reveals her values about the importance between literary analysis and real life experiences through characterization and other literary devices.
VIVIAN. (Hesitantly) I should have asked more questions, because I knew there was going to be a test. I have cancer. Insidious cancer, with pernicious side effects – No, the treatment has pernicious side effects. I have stage four metastatic ovarian cancer. There is no stage five. And I have to be very tough. It appears to be a matter, as the saying goes...of life and death. I know all about life and death. I am, after all, a professor of seventeenth century poetry...specializing in the Holy Sonnets of John Donne...which explore mortality in greater depth...than any body of work in the English language. And I know for a fact that I am tough. A demanding professor. Uncompromising. Never one to turn from a challenge. That is why I chose to study John Donne...while a student of the great E.M. Ashford. (Professor E.M. Ashford, fifty-two, enters, seated at the same desk as Dr. Kelekian was. The scene is twenty-eight years ago. Vivian suddenly turns twenty-two, eager and intimidated.)
Professor Ashford?
E.M. Do it again.
VIVIAN. (To the audience) It was something of a shock. I had to sit down. (She plops down).
E.M. Please sit down. Your essay on Holy Sonnet VI, Miss Bearing, is a melodrama with a veneer of scholarship unworthy of you...to say nothing of Donne. Do it again.
VIVIAN. I, ah…
E.M. Begin with the text, Miss Bearing, not with a feeling.
“Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for thou art not soe.”
You've entirely missed the point of the poem, because you've used an edition of the text that is inauthentically punctuated. In the Gardner edition –
VIVIAN. That edition was checked out of the library –
E.M. Miss Bearing!
VIVIAN. Sorry.
E.M. You take this too lightly, Miss Bearing. This is metaphysical poetry, not the modern novel. The standards of scholarship and critical reading...which one would apply to any other text are simply insufficient. The effort must be total for the results to be meaningful. Do you think that the punctuation of the last line of this sonnet is merely an insignificant detail?
The sonnet begins with a valiant struggle with death calling on all the forces of intellect and drama to vanquish the
enemy. But it is ultimately about overcoming the seemingly insuperable barriers separating life, death and eternal life. In the edition you chose, this profoundly simple meaning is sacrificed to hysterical punctuation.
And Death – capital D – shall be no more - semi-colon! Death – capital D – comma – thou shalt die – exclamation point!
If you go in for this sort of thing I suggest you take up Shakespeare. Gardner's edition of the Holy Sonnets returns to the Westmoreland manuscript source of 1610 – not for sentimental reasons, I assure you, but because Helen Gardner is a scholar. It reads:
And death shall be no more, comma, Death thou shalt die.
(As she recites this line, she makes a little gesture with a comma.)
Nothing but a breath, a comma separates life from life everlasting. Very simple, really. With the original punctuation restored, death is no longer something...to act out on a stage with exclamation marks. It is a comma. A pause.
This way, the uncompromising way...one learns something from the poem, wouldn't you say? Life, death, soul, God...past, present. Not insuperable barriers. Not semicolons. Just a comma.
VIVIAN. Life, death, I see! (standing) It's a metaphysical conceit, it's wit! I'll go back to the library and re-write the paper –
E.M. (Standing, emphatically) It is not wit, Miss Bearing, it is truth. The paper's not the point.
VIVIAN. Isn't it?
E.M. (Tenderly) Vivian, you're a bright young woman. Use your intelligence. Don't go back to the library, go out. Enjoy yourself with friends. Hmmm. (Vivian walks away. E.M. slides off.)
VIVIAN. I, ah, went outside. It was a warm day. There were students on the lawn, talking about, nothing, laughing. The insuperable barrier between one thing and another is…just a comma? Simple human truth. Uncompromising scholarly standards. They're connected. I just couldn't...
Google Meet for Tuesday, April 14th (10:30 am - 11:15 am) Recap of Thursday's Class: We reviewed the opening sections of the play, and I explained the essay assignment in full. We started reading the play, again, and ended the session on page 47. Vivian asks Jason about his choice of work, and if he ever misses being around people. We will continue reading the play on Tuesday.
Overview and Homework: As we discussed, below you will find materials to prepare you for our next class session. I provided a link for our Google Meet on Monday. With regard to late work, please email any work you complete to my K12 account, and make sure it is dated and labeled by Friday, April 17th. The last assignment is the close reading essay for Wit, titled "Just a Comma" (The essay may be posted to Turitin.com, also by the 17th). I provided the video of myself teaching the lesson, below. You will also find the complete prompt, assignment, and film clip to make it easy for you to proceed.
Mr. P. gives tips for writing this essay, from last week's post
"Just a Comma" Assignment, Prompt, and Film Clip
Essay Prompt: The following dialogue is an excerpt from Wit a play by Margaret Edson, produced in 1999. Read the passage carefully. Then write a well-organized essay in which you analyze how Edson reveals her values about the importance between literary analysis and real life experiences through characterization and other literary devices.
VIVIAN. (Hesitantly) I should have asked more questions, because I knew there was going to be a test. I have cancer. Insidious cancer, with pernicious side effects – No, the treatment has pernicious side effects. I have stage four metastatic ovarian cancer. There is no stage five. And I have to be very tough. It appears to be a matter, as the saying goes...of life and death. I know all about life and death. I am, after all, a professor of seventeenth century poetry...specializing in the Holy Sonnets of John Donne...which explore mortality in greater depth...than any body of work in the English language. And I know for a fact that I am tough. A demanding professor. Uncompromising. Never one to turn from a challenge. That is why I chose to study John Donne...while a student of the great E.M. Ashford. (Professor E.M. Ashford, fifty-two, enters, seated at the same desk as Dr. Kelekian was. The scene is twenty-eight years ago. Vivian suddenly turns twenty-two, eager and intimidated.)
Professor Ashford?
E.M. Do it again.
VIVIAN. (To the audience) It was something of a shock. I had to sit down. (She plops down).
E.M. Please sit down. Your essay on Holy Sonnet VI, Miss Bearing, is a melodrama with a veneer of scholarship unworthy of you...to say nothing of Donne. Do it again.
VIVIAN. I, ah…
E.M. Begin with the text, Miss Bearing, not with a feeling.
“Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for thou art not soe.”
You've entirely missed the point of the poem, because you've used an edition of the text that is inauthentically punctuated. In the Gardner edition –
VIVIAN. That edition was checked out of the library –
E.M. Miss Bearing!
VIVIAN. Sorry.
E.M. You take this too lightly, Miss Bearing. This is metaphysical poetry, not the modern novel. The standards of scholarship and critical reading...which one would apply to any other text are simply insufficient. The effort must be total for the results to be meaningful. Do you think that the punctuation of the last line of this sonnet is merely an insignificant detail?
The sonnet begins with a valiant struggle with death calling on all the forces of intellect and drama to vanquish the
enemy. But it is ultimately about overcoming the seemingly insuperable barriers separating life, death and eternal life. In the edition you chose, this profoundly simple meaning is sacrificed to hysterical punctuation.
And Death – capital D – shall be no more - semi-colon! Death – capital D – comma – thou shalt die – exclamation point!
If you go in for this sort of thing I suggest you take up Shakespeare. Gardner's edition of the Holy Sonnets returns to the Westmoreland manuscript source of 1610 – not for sentimental reasons, I assure you, but because Helen Gardner is a scholar. It reads:
And death shall be no more, comma, Death thou shalt die.
(As she recites this line, she makes a little gesture with a comma.)
Nothing but a breath, a comma separates life from life everlasting. Very simple, really. With the original punctuation restored, death is no longer something...to act out on a stage with exclamation marks. It is a comma. A pause.
This way, the uncompromising way...one learns something from the poem, wouldn't you say? Life, death, soul, God...past, present. Not insuperable barriers. Not semicolons. Just a comma.
VIVIAN. Life, death, I see! (standing) It's a metaphysical conceit, it's wit! I'll go back to the library and re-write the paper –
E.M. (Standing, emphatically) It is not wit, Miss Bearing, it is truth. The paper's not the point.
VIVIAN. Isn't it?
E.M. (Tenderly) Vivian, you're a bright young woman. Use your intelligence. Don't go back to the library, go out. Enjoy yourself with friends. Hmmm. (Vivian walks away. E.M. slides off.)
VIVIAN. I, ah, went outside. It was a warm day. There were students on the lawn, talking about, nothing, laughing. The insuperable barrier between one thing and another is…just a comma? Simple human truth. Uncompromising scholarly standards. They're connected. I just couldn't...
Overview and Homework: As we discussed, below you will find materials to prepare you for our next class session. I provided a link for our Google Meet on Friday. With regard to late work, please email any work you complete to my K12 account, and make sure it is dated and labeled by Friday, April 17th. The last assignment is the close reading essay for Wit, titled "Just a Comma" (The essay may be posted to Turitin.com, also by the 17th). I provided the video of myself teaching the lesson, below. You will also find the complete prompt, assignment, and film clip to make it easy for you to proceed. We will go over the writing assignment and I will answer questions on Friday. I will also go over the next assignment and give you time to work on the essay with me in the chat so you can ask questions while you work. If you have any questions, please feel free to put them in the comment section of this post. See you Thursday!
Mr. P. gives tips for writing this essay, from last week's post
"Just a Comma" Assignment, Prompt, and Film Clip
Essay Prompt: The following dialogue is an excerpt from Wit a play by Margaret Edson, produced in 1999. Read the passage carefully. Then write a well-organized essay in which you analyze how Edson reveals her values about the importance between literary analysis and real life experiences through characterization and other literary devices.
VIVIAN. (Hesitantly) I should have asked more questions, because I knew there was going to be a test. I have cancer. Insidious cancer, with pernicious side effects – No, the treatment has pernicious side effects. I have stage four metastatic ovarian cancer. There is no stage five. And I have to be very tough. It appears to be a matter, as the saying goes...of life and death. I know all about life and death. I am, after all, a professor of seventeenth century poetry...specializing in the Holy Sonnets of John Donne...which explore mortality in greater depth...than any body of work in the English language. And I know for a fact that I am tough. A demanding professor. Uncompromising. Never one to turn from a challenge. That is why I chose to study John Donne...while a student of the great E.M. Ashford. (Professor E.M. Ashford, fifty-two, enters, seated at the same desk as Dr. Kelekian was. The scene is twenty-eight years ago. Vivian suddenly turns twenty-two, eager and intimidated.)
Professor Ashford?
E.M. Do it again.
VIVIAN. (To the audience) It was something of a shock. I had to sit down. (She plops down).
E.M. Please sit down. Your essay on Holy Sonnet VI, Miss Bearing, is a melodrama with a veneer of scholarship unworthy of you...to say nothing of Donne. Do it again.
VIVIAN. I, ah…
E.M. Begin with the text, Miss Bearing, not with a feeling.
“Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for thou art not soe.”
You've entirely missed the point of the poem, because you've used an edition of the text that is inauthentically punctuated. In the Gardner edition –
VIVIAN. That edition was checked out of the library –
E.M. Miss Bearing!
VIVIAN. Sorry.
E.M. You take this too lightly, Miss Bearing. This is metaphysical poetry, not the modern novel. The standards of scholarship and critical reading...which one would apply to any other text are simply insufficient. The effort must be total for the results to be meaningful. Do you think that the punctuation of the last line of this sonnet is merely an insignificant detail?
The sonnet begins with a valiant struggle with death calling on all the forces of intellect and drama to vanquish the
enemy. But it is ultimately about overcoming the seemingly insuperable barriers separating life, death and eternal life. In the edition you chose, this profoundly simple meaning is sacrificed to hysterical punctuation.
And Death – capital D – shall be no more - semi-colon! Death – capital D – comma – thou shalt die – exclamation point!
If you go in for this sort of thing I suggest you take up Shakespeare. Gardner's edition of the Holy Sonnets returns to the Westmoreland manuscript source of 1610 – not for sentimental reasons, I assure you, but because Helen Gardner is a scholar. It reads:
And death shall be no more, comma, Death thou shalt die.
(As she recites this line, she makes a little gesture with a comma.)
Nothing but a breath, a comma separates life from life everlasting. Very simple, really. With the original punctuation restored, death is no longer something...to act out on a stage with exclamation marks. It is a comma. A pause.
This way, the uncompromising way...one learns something from the poem, wouldn't you say? Life, death, soul, God...past, present. Not insuperable barriers. Not semicolons. Just a comma.
VIVIAN. Life, death, I see! (standing) It's a metaphysical conceit, it's wit! I'll go back to the library and re-write the paper –
E.M. (Standing, emphatically) It is not wit, Miss Bearing, it is truth. The paper's not the point.
VIVIAN. Isn't it?
E.M. (Tenderly) Vivian, you're a bright young woman. Use your intelligence. Don't go back to the library, go out. Enjoy yourself with friends. Hmmm. (Vivian walks away. E.M. slides off.)
VIVIAN. I, ah, went outside. It was a warm day. There were students on the lawn, talking about, nothing, laughing. The insuperable barrier between one thing and another is…just a comma? Simple human truth. Uncompromising scholarly standards. They're connected. I just couldn't...
OVERVIEW: Welcome back to school! I hope this blog post finds you and your family well. I miss seeing you, and I hope to make our time together as meaningful and stress free as possible.
In this space, I want to prepare you for our first day back. You should have received a letter from the district about our return to learning. Below, you will see a grid with the weekly schedule. We will meet twice a week for class. I plan to use Google Meet and our class blog. I will also be available during H-block and Wednesdays on Google Meet for office hours.
Below, I provided a list of "options" for your continued learning. Our first class will involve checking-in and making decisions about how to proceed. I want you to be part of this process.
If you are friendly with anyone in the class, please let them know that there is an expectation that they will be engaging in work, again.
HOMEWORK DUE TUESDAY: When you finish reading this post, please post a quick comment below to let me know: 1) You are alive and well, 2) Will I see you in our first Google Meet, and 3) What would you be interested in doing with our time (again, see list below). Note: All class sessions will be recorded and posted on my blog, so you can still enjoy class even if you do not make it for the live session.
See you on Google Meet!
AHS School Schedule
Curriculum Possibilities
1. Late Work: The first order of business. If you have not done so, please complete any work assigned before March 13th. This work will be graded and will count for graduation. Send all completed late work to my email for evaluation. Final district due date is Friday, April 17th.
2. Wit by Margaret Edson: As we were almost finished reading the Margaret Edson's Wit, I think that would be the best place to resume classes. When you finish reading the last two sections of the play, you can compose your response in the appropriate blog space when you can. I have provided quick links, below:
3. Marjorie Prime by Jordan Harrison: I have a pdf of the play. We could read it together during our class sessions. The film is available on Amazon Prime. See film trailer, below.
4. Mr. Pellerin Daily Lessons: I could always just share poems, favorite pieces of literature, review past material, walk through my Teaching Global Classroom Blog, and we can have a discussion on Google Meet during our class time. The assignments can come organically from these sessions.
5. College Prep: Is there anything you would like me to help you with on your way to college? More grammar work? Writing instruction? Writing literary research papers? Life lessons? Use me as a resource.
6. Creative Writing: Poetry, short fiction, novels, personal essay writing? I can help guide you. FYI: Watch the video of Poetry Night at Cafe Azteca!
I wish I were a Warhol silk screen
hanging on the wall.
Or little Joe or maybe Lou.
I'd love to be them all.
All New York's broken hearts
and secrets would be mine.
I'd put you on a movie reel,
and that would be just fine.
2. IMPORTANT: Please go to the previous blog post for full details on this week's work. Due dates are up in the air, again. We are waiting for the district to make a decision. Contact me in this blog space or through email if you need me. I hope you are all safe and well.
Poem of the Day: "Aria Above Seattle" by Sharon Olds
Important Update: We are resuming learning this week!
1. Late Work: If you have not done so, please complete any work assigned before March 13th. This work will be graded and will count for graduation. Send all completed late work to my email for evaluation.
2. Wit by Margaret Edson - As we were almost finished reading the Margaret Edson's Wit, I think that would be the best place to resume classes. Please finish reading the last two sections of the play and compose your response in the appropriate blog space when you can. I have provided quick links, below:
Today's Lesson: Read Wit by Margaret Edson, Pages 51-67(End)
Assignment: If you would like to comment on the text, you may use the questions, below. I posted the film if you would like to see it performed. Anyone is welcome.
Reading Questions
1. Compare and contrast young Vivian’s misreading of “Death Be Not Proud” with E.M. Ashford with the final discussion between Susie and Jason about “Salvation Anxiety.” Given the final scene in the play, what meaning could be derived here?
2. According to Dr. Vivian Bearing, what is the metaphysical conceit (or essence) of Holy Sonnet IX (If poisonous minerals)?
3. How does E.M. Ashford’s reading of The Runaway Bunny tie into Holy Sonnet IX and, ultimately, explain the essence of the play?
Wit (2001)
Reminder: Look at last Vlog for important info. See brief excerpt, below:
The State of Massachusetts has set guidelines about our learning experiences. At the time of this posting, there will be:
Today's Lesson: Read Wit by Margaret Edson, Pages 39-51
Assignment: If you would like to comment on the text, you may use the questions, below. I posted the film if you would like to see it performed. Anyone is welcome.
Reading Questions
1. How could Vivian’s cancer treatment be considered a paradox?
2. What paradox is unearthed in John Donne’s sonnet “If poisonous minerals”?
3. In terms of characterization, what parallel is made between Vivian and Jason? How could the comparison be described as ironic?
4. How dis Vivian treat her students? How was it similar to E.M. Ashford? How was it, ultimately, completely different?
Wit (2001)
Reminder: Look at last Vlog for important info. See brief excerpt, below:
The State of Massachusetts has set guidelines about our learning experiences. At the time of this posting, there will be:
Poem of the Day: "Poems Which Talk Back to Me" by Sharon Olds
Overview and Directions: As discussed, here are five ELA assignments from the English Department to help enrich your time away from school. If you would like to engage with these together, please let me know in the comments section. Some of you mentioned books you would like to read as a group. I can connect students from my five classes for a reading group if you wish. Just shoot me a quick comment so I know you're out there.
I am currently reading: The Waves by Virginia Woolf and Arias by Sharon Olds.
I will add a post on Wednesday and Friday to offer a "Poem of the Day" as well as share some of the reading and work I am doing during this time. Again, if you read a post, please just shoot me a quick comment so I know I am talking to someone.
Attention AP Students: Here is an important update from the A.P. Board regarding the test: Click here. Your class links to the A.P. College Board Classes are below. Most of you joined already. Let me know if you have a problem finding the site. Once you login, you will see that I unlocked all the practice quizzes for you. You should be able to quiz yourself and get results. I did not set time limits, etc., so you can practice as you wish. In the testing situation, you will have roughly 20 minutes for a multiple choice selection and 40 minutes for each essay. I will continue to make posts with helpful A.P. materials for you. Again, leave me comments to let me know how you would like to engage. Zoom, blog, etc.
Learning Activity 34: Write a book review about a book you like by describing the book in such a way to make others want to read it. Record this book talk and share it if you would like with a friend or relative.
Learning Activity 61: Interview any adult about a big, national, “event” from their adolescence. Have them recall a memory of a time when life changed and the whole country/world was impacted. What happened? How did their routines change? How did they get through it? When did they return to “normal”?
Learning Activity 6: Humans are social beings and need contact or perceived contact with others. What are you doing right now to maintain a sense of community due to our distance? What are you doing to maintain a sense of normalcy and routine. Write for ten minutes about this experience and your thinking?
Learning Activity 29: Ideas.Ted.Com with Guy Winch https://ideas.ted.com/author/guy-winch/ peruse and select an article, read and respond with your thoughts and connections. ( I enjoyed, “Dear Guy: I’m incredibly anxious about coronavirus, what can I do?” and also the great video at the end of the article, “We all need to practice emotional first aid.”)
Learning Activity 16: Do a virtual museum tour of the one of the 12 museums highlighted in this article. Choose a piece of art perform a visual analysis using the 4-question protocol:
What do you see?
Where is your attention drawn?
What is there to get (i.e. - what is the meaning of the work)?
What more is there to ask?
Then, write a one-page reflection connecting the piece either to something you’ve read in class (a novel, poem, play, article, etc.) or to one of the essential questions for your grade [insert your grade’s EQs here]. How do these pieces speak to one another? What is the connection between the two, for you?
Poem of the Day: “Meeting a Stranger” by Sharon Olds
Today's Lesson: Update from the State of Massachusetts on Learning during this crisis.
Hello my friends,
The State of Massachusetts has set guidelines about our learning experiences. At the time of this posting, there will be:
No directed curriculum
No deadlines
No graded assignments
Please disregard all due dates and work from Friday, March 13th. Do not stress out about your grades, etc. If you would like to complete work, I will accept it, but no one should feel obligated in any way to do work while we are out.
Having said that, I will provide resources that have been developed by myself and other members of the English Department on a weekly basis for you to choose from and do if you wish to keep learning and active.
For my part, I still want to stay connected with all of you and will continue to post my videos with a "Poem of the Day," sharing some kind of literary experience with all of you. Again, this is voluntary.
We are allowed to finish Wit, as we discussed, so we can have closure. If you want to read another play together, for example, that can be an option, but no one should feel it is expected or that we will do it when we get back, it will be graded, etc. Again, this is voluntary. We can still have experiences, but they will be more individually based.
I am here for all of you, and if you wish to speak to me through email or the blog you are always welcome.
Overview and Directions: Please view the above video for my class instructions.
This will be a daily Vlog to help us keep connected as a class during this troubling time. I will always have a poem of the day, and offer daily lessons on our assignments. You will have the opportunity to comment on the blog post, and I can answer you the following day. We can also set-up class time to all be on the blog for an hour and comment together in real time.
Today's "Poem of the Day" is from Sharon Old’s Arias, titled, “For You.”
Overview and Directions: Please compose an essay using the prompt and text below. This is a close textural analysis from Margret Edson's Wit. When you finish, please post the essay to Turnitin.com. Also, share one of your body paragraphs in this blog space, so we can see your analysis. I look forward to your responses!
"Just a Comma"
Essay Prompt: The following dialogue is an excerpt from Wit a play by Margaret Edson, produced in 1999. Read the passage carefully. Then write a well-organized essay in which you analyze how Edson reveals her values about the importance between literary analysis and real life experiences through characterization and other literary devices.
VIVIAN. (Hesitantly) I should have asked more questions, because I knew there was going to be a test. I have cancer. Insidious cancer, with pernicious side effects – No, the treatment has pernicious side effects. I have stage four metastatic ovarian cancer. There is no stage five. And I have to be very tough. It appears to be a matter, as the saying goes...of life and death. I know all about life and death. I am, after all, a professor of seventeenth century poetry...specializing in the Holy Sonnets of John Donne...which explore mortality in greater depth...than any body of work in the English language. And I know for a fact that I am tough. A demanding professor. Uncompromising. Never one to turn from a challenge. That is why I chose to study John Donne...while a student of the great E.M. Ashford. (Professor E.M. Ashford, fifty-two, enters, seated at the same desk as Dr. Kelekian was. The scene is twenty-eight years ago. Vivian suddenly turns twenty-two, eager and intimidated.)
Professor Ashford?
E.M. Do it again.
VIVIAN. (To the audience) It was something of a shock. I had to sit down. (She plops down).
E.M. Please sit down. Your essay on Holy Sonnet VI, Miss Bearing, is a melodrama with a veneer of scholarship unworthy of you...to say nothing of Donne. Do it again.
VIVIAN. I, ah…
E.M. Begin with the text, Miss Bearing, not with a feeling.
“Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for thou art not soe.”
You've entirely missed the point of the poem, because you've used an edition of the text that is inauthentically punctuated. In the Gardner edition –
VIVIAN. That edition was checked out of the library –
E.M. Miss Bearing!
VIVIAN. Sorry.
E.M. You take this too lightly, Miss Bearing. This is metaphysical poetry, not the modern novel. The standards of scholarship and critical reading...which one would apply to any other text are simply insufficient. The effort must be total for the results to be meaningful. Do you think that the punctuation of the last line of this sonnet is merely an insignificant detail?
The sonnet begins with a valiant struggle with death calling on all the forces of intellect and drama to vanquish the
enemy. But it is ultimately about overcoming the seemingly insuperable barriers separating life, death and eternal life. In the edition you chose, this profoundly simple meaning is sacrificed to hysterical punctuation.
And Death – capital D – shall be no more - semi-colon! Death – capital D – comma – thou shalt die – exclamation point!
If you go in for this sort of thing I suggest you take up Shakespeare. Gardner's edition of the Holy Sonnets returns to the Westmoreland manuscript source of 1610 – not for sentimental reasons, I assure you, but because Helen Gardner is a scholar. It reads:
And death shall be no more, comma, Death thou shalt die.
(As she recites this line, she makes a little gesture with a comma.)
Nothing but a breath, a comma separates life from life everlasting. Very simple, really. With the original punctuation restored, death is no longer something...to act out on a stage with exclamation marks. It is a comma. A pause.
This way, the uncompromising way...one learns something from the poem, wouldn't you say? Life, death, soul, God...past, present. Not insuperable barriers. Not semicolons. Just a comma.
VIVIAN. Life, death, I see! (standing) It's a metaphysical conceit, it's wit! I'll go back to the library and re-write the paper –
E.M. (Standing, emphatically) It is not wit, Miss Bearing, it is truth. The paper's not the point.
VIVIAN. Isn't it?
E.M. (Tenderly) Vivian, you're a bright young woman. Use your intelligence. Don't go back to the library, go out. Enjoy yourself with friends. Hmmm. (Vivian walks away. E.M. slides off.)
VIVIAN. I, ah, went outside. It was a warm day. There were students on the lawn, talking about, nothing, laughing. The insuperable barrier between one thing and another is…just a comma? Simple human truth. Uncompromising scholarly standards. They're connected. I just couldn't...
Cynthia Nixon as Vivian Bearing from Wit by Margaret Edson
Overview: In this unit we will explore the paradoxical presence of complexity and simplicity in our lives. Cancer is a disease that unfortunalty touches everyone in our society, today. In her play Wit, Edson explores our need for human kindness. Today, more than ever, kindness and empathy are values we need to exemplify.
Reading and Study: As a means of introduction, I would like you read, view, and study the following materials. First, read the background on the play and view the trailer. Next, read the background and poems by John Donne. This sonnet is in the play. Next, read a selection from Beatrix Potter, which again, is in the play. These two drastically different works balance each other out with simplicity and complexity. Finally, read the beautifully movie story behind Margaret Edson, who won the highest literary honor the Pulitzer Prize, but decided to continue her life as a Kindergarten teacher in Atlanta.
Written Blog Response: When we completed our introductory study I would like you to compose a 300-500 word blog response covering what you learned about the Margaret Edson, Wit, Holy Sonnet VI and Beatrix Potter. Please include direct evidence from this post. You may also include questions and insights you would like to discuss in class. I look forward to your responses.
About the Play, Wit by Margaret Edson
Wit's main character, Vivian Bearing, is a fifty-year-old renowned literary scholar of John Donne's seventeenth-century metaphysical poetry. The play concerns Bearing's attempts to put her life together as it comes to an end.
By combining concepts of metaphysical poetry and human mortality within the complex mind of a dying scholar, Edson creates an extraordinary character of fortitude and wit. Edson's use of wit, referring to intelligence and wisdom, develops this multilayered work into a play about grace and redemption. An uncompromising look at cancer, the play shows how language has the power both to complicate and to ameliorate understanding. "The play is not about doctors or even cancer. It's about kindness, but it shows arrogance. It's about compassion, but it shows insensitivity," Edson explains. By showing the opposite of kindness, Edson's play effectively leaves the audience "yearning for kindness." Edson was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1999.
Edson's teaching career progressed along with the success of her play. Despite her newfound fame as a playwright, she continued teaching elementary school in Washington, D.C.–English as a second language for five years and first grade for one year—until she moved to Atlanta in 1998 and began teaching kindergarten.
Fully dedicated to teaching elementary school in her adopted town of Atlanta, Edson does not intend to write another play. She lives with her partner, Linda Merrill, and their two sons, Timmy and Pete.
Purcell, Kim. "Margaret Edson (b. 1961)." New Georgia Encyclopedia. 04 September 2013. Web. 29 January 2020.
John Donne and his "Holy Sonnet VI"
John Donne's Holy Sonnets are a group of 19 devotional sonnets that take on questions of Christian faith and salvation. Published in 1633 (nearly a decade after Donne's death), the precise order of the sonnets is debated by editors and Donne scholars. As such, the numerical assignment for each poem tends to vary from publication to publication, with scholars working from a number of circulated manuscripts from the period. Because the order of the Holy Sonnets is fundamentally unknown, it is important to approach them largely as individual poems rather than a coherent sequence, despite the fact that scholars have grouped certain sonnets together in a unanimously-acknowledged cohesive progression.
The Holy Sonnets open on a note of resignation as an unnamed speaker announces that he has resigned himself to God in the name of salvation. Anxious about his impending death, the speaker continues to wonder what kind of fate awaits him at the end of his life. Thrilled by the prospect of his soul ascending to heaven, the speaker agonizes over the sins he has committed on earth and begs forgiveness from God, only to express worry over slipping backward again into Satan's grasp.
The speaker continues to wonder whether God will pardon him in the end, and takes solace in the fact that the son of God, Christ, is merciful toward man. But the speaker also begins to contemplate seriously the process of death and the deterioration of his body, ultimately challenging the primacy of the body and refusing to fear death after all. Toggling back and forth between his own voice and the voice of Christ, the speaker imagines what death will feel like, look like, sound like, and be like in the end while also wondering why this type of promised salvation is only available to humanity.
Once the speaker has resigned himself to God, he continues to struggle with the notion of what, exactly, that means. As such, a number of the Holy Sonnets express complex and somewhat shocking relationships between the speaker and God. Asking to be beaten, ravished, and enthralled, the speaker begins to associate the process of religious cleansing with the experience of erotics and violence. The figure of God comes to represent not only the Christian "father" but also the Petrarchan Beloved whom the speaker must flatter and seduce despite his frustrations with how the affair will end.
As Judgment Day continues to approach, the speaker contemplates the relationship between the individual and the collective, imagining that his body is actually its own little world. Concerned with both his own demise and the apocalypse, the speaker continues to wonder what the end of life will look like and how the experience will feel. Noting that a woman he once loved has already died, the speaker becomes dedicated to acquiring God's mercy so that he will be able to join her in heaven. However, as the sonnets come to a close, the speaker is still unsure whether he is practicing the right form of devotion and whether he will be able to continue his pursuit of mercy while living in constant fear of imminent death.
"Holy Sonnet VI"(from the Gardner Ed.)
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so,
For those, whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure, then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's deliverie.
Thou'rt slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poyson, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy, or charms can make us sleep as well,
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more, Death thou shalt die.
Beatrix Potter and The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies
The Tale of The Flopsy Bunnies is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter, and first published in July 1909. After two full-length tales about rabbits, Potter had grown weary of the subject and was reluctant to write another. She realized however that children most enjoyed her rabbit stories and pictures, and so reached back to characters and plot elements from The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902) and The Tale of Benjamin Bunny (1904) to create The Flopsy Bunnies. A semi-formal garden of archways and flowerbeds in Wales at the home of her uncle and aunt became the background for the illustrations.
From The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies by Beatrix Potter
It is said that the effect of eating too much lettuce is “soporific.”
I have never felt sleepy after eating lettuces; but then I am not a rabbit.
They certainly had a very soporific effect upon the Flopsy Bunnies!
When Benjamin Bunny grew up, he married his Cousin Flopsy. They had a large family, and they were very improvident and cheerful.
I do not remember the separate names of their children; they were generally called the “Flopsy Bunnies.”
As there was not always quite enough to eat,—Benjamin used to borrow cabbages from Flopsy’s brother, Peter Rabbit, who kept a nursery garden.
Sometimes Peter Rabbit had no cabbages to spare.
When this happened, the Flopsy Bunnies went across the field to a rubbish heap, in the ditch outside Mr. McGregor’s garden.
Mr. McGregor’s rubbish heap was a mixture. There were jam pots and paper bags, and mountains of chopped grass from the mowing machine (which always tasted oily), and some rotten vegetable marrows and an old boot or two. One day—oh joy!—There were a quantity of overgrown lettuces, which had “shot” into flower.
The Flopsy Bunnies simply stuffed themselves with lettuces. By degrees, one after another, they were overcome with slumber, and lay down in the mown grass.
Benjamin was not so much overcome as his children. Before going to sleep he was sufficiently wide awake to put a paper bag over his head to keep off the flies.
The little Flopsy Bunnies slept delightfully in the warm sun. From the lawn beyond the garden came the distant clacketty sound of the mowing machine. The blue-bottles buzzed about the wall, and a little old mouse picked over the rubbish among the jam pots.
About the Author, Margaret Edson
A Teacher's 'Wit' and Wisdom
by Nelson Pressley, February 27, 2000
The paradox about Margaret Edson, widely celebrated playwright, is that she is not really a playwright. Edson herself has been saying so ever since she became a celebrated playwright last season, when her drama, "Wit," written nearly nine years ago, finally took the theater world by storm.
"Wit," about a stern college professor's battle with cancer, is still running in New York, where it won an armload of awards, including the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for drama. A production opened in Los Angeles last month, with more to come across the country. HBO is planning a film version. And Judith Light is starring in the national touring company, which opens this week at the Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theater.
Yet despite all this, Edson, who teaches kindergarten at a public school in Atlanta, maintains that it is impossible for her to think of herself as a dramatist.
"I just wrote this one little play," she explains.
This, then, is a story about arguably the most famous kindergarten teacher in America.
On a cold winter night, Edson, 38, stands erect at the front of a conference room in a downtown Washington hotel, charming a few hundred members of the Association of American Colleges and Universities as she lectures on punctuation. The matching of speaker and topic seems sensible: In "Wit," a good deal of philosophy hangs on whether a key phrase in one of John Donne's Holy Sonnets should have a comma or a semicolon. In advertisements, on programs, even on the published play, the spelling of the title includes the semicolon: "W;t."
On Edson's cue, Rosalind Jones, one of her former professors at Smith College, reads from "Wit" with the playwright. Appropriately, Jones plays E.M. Ashford, a former professor of Vivian Bearing, the drama's main character. Edson plays Vivian, a cold, intimidating Donne scholar who has ovarian cancer. Between bouts of what is often brutal (and impersonal, given Vivian's brusque professional methods) medical treatment, Vivian's mind flashes back to scenes like the one Edson and Jones read.
"And death shall be no more, comma," argues Jones as Ashford to a younger Vivian. "Death thou shalt die."
When her role is done, Jones leaves the stage, but Edson keeps reading her own part; she doesn't want the scene to be interrupted by exit applause. This is a lecture, not a theater. What matters now is the lesson.
The next morning Edson, a Washington native, takes the stage of the arts center at Sidwell Friends, where she went to high school in the late 1970s. She talks about Derek Anson Jones, a close friend since their days at Sidwell.
Four days before this, Edson's triumphant return to her alma mater, Jones--who directed the New York and touring versions of "Wit"--died of complications from AIDS. Edson had planned to share the stage with him this morning. Unhappily, she can't, so she stands before the Sidwell crowd and remembers her times with Jones: the way he stole the show from her as Touchstone when she was playing Rosalind in "As You Like It" at Sidwell; the way he optimistically carried the script of the undiscovered "Wit" in his backpack for years as he was building his directing career in New York.
At the end of these sessions (and at the beginnings), Edson gets long, deeply appreciative ovations. Edson, oddly, stands stock still, impervious to the acclaim; she looks as if she's waiting for a bus. This is not what playwrights do. Playwrights bow or smile or wave or blush. Their instinct for dramatic action demands it.
Edson, on the other hand, merely waits--like a teacher--for the room to get quiet.
She'd Rather Teach
Margaret Edson wrote "this one little play" in Washington almost nine years ago. Nothing about her life up till then pointed to dramatic theatrical success.
She grew up across the street from American University; her father, who died in 1977, wrote for newspapers, and her mother continues her career as a social worker. Julia Louis-Dreyfus, later of "Saturday Night Live" and "Seinfeld," lived next door. The two girls would invent dramas with Barbie dolls or act out fantasies of being college girls.
She dabbled in drama at Sidwell, then went to Smith College, majoring in Renaissance history. Not finding herself particularly employable after graduating, she helped a friend move to Indiana, then settled outside Iowa City (where her sister lived) for a summer, selling hot dogs by day and working at night in a bar at the end of a dirt road. Then she went to Rome to live in a French convent for a year.
After Rome, she returned to Washington, landing a job in the cancer ward of a research hospital. Later she worked in publications at the St. Francis Center (now the Wendt Center for Loss and Healing), cranking out grant proposals.
In the summer of 1991, Edson quit her position at St. Francis and got a low-pressure job working in a bike shop near Tenley Circle. In effect, she was taking the summer off so she could write this one little play that had been taking shape in her mind, triggered in part by what she had seen of cancer treatment.
But she would allow herself only the summer to write. She was enrolled at Georgetown University for the fall, ready to pursue a master's in English. She wasn't setting out to become a writer.
"Oh, no," Edson says, horrified by the idea. "That would have been too dangerous for me."
Why does writing seem more dangerous than--
"Than saying, 'Now I'm going to be a waitress?' I don't know. I haven't thought about it." She pauses. "Because if you're a waitress, you're doing something. You're getting up and getting dressed every day and you're part of the world. And if you're a writer, you're just not good for anything. You're not in the mix when you're a writer. It just wouldn't do for me to be a writer."
What she wrote, that one time that she wrote, was rejected from coast to coast. Finally, in January 1995, South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, Calif., produced "Wit." Edson says she was surprised at how unsurprising the experience was: "It happened exactly like it was in my mind, as though I was whispering to each person what to do. So instead of being astonished by it, it was . . . correct. That was the most exciting thing--to have it be exactly as I imagined it, to the tiniest detail, and to have strangers bringing that about. It was so proper, so correct, that it was thrilling. I was delirious. And that hasn't gone away."
But she says the production, which won a number of Los Angeles Drama Critics Awards, did not make her think, "Aha, I'm a playwright."
"Because I was a teacher by then," she says. "By the time it was produced, I was in my fourth year. I was really into it."
While she was completing her master's at Georgetown, Edson had begun teaching English as a second language through her church, St. Margaret's Episcopal on Connecticut Avenue.
"I started liking my tutoring more and more," she recalls, "and feeling less and less comfortable in the academy. So at the end of that year, it was clear to me that I wanted to be in the elementary classroom."
She launches into a topic that genuinely excites her: the alternative certification plan started by the D.C. school system eight years ago. She was in the inaugural group of the program, which allows promising people from other professions to begin teaching without first wading through the certification process, which Edson says takes at least a year (full time) to complete. Instead, they start teaching right away, taking certification classes at the same time.
"In inner-city schools," Edson says, "there's about a 40 percent exit rate in the first three years for teachers. Alternative certification programs have a much higher retention rate because people go into it knowing more about it. They're not 21. We were older and sadder and wiser, and had had some kind of experience in the classroom. So I taught ESL for five years, and I never could have done it without this program. It was really the big break of my life."
Moving On
It was Jones, whose years of study and dues-paying were beginning to yield fruit in and around New York in the mid-1990s, who finally got "Wit" produced on the East Coast. Artistic Director Doug Hughes agreed to let Jones direct it at the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Conn., where it opened in October 1997. The play had been rejected for two years even after its success at South Coast Rep. Edson ticks off the reasons listed in her rejection letters: "cast size, subject, too much talk, too academic, too haughty, too unsure of itself, whether it was funny or sad. . . . Now people are scratching their heads about it. But it was unanimous."
The script was cut by an hour at South Coast by Edson (who hated the cuts at the time), dramaturge Jerry Patch and director Martin Benson. "The effect it has now, especially in Derek's production, is of this very fast-swerving drive," she says. "You're brought very quickly over to laughing and then ripped right back into something harrowing--very shocking, in fact. And it happens so quickly and smoothly in his production that it makes me seem like I really know what I'm doing." She laughs.
There is a thick streak of redemption running through "Wit" (and made abundantly clear in its final image) as Vivian Bearing comes to terms with her tough personality, her illness, her isolation and the implications of Donne's poetry. Edson, a Christian, says it's fair to say that she has written a Christian--though certainly not proselytizing--play, yet it is seldom described that way.
"And that's very interesting to me. To me, it's obvious. Duh."
Edson has said repeatedly--for she is invariably asked--that she will not write again until she feels she has something else to say. "If 'Wit' works, it's 'cause it's the one thing that I had in my heart," she insists. "And I'm not going to go and try to crank that up again."
Of course, the pressure of writing a follow-up to "Wit" would be enough to intimidate even more experienced writers.
"I don't think that's what's keeping her from doing it," says Linda Merrill, Edson's longtime partner, by phone from Atlanta. (Merrill, who wrote a number of scholarly art books while at the Freer Gallery for 13 years, is now curator of American art at Atlanta's High Museum of Art.) "She is very wrapped up in her other life, which is her life as a kindergarten teacher. That occupies so much of her thinking and her energy that she doesn't have a lot left over for anything else. So the rest of this is something that's going on somewhere else."
Edson says, "The job I have now, 'people person' doesn't even begin to describe it. I'm with my students every minute of the day--lunch, everything. So the isolated languor of the writer is just really not part of my world." She laughs again, and you can practically hear the relentlessly inquisitive voices of 5-year-olds buzzing in her ear.
Because she has achieved a degree of fame and fortune--and possibly because of the scholarly tone of her play--it confounds people that Edson continues to teach kindergarten. She got a hero's applause, for instance, from the university crowd when she was introduced as the toast of American theater and a public schoolteacher.
"It's a government job," she says later, rolling her eyes in a neat summation of the drab hassles implied by the phrase. "There's nothing heroic about it."
Still, teaching, given her circumstances, strikes people as a heroic choice.
Edson isn't buying it. "Ms. Rivers in the room next door has made the same choice," she says flatly. "Not out of the same number of options. But all my colleagues are doing the same thing I'm doing. People who know me slightly, or who have maybe read about me or heard about me, find it hard to understand. But to people who know me better, it makes perfect sense. They know the ways that I'm . . . odd."
"She loves to draw, for instance," says Merrill, who has known Edson for 20 years dating back to their days at Smith, "but she's not very good at it. They're funny little pictures, so they're just right for kindergartners. She's an excellent mimic--in fact, she used to take mime classes and she can imitate animals in amazing ways. And that's a skill that you wouldn't think she'd have occasion to use.
"Writing is a lonely profession," Merrill adds, "and it was hard for her to write the play. She likes having the immediate response from her students. And if there's something about it that isn't working, she can change it immediately. Whereas writing a play is a long, drawn-out process, and it's a long time before you know whether you've been effective."
Add to that the fact that Edson--a private school product--appears to be one of public education's evangelicals. To be in a public school is "critical" for her, she says. "Completely. The school where I teach is a Title One, free lunch/free breakfast school. My students are people who would be . . . well-served by good education." Her voice is very soft now; she is deeply serious. "I feel very clear about what I'm doing. I'm perfectly sure of the positive impact of what I'm doing. And I'm the only person I know who can say that. Except for the people down the hall, Ms. Rivers next door."
Yet once upon a time she wrote a play, and it became a very big hit. . . .
Edson comes up with an allegory to explain it.
"A friend of ours, in his garden, decided to build a shed. He'd never built anything, and he just got this idea that he was going to build this shed. And so he got all these books and plans, and he poured a foundation. For somebody who'd never built anything to build such a shed was incredible. He worked for the government, came home from work, and worked on this shed. And this was his . . . shed. And I was working on my play. We had the same spirit: that whatever else happens, I'm makin' my shed.
"So now," Edson concludes, "he has his shed. And I have my play."
