Monday, January 22, 2007

Practice Notes

Practice Notes (November 19, 2006)

20TH century famous guitarist – Andres Segovia (he’s Spanish)

Three Sisters, Uncle Vanya, Cherry Orchard, The Seagull, The Duel – Chekov

Cantos – Ezra Pound

1905 – Russo-Japanese Treaty – Portsmith

1748 – Austrian Succession – Aix-la-Chapelle

Ode ON a Grecian Urn – Keats

Sympathizes with Don Juan – Lord Byron (George Gordon)

Farewell Symphony – “blow out candles in the end” – Haydn

Marries Lucie Manette in A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Darnay

*plot of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens – The novel takes place in the late 1770 -1780s in England and France. Charles Darnay (the protagonist) is on trial for treason. He has a lawyer named Stryver who is unable convince the court to acquit Darnay until Sydney Carton aids him. Sydney Carton is a stereotypical, cynical, Englishman, prone to drinking. Carton points out a striking resemblance between himself and Darnay which would take validity from the court’s argument that Darnay was indisputably identified as a spy. Lucie Manette is reuinited with her father, who makes shoes constantly. Her father spent many years in Bastille. He is revived by Lucie’s loving demeanor. Darnay meets Lucie and they fall in love. Carton too falls in love. A woman named Madame Defarge wants revenge on Darnay’s evil family, the Evrémondes, by making Darnay pay for their transgressions. Carton hears of Defarge’s intentions of killing Lucie and Lucie’s daughter as well, and warns Lucie, and takes Darnay’s place in jail. Carton dies in place of Darnay and finally feels he’s made something of his life.

A Dream Differed by Langston Hughes.

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

The Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

February 15, 1898 – Havana, Cuba – USS Maine sinks killing 260 American soldiers – Spanish American War

Spanish American war- (President McKinley) “Splendid Little War” It was over unrest regarding stability in Cuba (revolutionaries in Cuba wanted freedom from Spain). It ended with the Treaty of Paris 1898 (Must specify year. There are many, many “Treaty of Paris”es.) This war resulted in the American acquisition of Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines.

Court order prohibiting action – injunction (legal term)

Natty Bumpoo – James Fennimore Cooper character in Leatherstocking Tales

Cooper works – 1st work – Precaution, The Pioneers, Tales for Fifteen, The Last of the Mohicans: A narrative of 1757, The Monikins, Homeward Bound, Old Ironsides, The Deerslayer, Life Before the Mast

Nabakov – wrote Lolita: Confessions of a White Widowed Male, KEYS: written in the author’s sixth language (Nabakov wrote the novel in English his sixth language) and KEY for Nabakov is : lepidoptorist (studies butterflies)

J.J.Thompson – born in Cheetham Hill, Manchester taught Rutherford. He became Cavindish professor in 1884. Won the 1906 Nobel Prize in physics for the discover of the electron. He discovered isotopes and worked with cathode rays.

Introduced into Parliament by William Gladstone – CLOTURE

Spiro Theodore Agnew (November 9, 1918September 17, 1996), born Spiros Anagnostopoulos in Towson, Maryland, was the 39th Vice President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1973 under President Richard M. Nixon. His was the highest-ranking United States political office ever reached by a Greek-American citizen. He is most famous for his resignation in 1973 following evidence of tax evasion. Agnew was also the 55th governor of the state of Maryland from 1967 to 1969.

The Fountainhead – by Ayn Rand – Howard Roark is the talented architect. The plot is about how creators are doomed by society’s intense outside pressure to never achieve their potential. Other characters include Dominique

Ayn Rand – We the Living, Atlas Shrugged, and Anthem. Objectivism (founder of this I suppose)

Atlas Shrugged – Ayn Rand’s magnum opus - Dagny Taggart and Hank Rearden – Dagny dreams of controlling her family’s transcontinental railroad. The question, “Who is John Galt?” is repeated throughout the novel.

The Good Earth – won the 1932 Pulitzer Prize for Pearl S. Buck – Wang Lung marries O-lan. They gain wealth from the land of opium addicts (the Hwang family). They have two sons and a retarded daughter. O-lan dies and Wang Lung regrets reproaching her for her big feet (she never had her feet binded).

Pearl S. Buck – won the 1932 Nobel Prize in Literature; Other works “The Exile; East Wind:West Wind; A House Divided” born in Hillsboro, VA, raised in China, daughter of Presbyterian missionaries.

Gustav Kimt- born in Baumgarten near Vienna, Austria – The Kiss. His painting, the Portrait of Adelle Blosh-Bauer is the highest sold painting to date.

Flourentine – 1260s-1330s – Giotto – Adoration of the Magi

Civil Disobedience – Thoreau, born in Concord, Mass. Other works include: Walden, A Plea for Captain John Brown, he was a naturalist and wrote things like Summer, Winter, Autumn, and Early Spring in Massachussets

Fried Green Tomatoes – by Fanny Flag

Tess of the D’Ubervilles – A Pure Woman Faithfully Represented by Thomas Hardy:

Durbeyfields are characters in this book. Tess is sent by her parents to live with the D’Ubervilles where she is raped by Mrs. D’Uberville’s son and has a child named Sorrow that dies soon after birth. She marries a man named Angel Clare, whom she confesses her past to in a letter that he never sees. They eventually tell each other their transgressions, and Tess forgives Angel, but Angel runs off to Brazil. Tess and Angel find out in the end that they are related. Key for Tess : milkmaid

Govinda – character in Siddharta by Hesse

Napoleon Bonaparte – born in Corsica in 1769

Blitzkrieg – “Lighting war” term coined in the Second World War by the Germans it was the German military tactic that avoided long wars. With the entry of the USA, Germany was forced into a long war, and inevitably defeated in 1945

The Bell Jar – by Silvia Plath (Sylvia Plath born in Jamaica Plains)

Einsenach, Germany – Birthplace of JS Bach. Where Martin Luther was raised.

Eislebein, Germany – Birthplace of Martin Luther

Peter Zenger – The Zenger trial dealt with the alleged “sedition libel” published by Zenger against NY Governor William Cosby – Zenger was defended by Philadelphia attorney Andrew Hamilton and gave a definition to FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

John Donne – Jacobean poet – Death be not proud ; No man is an island.

For Whom the Bell Tolls – was written by Ernest Hemingway

Death be Not Proud – is a book written by John Gunther

Thomas More – Utopia (Henry VIII beheaded More for refusing to accept the king as the head of his faith)

Catcher in the Rye- J.D. Salindger – “If you really want to hear about it”