Thinky Thursday: Is Shakespeare's "Lost Play" Burried on Oak Island?

My kids and I enjoy watching the treasure hunting show The Curse of Oak Island on The History Channel. I enjoy lwatching people read through documents and search through archives. My kids like all the big equipment and discussions about the engineering challenges presented by the proposed digs on the island. But this season has been especially interesting as we keep hearing the narrator's voice tease that the island could be a hiding place for one of William Shakespeare's long lost manuscripts. Let me just go on record here with my thoughts about that possibility.

Um, no.

Don't get me wrong, I love that the writers of the show are thinking about Shakespeare and consider his work to be worthy of treasure status. But, no. I don't think Bacon wrote the plays and I don't buy the Oak Island connection. Believe me, I would be thrilled if an original manuscript of The History of Cardenio was discovered during my lifetime, but I'm not expecting the Lagina brothers to extract it from one of the many shafts on Oak Island.

As much as I love a shout out to the Bard, I'm not holding my breath for that one.

That being said I think it's worth reflecting on the relationship between treasure hunting and literature. Besides the obvious classics The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, the show reminds me of another book I read during my youth: Strange Stories, Amazing Facts.

I don't remember how the book came into my possession, but I do remember the thick cover with a red faux marble design and the solid binding. It was a heavy book and the most impressive-looking tome in my little library. As a child I spent many sleepless nights under the covers with my flashlight wondering what happened the crew of the Mary Celeste and wondering about the Money Pit on Oak Island. That sense of wonder and curiosity still lingers with me today whenever I'm reading. What will become of the characters now that I've finished the novel? Where do they go? What becomes of them?

My imagination has spent so much time with the characters that I can't help growing attached to them and wondering about them. The act of reading is in itself a kind of hunt for treasure. Rick and Marty Lagina might never find any treasure on Oak Island, but the real value is in the sense of wonder behind the motivation to dig in the first place.

Wordy Wednesday: Rime Time (-AIL, -AIN, -AN, -IGHT)

Wordy Wednesday is back!
Today we are focusing on words that end with the letters -AIL. How many words can you think of that end with -AIL?

PAIL
FAIL
SNAIL
BAIL....

How about -AIN?
Or -AN?
Or the ever popular -IGHT?

So, what's the RIME?

ONSET and RIME are terms used to describe the phonological units of words. In order to help young (and not so young) students with reading and spelling, many teachers will use spelling patterns that break down the ONSET and RIME.

The ONSET is the part of the syllable that includes the initial consonant or consonant blend. The RIME is the syllable that consists of the vowel sound and any final consonants, like -AIL. I posted the ONSET "BR-" back in September when the weather first started to turn cold. My daughter and I spent about an hour writing out all the words we could think of that began with BR-. She was able to write out a total of 43 words! 

We've been playing these games for years with the kids, but I think my husband and I have as much if not more fun than the kids trying to think of words to add to the list. I've even posted the RIME -TION on a Facebook Group for my colleagues in academia (real professors!) and they kept posting new words to the list. It's addictive and a great way to entertain the kids or warm up for a writing session. Writing the words out is a great way to reinforce spelling and to exercise our vocabulary skills. The most important thing is to have fun with writing! Enjoy!  

Book Review of The Black Hour by Lori Rader-Day

The Black Hour by Lori Rader-Day is one of those books that made me want to buy a whole bunch of copies to distribute to my friends. If you’re looking for a perfect gift for that reader in your life, check out The Black Hour.

The crime novel opens with sociology professor Amelia Emmet attempting to resume her academic career while still recovering from a violent attack from a student—a student who shot and killed himself after shooting her. With the identity of the shooter known, the central mystery of the novel is not “whodunnit?” but “whydunnit?”

As Emmet re-acclimates to her university life, she finds her colleagues suspicious and awkward with her victim status. It does not help matters that her memory of the attack is clouded, confused, and completely lacking in details that will help provide an explanation or even a coherent narrative. For a professor who studies violence, her inability to understand and process the attack is as frustrating as the physical limitations she faces in the wake of her injuries. Graduate student Nathaniel Barber, Emmet’s teaching assistant is equally curious about the motive behind the attack. Academic research quickly gives way to investigative legwork as the pair try to learn more about the shooter and his possible motive for wanting to kill Emmet.

The skillfully constructed plot and characters are complex enough to keep the reader engaged without feeling overwhelmed. Rader-Day's prose is crisp and concise, never losing sight of the central storyline. Her ability to alternate point-of-view is masterful as is her ability to subtly reveal the subtext of her characters’ behavior in a realistically constructed academic setting; it is hard to believe this is her first novel. Violence and depression loom large in the narrative, but the characters are written with such clarity and purpose that the darkness never fully envelops them or, thankfully, the reader. It's one of those books you can't put down and are sad to see come to an end.  Reading the novel is a thrilling ride that comes to an end satisfactorily, though all too quickly.

For more information about Lori Rader-Day, check out her website at http://loriraderday.com/

Wordy Wednesday: "This is Just to Say"

Today we celebrate Wordy Wednesday with a poem by
William Carlos Williams (1883-1963):

"This is Just to Say"

 I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

This is one of my favorite poems to read in class. Students in Introduction to Poetry have usually been treated to a fair amount of Shakespeare and Wordsworth and Keats and Tennyson before we get here. And then they read the poem and wonder if they read it right.

As with all poems, and texts really, we begin with the story. Who are the characters? What has happened? And then we break it down from there. There is a Speaker, an "I." And there is an Audience to whom the Speaker of the poem is speaking, the "you." The Speaker has eaten plums out of the icebox. The Audience was probably saving them breakfast.

What's fun about this poem is the "Sorry, but not sorry" aspect that is communicated in such a short amount of space. We know this Speaker. We may live with this Speaker. We may even sometimes be this Speaker. This Speaker is not a nice person. Or maybe we are the Audience. Maybe we have been on the receiving end of the Speaker's not-so-sincere apology that is really just an opportunity to rub it in our faces. In all likelihood, we can relate to both. And those plums, those plums we were saving for breakfast? Those plums are nothing less than the hopes and dreams that have been mercilessly and humorously snatched away from us by the Plum Thief.

For today's exercise, I invite you to play a game of Mad Libs. I just love Mad Libs and use it a lot in my teaching exercises. What I would like you to do is to simply start replacing words in the poem with your own. Try to keep the form and tone of the poem as close to the original as possible, but be creative and have fun. You can Google "This is Just to Say Parody" to find more examples online. And please feel free to post your attempts on the Getting Literature FB Group Page.

Here is my attempt to get you started. Enjoy!

"This is Just to Recycle"

I have recycled
the papers
that were in the boxes

and which
I will probably
need
for something or other.

Forgive me
they were depressing
so dusty
and so useless.

PS Thanks to Tiffany Sigler Rumbalski's "Poem a Day" FB Group for the inspiration for today's post. 

Meaningful Monday: The Meaning of Punctuation

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Today's Meaningful Monday post is about the meaning of punctuation. I know that many writers freak out about correctness and then stress out over the thought of red ink covering their writing, but I've always maintained that punctuation is a tool to aid understanding and not intended to invoke a panic attack. The goal is to avoid distracting errors that make writing hard to understand. If you write, you are going to make mistakes. Writers are human. Errors are gonna happen. You just want to make sure that you are familiar with the rules that govern meaning. Misplacing a comma can change the meaning of a sentence. You want to make sure that your writing means what you want it to mean. It's not about perfection; it's about meaning what you write.

English is a difficult language and many of its grammar rules don't make sense. There. I wrote it. Deal with it. I still remember studying Japanese in high school and feeling suspicious that there weren't irregular verbs lurking all over the place and that it was that easy to change a verb into past tense. It made sense. It was logical. It was everything English is not.

That being said, English grammar doesn't have to be so awful and painful. There are fantastic resources available to help you figure things out when you have questions. And the more you learn about grammar and style, the easier it becomes to learn more about proper writing. One of my favorite resources that everyone should definitely check out is Grammar Girl. The Grammar Girl podcast, created by Mignon, includes short episodes that are usually under 10 minutes and focus on one tip at a time for easy digestion. I love that she also includes the transcript of the podcast on her website so you can see the examples she is referencing. She also has a few books out for those of us who prefer flipping through pages instead of scrolling through screens to find the answer.

Got a question about a comma? Not sure about that possessive? Should you write "affect" or "effect"? Check out Grammar Girl. She's got the answers you're looking for. Enjoy!

Wordy Wednesday: Brrrrr

As the weather starts to turn cold, a two letter combination keeps coming to mind: BR! As it so happens, the second grade classes at our local elementary school are capitalizing on this turn in the weather and studying words with the "BR" combination. They are also looking at a whole list of other letter combinations, but last night my daughter and I couldn't stop thinking of words that began with the letters BR. Here is what we came up with:

 

We got up to 43 words in about an hour and then it was way past time for bed. And then this morning we thought of three more. I was going to save the game for Wordy Wednesday, but when I posted about it on Facebook people seemed eager to start playing. So this week we celebrate Wordy Wednesday a day early! Enjoy!

Friday Film Post: The Big Short

Looking for a film to watch this weekend? The Big Short, based on the New York Times bestselling non-fiction book by Michael Lewis, is now available on Netflix. While watching a movie about the housing bubble collapse of the 2007-2008 might not seem like a good way to spend your weekend, the film is entertaining and enlightening. Directed and co-written by Adam McKay of Anchorman and Talladega Nights fame, this drama maintains a dark humor throughout and provides readers with a modern day morality play. 

Micheal Lewis writes non-fiction, but his masterful story-telling coupled with his strong character development lend his writing a literary quality that is at once accessible and elevated. His descriptions of people are so vivid and specific that they seem to leap off the page. After a few short lines reading about someone, you have a sense that you would probably recognize this person if you were behind them in line at the grocery store one day. This writing provides the basis for McKay's script and allows for amazing performances by Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, and Brad Pitt.


The mechanics of the financial collapse at the center of the plot are complicated and, admittedly, not entirely interesting. To combat this, the film incorporates and spoofs documentary cut-aways and narration techniques. McKay keeps the audience engaged by using cameo appearances from celebrities like Anthony Bourdain and Selena Gomez to explain these dizzying financial concepts. The most famous cameo in the film is when Margot Robbie explains "sub-prime mortgages" while drinking champagne in a bubble bath. Before you click on the hyperlink to watch the scene, be aware that the film is rated R and this scene contains profanity. It's a decidedly sharp departure from elevated prose of Lewis's book, but the film is aiming for a broader audience.

 

This tension between the seriousness of the fraudulent financial practices being described and the light-hearted style in which those practices are described by celebrities might leave some with a bad taste in their mouths. For other viewers, that McKay's silly style serves as the honey that helps the medicine go down. If the film doesn't float your boat, you can always check the book out by Michael Lewis. Happy viewing! Happy reading!