Unfamiliar text; Lament

 Questions;

S - In the poem "Lament" by Glenn Colqohoun, the author uses many language features to convey sadness. 

T - One feature he used was anaphora. The repeating use of "If" at the start of many sentences in the poem.

E - For instance, if is used to connect to the author's other language features to further support the idea of sadness. Such as, "if windows poke out their tongues for a drop of water" and "If my eyes are grey rocks in a stream".

E - Anaphora is used to have a connection between each sentence followed by another language feature. This is to highlight what he is feeling, a feeling of emptiness and sorrow. The first example is a personification; it signifies the determination and the will to do something. As stated, "if windows poke out their tongues for a drop of water" shows the struggle of getting or obtaining something. The second example shows that the author hasn't slept in days. As stated, "If my eyes are grey rocks in a stream, " he was so occupied with losing someone that he couldn't get any rest or a stream of tears. He is also trying to convey that the world is still going around even with all of this torment and repressed emotions. That it doesn't matter if one dies, the world is still spinning.

L - I have recently felt his torment of sadness, as I have lost someone dear to me. The feeling of sadness and knowing that the world would not stop spinning for just a drop of water in the sea, just like the world. Reading this poem made me feel the same as the author. 

Klara and The Sun - The gradient inner life of a Robot.

 Today in our English class, we read two articles about the book that we read. And answering these questions for each.

3-5 New Vocabulary.

TheGuardian.com 

- Ludicrous - So foolish or unreasonable.

- Uncanny - Strange and mysterious in an unsettling way

- Sentient - Able to perceive emotions 

- Beguiling - charming in a deceptive way.

Theatlantic.com 

- Prognosticators - A person who foretells the future 

- Deteriorating - Becoming worse over time

- Monstrosity - A thing that is large and unsightly

Important themes

TheGuardian.com 

This article follows the idea of companionship, which is Klara's (the AF) reason for her existence.

The idea of companionship roams around this article about how the world in the book has AFs for teenagers like Josie. This is to help with their early stages of life.

Theatlantic.com

This article views the story as to how Klara was able to respond to right and wrongs. Ignoring the stricture of the programing in her. She was able to correspond with situations such as Josie getting sick and doing her own actions such as destroying a Cooting machine.

Link

These two articles are linked since they both talked about how Klara gained "consciousness" to become a better companion to Josie.

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What connections can you make between "Klara and The Sun" and "Blade Runner 2049"?

The ongoing theme of discrimination throughout both texts.

In Blade Runner 2049, replicants - bio-engineered beings - are discriminated against in their society. This is because, they are designed to be better than humans, stronger and smarter. Hence why, people became envious of them and hated them.

The teenagers who are "lifted" - engineered to be better - are viewed in their society as top beings who would achieve their academic goals. They are made smarter than the people who are not "lifted. The people who aren't "lifted" are viewed as if they won't be able to get higher-paid jobs.

Love is also present in both texts

During the rain scene, Joi - a hologram girlfriend of K - was finally experiencing rain. This led to a deeply emotional love for both. As Joi attempted to kiss K, she couldn't do it, as she was a mere hologram. This shows that K can feel love.

In Klara and the Sun, Klara synthesized with the sun, to be able to save her friend, Josie. This shows that Klara cares for her friend and is willing to sacrifice herself to be able to save her. Even there's a slight chance of her recovering from an illness. This manifested Klara to have love, caring love for her best friend Josie.

What does it mean to have personhood in both texts?

One's personhood can vary on who's perspective it is. For instance, in Klara and the Sun, Rick's mother viewed Klara as a vacuum machine. However, Josie thinks the opposite. Klara for her is her best friend and someone she loves.

For Blade Runner 2049, K ignored his stricture of being a replicant and made his own decisions. This means that he was able to gain consciousness and awareness around him. Making him have a certain amount of Personhood.

Osmosis Experiment.

 Osmosis:

Osmosis is a specific type of diffusion where it mostly relates to the movement of water through a semi-permeable membrane.

The experiment includes filing 3 beakers with the same volume of water. One beaker must be filled with sugar, another one must be mixed with slate and the last one shall be left in its natural state. All beakers will have one gummy bear each.

Hypothesis: I believe that the gummy inside the saltwater beaker will be smaller than its original size. While the gummy bears inside water and the sugary water will expand in size.

Questions:

1. Was your hypothesis correct for each? Two were correct and one was wrong. The gummy bears are inside the slat water and the normal water. my prediction were right. However, I have not taken into the thought that the gummy inside the sugary water would roughly stay the same.

2. Did the bear get bigger or smaller?

Sugary water - Roughly stayed the same

Saltwater - Decreased in size

Water - Enlarged

3. Does that mean that the gummy bear was

- Hypertonic? The gummy bear was hypertonic of glucose, therefore water went inside the gummy hence why it enlarged.

- Hypotonic? The gummy bear was hypotonic of saltwater, hence why glucose went out of the gummy and the size decreased.

- Isotonic? The gummy bear was isotonic to sugary water, meaning equilibrium. This is why there is hardly no change in size.

East Coast Journey, Unfamiliar text.

 Who is Hine-nui-te-po? 

- She is the goddess of death in Maori mythology.

How would you describe the tone of the poem?

- It started off with an indifferent tone as they drink for happiness. As the poem progresses, it becomes tiring.

Identify where in the text the author uses a simile.

- "hair like kelp,"

What is the message of the poem?

- A welcoming death.

What is the purpose and effect of this use of contrast/juxtopostion?

That death is not always terrifying but can be an embracing grace.

Practice Paragraph - Blade Runner 2049

"Today in English we are writing our practice paragraph for an upcoming assessment"

In the scene where K goes back to his apartment, the director uses lighting together with character to show meaning.

We see this when K goes into his apartment and Joi - his virtual hologram girlfriend - became online. The whole room was filled with grey and dull colours. A negligible room with no signs of life. This then reflects K’s Character who rarely shows any emotions.

The director did this to show the emptiness of K’s life and has a virtual girlfriend to feel more human. This then connects to personhood, he hopes that he would be more human. This is important because we begin to feel empathetic towards K. This means that as K evolves into a more human-like being, this then asks the audience a question in their mind, “What is a human?”

Through the use of lighting and character, we can see that K portrays himself as his room. A grey and bland apartment. The techniques demonstrate that K doesn’t really have friends or families, his only way of happiness was, Joi. 

This connects to the book of “Klara and the sun”. Klara, an AF (Artificial Friend), develops emotions towards. This is connected with K because, similarly to K, Klara began to understand humans and make her own decisions, and throughout the movie, K is also learning to defy his superiors. This means that Artificial intelligence can gain consciousness. 

The Cellist of Sarajevo

For this week's blogpost for English, we are reading an unfamiliar text and writing down our thoughts about it.

Questions:

3 Words that I don't know from the text:

Cellist - A person who plays the cello

Remnants - A part of something that has been used or destroyed.

Fraudulent - Obtained, especially done by criminal deception. FAKE

Identify 3 examples of emotive language

- He would very much like to feel his father's hand on his shoulder again.

- It wasn't always like this

- The fingers on his flesh told him that he was loved, that he has always been loved, and that the world was a place above all else the things that were good would find a way to burrow into you.

What is the tone of the excerpt?

I believe that the author is feeling amazed and also proud that the cellist was brave enough to play his cello throughout the bombardment of mortars and war. Often expose to danger.

Identify an example of imagery from the passage:

"It screamed downwards, splitting air and sky without effort. A target expanded in size, brought into focus by time and velocity. There was a moment before impact that was the last instant of things as they were. Then the visible world exploded"

Personal reflections

In my opinion, I believe that the cellist of Sarajevo was super courageous and reluctant. He stood for days playing Adagio. Overall, the passage had a melancholic and sad flow.