HW 28: Letter to Riverbend

In the book Baghdad Burning, you talks about your views of the war in Iraq at this specific time. As I began to read the book, and read the blogs that you have written and I am just in awe of how you handle your composure and utter sanity. On page sixteen, I quote “Females can no longer leave their homes alone.” I had heard this through a discussion I had had with someone, that women were not aloud to leave their homes due to men snatching them and raping them I believe. I couldn’t believe it the first time, but to hear it from reading what you had said, it just makes it more real. Reading your blogs is weird, because I live in the United States, it’s my home that you are fighting, the war is between my country and yours. Being in the country where nothing affects my life is easy, yes, we are in a war, but I’m not banned from outside without an escort, and I am not having to deal with children every day getting killed, you have the hard part. “Today a child was killed in Anbar.” (Riverbend 8) that is ridiculous. It makes me so sad to see innocent children who honestly has no real idea what is going on, to get killed.

HW 30: What kind of democracy do we want?

Yesterday I attended a citizenship symposium at Keene State College, the main speaker of this event talked about Democracy, and what kind of democracy we wanted in the U.S today. The talk was basically about democracy. It started with her explaining herself, where she was from, which is Lexington, MA (the birthplace of American liberty). She then took us to even further back into history and started talking about Moses, I was actually confused as to why she brought up Moses, why? She basically said that 'Distrust' was what everything that had to do with democracy was based on.The only thing she said was "democracy is based on distrust." with no further explanation. I sat there and tried to understand what she meant by this, but got really confused as to what 'distrust' actually was, and what it had to do with democracy. She never really defined the word, and just expected everyone to understand how it had to deal with the topic of her speech. An interesting fact I learned through going to this was that who is really counting our votes when we go to the polls. That it's not the people voting that make a difference, it was the the people counting the votes. I also learned about Secret Vote Counting Software and that Nationally 80% of states do this, and in New Hampshire alone, 81% of people do this. It was interesting when she brought the audience into it and asked for a raise of hands who thought this software should be used and only one raised their hands.

HW 25: Bahgdad Burning

In the foreword of Baghdad Burning it presents us to the purpose of the book. It's about a young girl who writes a blog about the entire Iraq war. She writes and defends her culture and even describes how it is similar. Why anti-Americanism is basically not fair, and how much it angers people in her culture. It brings up how there is politics in this book and about the invasion itself on May 7th 2004. The book should pinpoint all the shame that the imperialists bent the minds of the Iraqis. This book makes for painful reading, it describes all of the harsh times that both Iraqi people have to deal with and even American soldiers. It shows insight to the pain and harships that the Iraq's have to go through.
In the introduction it basically goes into more detail about where she is from, how she got to make a blog and what she writes in those blog posts. Gives much more information about her life and background of why the war even started. I feel that this is a very good read, gives so much more insight on how they must feel, and how we take for granted how the war is not in our country. This will be able to tell us how she must have felt and how she dealt with the war, she writes about everyday occurances and it helps america understand.

HW 24: Room of my own?

Of course I have a room of my own; I feel everyone does. I'm not talking about a literal room either, a room with four walls, a bed and your clothes. My room is my own personal voice; My writing voice. In 11Th grade of high school, the entire English class was devoted to finding your own voice in your writing. I felt that throughout the course of that class, I found my voice, it was easier to write papers, I could write what I felt, and I even found myself writing on my own about my life and my feelings. Everything that I write for myself lets out everything inside me to something, it doesn't have to be a person , but I write it as if someone is going to read it in the future.
" I thought, addressing Mary Carmichael is if she were there, would be to talk of something else, looking steadily out the window, and thus note, not with a pencil in a notebook, but in the shorthand, in words that are hardly syllabled yet..."(Virginia, 85)
This exerpt from the book A room of ones own hit me when I read it. That's exactly how I feel when I write, I'm writing to not only myself and my notebook paper, but I'm writing to the person that will eventually read this, the person that will find this however long from now, and know who I am at this time in my life.

HW 23: Virginia vs Jezebel

I read a blog post on Jezebel, it was about Anne Hathaway breaking up with her long time boyfriend Rafaello Follieri. They used the adjective 'shady' to describe him, if I were Virginia Woolf, I would be shocked! Shocked that they would be talking about a man in that way, no matter if he were shady or not. They never would talk about a man that way, only women got talked about in writing. The entire blog post is about how he is shady, and cheated on her, and they actually used the word "doucheyness" to describe him. How rude! I mean, even if he was these adjectives, they are writing about a man in that way! They aren’t poking fun of the women in the situation getting cheated on; they are actually making fun of the man! How crazy is that. I’m actually almost enjoying this though, making fun of a MAN. Finally.

HW 22: Patriarchy

In chapter two of Virginia Woolf's book A room of one's own there happens to be a lot of patriarchy. The first bit of patriarchy I picked out from page 27, "Women do not write books about men- a fact that I could not help welcoming with relief , for if i had first to read all that men have written about women, then all that women have written about men, that aloe that flowers once in a hundred years would flower twice before I could not set pen to paper." This shows the patriarchy that men have in how they write about women and sex, but women never and would never write about sex and men ever. Why are women so limited in what they can write about or say or do. Just testing the limits and having women be at a loss in patriarchy. I looked back onto page 26 to see a statement reading "Have you any notion how many are written by men? Are you aware that you are, perhaps, the most discussed animal in the universe?" Why women! Why always women? For all that I know, women have had disadvantages to being women, and that's rough. But to be the most written about 'animal' in the world? That's crazy, Not only are men writing all of this, they have such power or 'patriarchy' over women. Reading the New York Times I happened to fall upon an article specifically talking about patriarchy, entitled "WELL-BEHAVED WOMEN SELDOM MAKE HISTORY" it's basically fighting the rights of women and speaking out in writing and how it is possible now and how if there is a slight bit of patriarchy that they will fight it to it's death.

HW 21: A room of one's own

Dear Erin,

I know how you would be confused it is a confusing chapter! But I'll try and help you out. The intro could quite possibly be considered off the wall. In the first couple of pages 'Mary' had a less then welcoming experience on campus and this sent her "little fish" or I would connect that to her inspiration "into hiding". She then had no idea what what she would write about. At the famous library that was said was cursed, she had yet another experience that was unreal.
You must still be confused as of this point, but I'm trying. I just tried to clear up some of the parts that confused me that I had to work out. Continuing in the book, there is a part that brings up the Manx cat, which is a recurring part to this chapter, the Manx cat has no tail, which helps to express the emotions. Reading on, there is a song that Tennyson was singing and it's basically him saying that world is different after the war. On pages 20-21 Mary is saying that if women had money, what would have been different, especially since women worked so hard, yet still lived in poverty. If women had money, they could and would study fascinating subjects, they were thriving to learn. But in the end, men will always write better fiction because they possess the "amenities".
You're English teacher is smart to let you read this book! Due to that it is about women and writing. It will teach both the boys and girls in your class the importance of money in fiction, and how that was what was important, not the actually quality of the writing. Virginia Woolf is writing an important piece to how fiction became what it is. Money for women was almost impossible to earn, which prevented them from writing fiction. I like this book, and I'm glad you are reading it Erin! Enjoy and I hope I helped.

Always, Kristen.