Sam Ehmann AP Lit Summer Blog

My independent reading book The Shipping News  is very nautical themed. Centering on Newfoundland, and its long history and people, the book calls upon a bygone era of hardworking men and women who are almost gone. Almost every chapter is named after some kind of knot, and begins with a diagram of said knot, and a brief description from The Ashley Book Of Knots . These descriptions vary from explaniations of their uses, to old stories about their history. And it was this constant exposure to knots and their long significance that made me interested in them. On top of this the most recent pair of shoes I purchased have diagrams of how to tie knots in the soles, so really knots have just been on my mind. Last week on the day all of the seniors were "sick" I went out to lunch with a friend at the windmill restaurant, and after explored the windmill antique store. While meandering through the long halls of shelves, I stumbled across "The Boater's Knot Tying Game,"

Before starting this unit, I was unfamiliar with the work of Lucille Clifton, having maybe heard the name once or twice but never in association with a particular poem. But this exploration has been extremely enlightening for me, both to her and her work, but also the deep topics that her concise poems address. The poem that completely captured my attention and made me pause, was "wishes for sons". Based on the title alone I expected to find her doting a mother's hopes and dreams on to her children, imagining all the wonderful things they would accomplish in the world. But instead what I was confronted with was a curse, wishing them to experience the pain and problems of womanhood, the cramps, clots, hot flashes and white skirts. It was so unlike what I was expecting to experience, that the venom in her voice penetrated deep into my thoughts, creating a home for itself among my other notions. But perhaps I was simply foolish in my expectations. Her poems often encompa

For my independent reading novel, I have chosen to explore Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man . When I made this selection I mixed up the H.G Wells story of the same name I have read in the past, where a scientist accidently makes himself invisible and gets into some fun antics. So imagine my surprise when I grab the copy of Ellison's version off the shelf, flip it over and read the reviews given. "Ellison has talent and so far he has managed to stay away from being first a Negro, he is still first a writer. I think that he will go far." -William Faulkner. "The most impressive work of fiction by an American Negro which I have ever read... Mr. Ellison is a finished novelist who uses words with great skill..." -Orville Prescott, The New York Times. And some others in the same vein... Now I quickly realized my mistake in book choice, but these reviews really stuck with me. This book was originally published in 1947, a time when black people were still fightin

"Work like a slave, order like a king, create like a god," the many quips and quotes from Mr. Tom Sachs paint a picture of genius that is harrowing, yet strangely inspiring. A sculptor by trade, his workshop named "The Studio," specializes in creating unique art pieces drawing inspiration from all sources in pop culture and our modern society. But Mr. Sachs himself is a character I find fascinating. He has a view and outlook on art and society that is really unique, and he finds appreciation for the most simple objects in every day life. "I want labor to be the point, because everything in our lives is miraculously made with no idea of how it's done. As an active and critical consumer, and as someone who has attempted to make the flawless and failed, I wanted a transparency of construction here. If we know how it is made and how it falls apart, we will know how to rebuild it." One of his main rules for creation is that an object has to show that it wa

Towards the end of 2016 on his podcast  Still Untitled: The Adam Savage Project , Adam begins a discussion where the classic romantic comedy has gone. He asserts that newer films in the genre replace the comedy aspect with drama, rather than actual jokes and comedic plot lines. Now this is a trend that I had subconsciously noticed myself, but once I heard it put into words it really stuck. Nearly all the romantic comedies I as shown while growing up were at least a decade old, and today the box offices seem to be devoid of the genre. Looking at Rotten Tomatoes list of the top 30 romantic comedies (a selection I find extremely dubious and modern focused) nine were made in this century, and only six in this decade. And many of the ones made recently like The Big Sick , while comedic, do heavily rely on the crutch of drama to add to the story. But why is this? Why has one of the most beloved and lighthearted genres suddenly fallen off? I propose it is due to pacing. The trend of

I was doing some thinking, and I realized that of all of the different types of apocalypses often portrayed in media, it seems like a pandemic is the only one you could realistically survive. I am going to break down each type and why I think this is true. Zombies So this is probably this first thing everyone thought of when you read the word apocalypse. And this is an interesting case. As zombies are portrayed, they are not very smart and do not have great fine motor skills. Because of this I do think that if a zombie apocalypse started here in the US lets say, it could very easily be contained to the continent as zombies could not fly a plain or drive a boat to get anywhere else. However unless you escape, I doubt someone could survive long in the landscape as you would constantly be fending off the millions of zombies that are constantly trying to kill you. Bullets and food supplies only last so long. You cannot settle to farm as the land is too hard to defend indefinitely, and e