Characteristics of Romance

The following characteristics of Arthurian or Medieval Romance also apply to fairy tales and may illuminate such Romances as The Scarlet Letter:

All Romances (including fairy tales) involve progression--spiritual, moral, emotional
Use elements of both realistic and supernatural worlds
Begin on a Christian feast day, such as Christmas or Pentecost
Hero called to begin a quest--usually to rescue heroine or defeat an enemy
Quest becomes a test of hero's identity
Hero leaves the court to achieve his quest, often wandering into the forest, far from court where he encounters beasts, monsters, and notorious knights
Hero achieves quest and returns to court, confident that he has fulfilled his purpose or attained
his identity
Characters often flat and interchangeable--archetypes such as the knight whose strength comes his purity, the innocent and beautiful damsel, and the sorceress who plots against the hero
Hero often rewarded with marriage to a beautiful damsel as evidence of his attaining maturity
In contrast to epic or tragic works (and their world views), Romances involve suffering but end happily
The world view of Romances suggests a providential order, or divine force guiding the action, so that good characters are rewarded and bad characters meet with bad ends (the forest or wilderness provide tests of character)

Instead of SHOWS use

manifests, exemplifies, demonstrates, defines, establishes, points out, reveals, displays, exposes, evinces, suggests, represents, imparts, endows, delineates....

(use each word only in appropriate context)

Books.....

Here are some books I read this summer--you might enjoy looking at them to see if you like them. Also you will need to find a 20th or 21st century novel for your spring research paper. Most of these would work (not the non-fiction ones, though!)
Non-fiction:
The Omnivore's Dilemma
Mao's Last Dancer (autobiography) by Li Cunxin
Happiness and Architecture by Alain de Botton

Fiction:
Kafka on the Shore by Hayuki Murikami
After Dark by H. Murikami
The Windup Bird Chronicles by H. Murikami
The Last September by Elizabeth Bowen
To the North by Elizabeth Bowen
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime
The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
What is the What by Dave Eggers
The Palace of Illusions
The People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks


Add some books that you have enjoyed and wish to recommend!

Good Things

Write about something good that has happened to you during the summer or since school has begun!

Rules for Writing

State a definite claim--a thesis or destination--where you are going with this essay
Include specific, concrete examples and
Commentary on the examples relating them back to the claim.

Use effect when you mean the noun, affect is the verb

Use vivid, precise verbs--no "to be" verbs.
Avoid utility words such as nice, awesome, wonderful, clever.... be more specific.
Use more precise and interesting words for "show"; list to follow.... expresses, manifests, displays, exudes, .....
Infuse the essay with your personal voice.
Compress your style--never use three or four words when one or two will do.
Remember White and Strunk's three rules of writing: simplicity, lucidity, euphony.
Stop and think for a few moments before you write--this may avoid filler, fluff, deadwood, and other signs of lack of critical thinking.
Note: Be sure to sign your first name and last initial and your period so I can give you credit!

Avoid circumlocutions such as "Hawthorne give the reader the idea that"--say Hawthorne expresses.
Never use passive voice--unless absolutely the best way to express an idea. An example of bad passive voice would be "it is believed"--who believes it? state that.
Get rid of dangling modifiers, i.e. "When reading this passage, the narrator expresses the complexity of Pyncheon's character." (the narrator did not read the passage, who did?)
Post a response to what you learned about writing in class on Wednesday.

Color Challenge

I love colors--when you are in my class for even a few minutes, you will see that. Now, here's the challenge: recently I read that over three thousand words for color exist in the English language; by the end of the year, let's try to name a good chunk of them.

I'll start--

red, carnelian, scarlet, vermillion, tangerine, orange, lime, watermelon, peach, oyster, biscuit, ecru, taupe.....okay, see what you can add......

Living in Montrose

After having spent a month living in New York City a few summers ago, I begin daydreaming about living in an area where people could mostly walk instead of driving. When you are able to walk in a neighborhood, you begin to savor its nuances--in New York I loved seeing people out on the streets, having dinner, bringing home groceries, shopping for towels, or stopping to buy falafel or a bottle of water from street vendors. And venturing into the subways, I might be enthralled by a Mennonite choir or a man playing the saw.


Two years ago, when I moved to Montrose, I was delighted because this is the closest I can get in Houston to the New York experience. My new house is within walking distance of several charming restaurants as well as the River Oaks and Angelika theaters and the Museum of Fine Arts. I am ten minutes away from the Alley Theater and the Hobby Center by car as well, so I don't dread a long drive home from the theater at night. I love to walk to Sunday brunch or to dinner in the evening, passing people on the street or stopping to chat with an old man sitting outside his apartment doing a crossword puzzle.

What I have been surprised by in Montrose, as well, is the sweetness and congeniality of the people who live and work in the area. Even post office employees are pleasant and kind, lacking the oppressed feeling they sometimes manifested in the old post offices I knew. I don't know exactly what it is--perhaps the sense of old-style neighborhood quiet and serenity. You do have to drive several blocks before you get into the nerve-wracking traffic at Shepherd and Westheimer.

The other explanation may be the variety of people and places here--on my way home I drive by car repair shops, a great coffee place, a Puerto Rican cafe, a Tee shirt maker, antique dealers, a sports bar, my favorite little restaurant for a quick bite, Barnaby's, townhouses next to small houses and apartment buildings with enchanting little courtyards--all on the streets before my final turn.

Everyone seems to thrive on the variety in the neighborhood rather than suffer from it. My neighbors, for instance, leave out aluminum cans for a homeless man who pushes a shopping cart around the area. He says a pleasant hello everytime I see him--and even--I think--went through the stuff in my garage when I accidentally forgot to close the garage door recently (Not a good idea, but no harm done this time!).

I have noticed a couple of parking lots a couple of blocks from my house and was wondering who uses them. Finally driving home later than usual from downtown recently, I found two quiet little places with barely visible names turn into hip, trendy spots for twenty year olds after ten p.m. or so--that's who parks there. Who knew that sort of night life was going on in my quiet neighborhood?

Living in an age where most of us are surrounded only by people like us, I am delighted to reside in a place where diversities of age, work, and styles of life are not just accepted, but embraced.