Composition 152
McHenry County College
Instructor: Mark Andel
Week Two
This week’s topics
STATUS REPORT: Evaluation Paper
Evaluation Criteria
How to analyze various works:
Poetry – “My Last Duchess”
Restaurants – Phil Vettel – “Grace”
Painting – Breughel (Two works)
Music – Springsteen (“The Rising”)
Movie – Roger Ebert (“Shrek”)
Text Work: Research Papers: Chapter Two
“My Last Duchess”
by Robert Browning
My Last Duchess
(Ferrara)
Robert Browning The bough of cherries some officious fool
Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule
That's my last duchess painted on the wall, She rode with round the terrace -all and each
Looking as if she were alive. I call Would draw from her alike the approving speech, Or
That piece a wonder, now; Fra Pandolf's hands blush,at least. She thanked men - good! but thanked
Worked busily a day, and there she stands. somehow - I know not how - as if she ranked my gift of
Will't please you sit and look at her? I said a nine-hundred-years-old name
"Fra Pandolf" by design, for never read With anybody's gift. Who'd stoop to blame
Strangers like you that pictured countenance, This sort of trifling? Even had you skill
That depth and passion of its earnest glance, In speech - (which I have not) - to make your will
But to myself they turned (since none puts by Quite clear to such a one, and say, "Just this
The curtain drawn for you, but I) [10] Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss
And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst, Or there exceed the mark"- and if she let
How such a glance came there; so not the first Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set [40]
Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, 't was not Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse
Her husband's presence only, called that spot - E'en then would be some stooping; and I choose
Of joy into the Duchess' cheek: perhaps Never to stoop. Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,Whene'er I
Fra Pandolf chanced to say "Her mantle laps passed her; but who passed without
Over my lady's wrist too much" or "Paint Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;
Must never hope to reproduce the faint Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands
Half-flush that dies along her throat:" such stuff As if alive. Will 't please you rise? We'll meet
Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough [20] The company below, then. I repeat,
For calling up that spot of joy. She had The Count your master's known munificence
A heart - how shall I say? - too soon made glad, Is ample warrant that no just pretence [50]
Too easily impressed: she liked whate'er Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;
She looked on, and her looks went everywhere. Though his fair daughter's self, as I avowed
Sir, 't was all one! My favour at her breast, At starting is my object. Nay, we'll go
The dropping of the daylight in the West, Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,
Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,
Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me.
“Find a Subject You Can Work With”
Interest yourself first….
“Find a Subject You Can Work With”
Your topic must interest your audience
Your topic must lend itself to detail
Your topic must be able to be covered
in the prescribed number of pages
What do you know and care about?
What do you find yourself talking about?
(This is good grist for the mill)
Guidelines
Audience – Who’s reading this and who
do you want to read it?
Make your experience relevant to your
reader – be respectful of your reader’s
time commitment. Make it worthwhile.
Present research in a conversational
way – let the reader hear your voice.
Guidelines
Make your experience your reader’s
experience with well-chosen detail
Make your reader “see”
Make your reader “feel”
Involve senses – ALL of them
Research papers can be heartfelt, too
Reading Strategies
Scan – don’t read entire book first
Ask yourself some questions
Answer the 5 journalism questions
Make marginal notes in text (annotate)
Annotate what you read
Evaluation Paper
Write a clear, concise, well-thought-out evaluation of a painting, a music CD, a
restaurant, a college course, a film, a play, a television program, a job performance,
or a web site. Use the criteria of evaluation, including an overall claim about what
you are evaluating, a description, statistics to support your claim, testimony from a
third party source, and examples. Your final paper should present a convincing,
balanced, supported, fair evaluation that is backed up by more than opinion and
personal biases.
Format/Length considerations:
Title (centered)
Last name/page # in upper right-hand corner
Stapled – upper left
Keep margins at 1‖ default
Double-spaced text
Indented paragraphs
Normal font, 12-point
2-5 pages, which means a minimum of 2 full pages
Evaluating Criteria
Make an overall claim about what you are
evaluating
Include a description of the object, place, or event
Include statistics to support your claim
Include testimony from a third party source
Offer relevant examples to illuminate your
meaning.
Restaurant Evaluation
Amazing Grace
Randolph's newest face hears the call of the wild
By Phil Vettel, Chicago Tribune
(Handout)
Evaluating Criteria
Make an overall claim about what you are
evaluating:
“Chef/owner Ted Cizma proves he's a master
with game meats.”
Evaluating Criteria
Include a description of the object, place, or event
“Both have an austere elegance in their decor; Grace, with fewer and
better-spaced tables, is the more comfortable of the two.
A principal difference is light. Where Blackbird is all brightness and
reflective surfaces, Grace is romantically dim, to the point that the
votive candle at your table will come in handy when you peruse
the menu. Hard brick surfaces are softened, at least to the eye, by
silky sheer curtains. Soft glows emanate from planetlike lamps
(whose rings subtly echo the halo in Grace's logo) and a gaggle of
frosted globe bulbs that decorate the eastern wall.”
Evaluating Criteria
Include statistics to support your claim
―(I've been here four times and the herbs look garden-fresh every
time; there are restaurants that don't change the oil in their fryers
as often as Cizma changes the oil at his tables.)‖
―The wine list is nicely varied and thorough. By-the-glass pours are
generous; I wish a few more bottles were available this way. There
are eight half-bottles available, however, and that is suitable
compensation.‖
Evaluating Criteria
Include testimony from a third party source
―Chef and owner is Ted Cizma, last spotted cooking interesting
global dishes for The Outpost in Wrigleyville. His cooking at Grace
can be considered a more mature, more locally focused version of
his Outpost food.‖
NOTE: Food critics are “lone wolves,” by and large, and rarely include the
thoughts and feelings of other critics in their work.
Evaluating Criteria
Offer relevant examples to illuminate your
meaning.
―First to the table is a basket of bread, where you'll find soft, inviting focaccia with a
parmesan crust, perhaps studded with tomato; a mini-baguette flavored with toasted
cumin; and a few parmesan-thyme breadsticks. …‖
―The grilled wild boar tenderloin is a bit more assertive, the meat richly gamy. …‖
―Starters with star power are earthy lamb sweetbreads, served with a refreshing
watercress-peppercress mixture and dabs of blue goat cheese; skillet-seared Maine
scallops, perched over a fragrant lobster-anise broth; and risotto with smoked
pheasant, aged Edam cheese and toasted hazelnuts.‖
Painting Evaluation
Pieter Brueghel (Bruegel), the Elder, Hunters in the Snow (2003) Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria
Painting Evaluation
Pieter Brueghel (Bruegel), the Elder, Hunters in the Snow (2003)
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria
The beauty of Pieter Brueghel the Elder's (1525-1569) beloved painting, "Hunters in the Snow," (1565)
is extraordinary, and can be enjoyed on many levels...just by looking at and absorbing the totality of the
work, then letting the eye and mind range over it from area to area, object to object...the beautifully
painted hunters, their dogs, the trees and village houses scattered in the snow, the distant valley ponds
with skaters, the birds and expressively thrusting distant peaks. When we begin to think about the
painting and what the artist has done to accomplish his vision, we find the beauty lies in its vital design
pattern of contrasting lights and darks, its clarity of realistic, poetic observation and the profundity of
meaning he has instilled in a scene that lesser artists would make into mere anecdote, story-
telling. Brueghel creates not only a painting of 16th Century country life in Flanders, but a universal
statement of the beauty of life and nature, and the aspirations of mankind. While the dark foreground
hunters, their dogs and the trees contrast beautifully, in terms of aesthetics, with the snowy hill they
trudge upon, the white rooftops of houses and the distant white vista, the darkness of the hunters also
suggests a downcast psychological, spiritual and emotional state of being as well. The painter's skill
and clarity of observation create forms that are both very real and, at the same time, abstract in their
simple directness, merging three-dimensional form with two-dimensional pattern. The artist is able to
distill reality, capturing its elemental essence devoid of any extraneous detail (every great artist has their
personal understanding and manifestation of the essentials of realistic form). The basic design
movement of the composition is strongly diagonal from the hunters in the lower left to the upper right
corner and its distant snowy crags, toward which the hunters seem to walk with a certain head-down
weariness. This diagonal movement is strongly supported by the diminishing perspective of the four
foreground trees. A diagonal counter-movement from lower right to middle and upper left cannot deflect
the hunters' progress toward the goal of the crags, though it clearly creates the demarcation line
between the everyday, earthly life of the foreground and the visionary distance.
Painting Evaluation
Pieter Brueghel (Bruegel), the Elder, Hunters in the Snow (2003)
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria
For this is the ultimate purpose and meaning of the painting, and what raises it to the level of a
universal statement. It expresses the poetry of life; man's quest for meaning and purpose by
means of, and beyond, the everyday struggle for existence. Because they are deeply involved in
their quest, the hunters and their dogs are oblivious of the three small figures they pass on their
left, working around a fire in front of the largest house. The difference between the hunters and
the fire-tenders is that the latter are unaware of any higher purpose or quest beyond their daily
tasks, while the hunters doggedly pursue greater meaning, symbolized by the distant, craggy
peaks (they are "hunters," after all, men who "hunt," look for, seek to find...not game in this
instance...but truth). The hunters may be dispirited at the moment, doubting, wondering if they
will ever reach their goal – carrying their darkness with them -- but they are aware that the goal
exists, and continue to plod forward despite their weariness and doubt. Four dark birds in the
twiggy tops of the trees, and one in flight – the latter seeming to aim directly at the crags, and
certainly providing a compositional link between the hunters and the peaks – create a directional
line of perspective convergence toward the crags in conjunction with the tree trunks where they
enter the snow. The flying dark bird, overlapping the lower slopes of the peaks like an airborne
cross, seems symbolic of the spiritual aspirations of the hunters as they seek to reach the abode
of deity in the snowy peaks.
by Don Gray
Painting Evaluation
Pieter Brueghel (Bruegel), the Elder, Hunters in the Snow (2003)
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria
―Because of its unforgettably inventive form and colouring, the closing (not
opening) painting of Bruegels series of the seasons is the most well-known and
most popular of the pictures in this cycle. The hunters are making their way back
to the low-lying village with their meagre bounty, a pack of hounds at their heels.
Their backs are turned towards us. That, along with the perspective of the row of
trees, draws the observer down into the distance, on to the remote, icy
mountains on the horizon, and at the same time out of the whole cycle. What was
then understood as an illustration of seasonal labour a pig being singed in front
of an inn comes across only as a secondary scene at the left edge of the painting.
The winter idyll is completed by a busy swarm of small figures in the distant
plain.‖
From: Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna catalog
Painting Evaluation Pieter Brueghel (Bruegel), The Fall of Icarus
Painting Evaluation
Pieter Brueghel (Bruegel), The Fall of Icarus
Musee Des Beaux Artes – W.H. Auden
About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters; how well, they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.
In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.
Painting Evaluation
Pieter Brueghel (Bruegel), The Fall of Icarus
background info:
Icarus was a Greek mythological
figure, also known as the son of
Daedalus (famous for the Labyrinth of
Crete). Now Icarus and his dad were
stuck in Crete, because the King of
Crete wouldn't let them leave.
Daedalus made some wings for the
both of them and gave his son
instruction on how to fly (not too
close to the sea, the water will soak
the wings, and not too close to the
sky, the sun will melt them). Icarus,
however, appeared to be obstinate
and did fly to close to the sun. This
caused the wax that held his wings to
his body to melt. Icarus crashed into
the sea and died.
Painting Evaluation
Painting Evaluation
Jackson Pollock, “Blue Poles”
Jackson Pollock, An American Saga, by Steven Naifeh
Painting Evaluation
Blue Poles: Number 11, 1952
On loan to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the National Gallery of Australia
Painted relatively late in Jackson Pollock‘s career, this painting conveys the unique skill
that Pollock had by now achieved with his infamous ‗drip‘ technique. Executed on
unstretched canvas laid flat on the floor, both the artist‘s dripping, splashing and pouring
of paint onto the work‘s surface and the scale of the painting itself, clearly reveals the
highly physical aspect of Pollock‘s technique. It could equally be regarded as a
performance. Pollock believed that his abandonment of traditional painting tools (he
preferred to use sticks, cooking basters or pour directly from the paint can) and the
paintings he produced reflected the realms of unconscious experience but also responded
to contemporary life. As he stated: ―The modern painter cannot express this age, the
airplane, the atom bomb, the radio, in the old forms of the Renaissance or of any past
culture‖.
In marked contrast to the artist‘s classic works of 1947–50, the electric colours of Blue
Poles in no way reflect the palette of nature as earlier paintings had done. Blue Poles is for
Pollock an ambitious transitional work where not only colour, but the artist‘s handling of
composition, mark a conscious move away from previous work. While in many ways
continuing his now trademark ‗all-over‘ composition, Pollock pushed his endeavours in
abstraction further by introducing the bold presence of the eight blue ‗poles‘ that intersect
the canvas. Pollock uses the prominent slashes of Blue Poles to reintroduce the
conventional notion of figure and ground into his work, but without making any
concession to traditional concepts of perspective.
Painting Evaluation
Blue Poles: Number 11, 1952
On loan to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the National Gallery of Australia
So what is the point of this painting? It's a big ("heroic" in the rhetoric of the time) canvas,
covered with tangled lines of multicoloured oil paint. These lines weren't brushed on, they
were dripped or flung onto the canvas with sticks or crappy old dried-up brushes.
Pollock wanted his paintings to express big, universal themes - without resorting to the
use of actual imagery, (very uncool in avant-garde circles immediately after the war.) He
got some ideas from the Surrealists, particularly their idea of abstract drawing as a means
for exploring the subconscious mind, and checked himself into Jungian therapy.
- Craig Schuftan
The “Wal-Marting” of Jackson Pollock:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=2227131&cat=20491&type=3
&dept=3920&path=0%3A3920%3A58294%3A18716%3A18723
Painting Evaluation
Blue Poles: Number 11, 1952
On loan to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the National Gallery of Australia
Now what is remarkable about Blue Poles is the amount of movement within the painting.
There are several factors contributing to this and all of them relate to the music I've
composed. First, there is the shape of the canvas itself. Because it is wide, like
"cinemascope", it invites you to read it from left to right. Most paintings do not. And
because it is a large canvas, it also invites you to take it in by walking past it from left to
right. In this, Pollock's painting approaches the condition of music, revealing itself in
stages. The famous poles themselves help this approach. On the most obvious level they
divide the painting into sections so that the eye passes from one to the next, adding to
that sense of movement. And because the poles are neither straight nor vertical, but
jagged and evidently about to topple forwards, they contribute to the painting's internal
momentum. For me, they have a further function. Those blue poles remind me of crooked
bar lines, with complex and brightly coloured melodic strands cavorting across them.
There's a sense in which this painting seems to dance. It's a characteristic that Blue Poles
shares with plenty of Pollock's other work. The artist moved quickly across the canvas as
he dripped his paint. The paint moved more quickly still, Pollock controlling it with the
dexterity of a puppeteer manipulating his puppets. The painting is the result of those
movements; but unlike most other paintings, Pollock's art makes us continually aware of
the act of creation - of the action of creation.
- Andrew Ford
Music Evaluation
CRITERIA:
•Lyrics, Social Significance
•Sound/Melody
•Statement/Meaning
•Emotion/Delivery
•Comparison/Standard
•Historical Context/Value
•Will it “hold up?”
Music Evaluation
Bruce
―Springsteen‘s songs are usually character studies.
It‘s the little details in his songs, the indirect way of
Springsteen’s
approaching something as big as Sept. 11, that
makes him so effective. Listened to separately, the
songs could be about almost any loss. Taken in
“The Rising”
sum 11 months later, it‘s obvious. It works. We need
that perspective he gives us.
―Any criticism that Springsteen is simply cashing in
on this tragedy (and there has been some) is
unfounded. He‘s spent the last 30 years writing and
recording songs that deal with such topics as
policemen firing 41 shots into an unarmed man, a
gay man with AIDS, and young male illegal
immigrants selling their bodies on the streets of
San Diego—why should his music be any different
now because ―it‘s too soon.‖ It is never too soon to
start trying to understand, cope, and heal.‖
- Zach Everson
Movie Evaluation
CRITERIA:
•Writing
•Acting Performances
•Directing
•Societal Value
•Statement/Meaning
•Comparison/Standard
•“Human Condition”
Movie Evaluation: “Shrek”
SHREK
**** (PG)
BY ROGER EBERT
There is a moment in "Shrek" when the despicable Lord Farquaad has the Gingerbread Man tortured
by dipping him into milk. (VIDEO) This prepares us for another moment when Princess Fiona's
singing voice is so piercing it causes jolly little bluebirds to explode; making the best of a bad
situation, she fries their eggs. This is not your average family cartoon. "Shrek" is jolly and wicked,
filled with sly in-jokes and yet somehow possessing a heart.
The movie has been so long in the making at DreamWorks that the late Chris Farley was originally
intended to voice the jolly green ogre in the title role. All that work has paid off: The movie is an
astonishing visual delight, with animation techniques that seem lifelike and fantastical, both at
once. No animated being has ever moved, breathed or had its skin crawl quite as convincingly as
Shrek, and yet the movie doesn't look like a reprocessed version of the real world; it's all made up,
right down to, or up to, Shrek's trumpet-shaped ears.
Shrek's voice is now performed by Mike Myers, with a voice that's an echo of his Fat Bastard (the
Scotsman with a molasses brogue in "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me"). Shrek is an ogre
who lives in a swamp surrounded by "Keep Out" and "Beware the Ogre!" signs. He wants only to be
left alone, perhaps because he is not such an ogre after all but merely a lonely creature with an
inferiority complex because of his ugliness. He is horrified when the solitude of his swamp is
disturbed by a sudden invasion of cartoon creatures, who have been banished from Lord
Farquaad's kingdom.
Many of these creatures bear a curious correspondence to Disney characters who are in the public
domain: The Three Little Pigs turn up, along with the Three Bears, the Three Blind Mice, Tinkerbell,
the Big Bad Wolf
Movie Evaluation: “Shrek”
and Pinocchio. Later, when Farquaad seeks a bride, the Magic Mirror gives him three choices:
Cinderella, Snow White ("She lives with seven men, but she's not easy") and Princess Fiona. He
chooses the beauty who has not had the title role in a Disney animated feature. No doubt all of this,
and a little dig at DisneyWorld, were inspired by feelings DreamWorks partner Jeffrey Katzenberg
has nourished since his painful departure from Disney--but the elbow in the ribs is more playful
than serious. (Farquaad is said to be inspired by Disney chief Michael Eisner, but I don't see a
resemblance, and his short stature corresponds not to the tall Eisner but, well, to the diminutive
Katzenberg.)
The plot involves Lord Farquaad's desire to wed the Princess Fiona, and his reluctance to slay the
dragon that stands between her and would-be suitors. He hires Shrek to attempt the mission, which
Shrek is happy to do, providing the loathsome fairy-tale creatures are banished and his swamp
returned to its dismal solitude. On his mission, Shrek is joined by a donkey named the Donkey,
whose running commentary, voiced by Eddie Murphy, provides some of the movie's best laughs.
(The trick isn't that he talks, Shrek observes; "the trick is to get him to shut up.")
The expedition to the castle of the Princess involves a suspension bridge above a flaming abyss,
and the castle's interior is piled high with the bones of the dragon's previous challengers. When
Shrek and the Donkey get inside, there are exuberant action scenes that whirl madly through
interior spaces, and revelations about the dragon no one could have guessed. And all along the
way, asides and puns, in-jokes and contemporary references, and countless references to other
movies.
Voice-overs for animated movies were once, except for the annual Disney classic, quickie jobs that
actors took if they were out of work. Now they are starring roles with fat paychecks, and the ads for
"Shrek" use big letters to trumpet the names of Myers, Murphy, Cameron Diaz (Fiona) and John
Lithgow (Farquaad). Their vocal performances are nicely suited to the characters, although Myers'
infatuation with his Scottish brogue reportedly had to be toned down. Murphy in particular has
emerged as a star of the voice-over genre.
Movie Evaluation: “Shrek”
Much will be written about the movie's technical expertise, and indeed every summer seems to bring
another breakthrough on the animation front. After the three-dimensional modeling and shading of "Toy
Story," the even more evolved "Toy Story 2," "A Bug's Life" and "Antz," and the amazing effects in
"Dinosaur," "Shrek" unveils creatures who have been designed from the inside out, so that their skin,
muscles and fat move upon their bones instead of seeming like a single unit. They aren't "realistic," but
they're curiously real. The artistry of the locations and setting is equally skilled--not lifelike, but beyond
lifelike, in a merry, stylized way.
Still, all the craft in the world would not have made "Shrek" work if the story hadn't been fun and the ogre
so lovable. Shrek is not handsome but he isn't as ugly as he thinks; he's a guy we want as our friend, and
he doesn't frighten us but stir our sympathy. He's so immensely likable that I suspect he may emerge as
an enduring character, populating sequels and spinoffs. One movie cannot contain him.
Research Papers: Chapter 3
“Finding a Subject and Narrowing to a Topic”
(p. 74)
“Subject” vs. “Topic”
Brainstorming, Clustering (p. 75)
EXERCISE (p. 291) – The Titanic
Choosing a Topic within a Subject
Research Papers: Chapter 3
Going from general to specific (p. 78)
PRACTICE Narrowing subjects (p. 79)
Forming a Research Question (p. 83)
Exploring Point of View (p. 85)
What Makes a Good Question? (p. 88)
Writing a Research Proposal (p. 96)
Evaluation Paper
Write a clear, concise, well-thought-out evaluation of a painting, a music CD, a
restaurant, a college course, a film, a play, a television program, a job performance,
or a web site. Use the criteria of evaluation, including an overall claim about what
you are evaluating, a description, statistics to support your claim, testimony from a
third party source, and examples. Your final paper should present a convincing,
balanced, supported, fair evaluation that is backed up by more than opinion and
personal biases.
Format/Length considerations:
Title (centered)
Last name/page # in upper right-hand corner
Stapled – upper left
Keep margins at 1‖ default
Double-spaced text
Indented paragraphs
Normal font, 12-point
2-5 pages, which means a minimum of 2 full pages
Assignments
Continue working on Evaluation paper
Quotation Quiz next week