How are the "Birthday Letters" crew going? (1 Viewer)

[glitterfairy]

Hi guys and gals of '06,

I can't see any birthday letters discussion on this page so I thought I'd ask how you're all REALLY going Good? Bad? Need help with anything? Come on, raise your voice and let's get some discussion going on in here

 

[rory2481]

my assesment is friday of the first week back &
we had to get related materials over the holidays. teacher gave us two of slyvia plaths poems and said we could use them, although i thought it would be better to get a variety of a mediums....which i'm yet to find. the forum on related texts is pretty shitty everything is related to frontline and truth in the media. if someone has any idea's should chuck em.
i heard "leunig - lies" is good but i cant find it
ftw

 

[glitterfairy]

Hmm I caution anyone planning on using Sylvia Plath poems as supplementary texts.

There is a GREAT temptation to focus on Sylvia and Hughe's RELATIONSHIP rather than their poetry. A large number of people - teachers included - tend to side with one party or the other and this can affect their study of the two texts (eg "Here is where he admits to _____" etc etc).

The whole point of this module is to look at how a subjective truth (for this module, it's more like "story" as it's not half as clearcut as Frontline) is told through the poems, not WHAT the truth is.

That aside, a good half of the state (at least) will pick Sylvia Plath poems as supplementary texts if you're going to do it, do it damn well or it's a good idea to pick something else.


I did "To Kill a Mockingbird" for my related text, however - ok going on a tangent now. I don't want this to become a specific Birthday Letters supplementary thread (we already have one of those?) but think about the module. There's a couple of themes to play with, memory being one of the biggest ones. If you were able to find a text that plays with distortion of memory and/or history (for example Coco Chanel's or Mae West's biography, both of which are fuzzy because the two women changed their stories at various points in time), then that could also work. Heck, even if you could find an article about how Queen Victoria's diary was rewritten before being released to the public, that could be pretty cool. OH Chicago (the musical, although film could also work) would be a really interesting one to study seeing as it's about manipulation (the puchline in the musical is the fact that Mary Sunshine, the sunny Oprah Winfrey of the 20s, is actually a guy and pulling the heaviest wool over everyone's eyes).

 

[bananasmoothy]

Yes, my teacher told us Sylvia Plath too, especially as one of Hughes' Poem is a direct reply to hers (Whiteness I Remember, I think it was). But I don't really know what to do because before this we were drilled in having different mediums. But thanks glitterfairy, those sound really good. And "To Kill a Mockingbird" is a GREAT book.

Anyway, so... Hughes' poems. Did he make her do it? Is he a victim? Who cares?

 

[glitterfairy]

precisely! In fact, my teacher specifically told us NOT to do Sylvia Plath poems unless we could do them so well, simply because of the whole finger-pointing temptation.

There is so much other good stuff in there. YES it's important to acknowledge that the poems are basically all about their relationship, but look at how he tells his story... does he say it's the truth? What DOES he say? Why do you think this is?How has he said things? What techniques does he use? What is the importance of Birthday Letters? (think about its comparison with the rest of Hughe's work) etc etc

 

[shinji]

hmm. interesting; my teacher is going through the poems whilst referring to the sylvia plath poems .. and i ain't that great at writing soo i guess i should do another related material.. esp. for the trials to differ from the rest of my class eh?

but i don't get the whole thing of the related texts. what kinda texts are we supposed to be looking for? =/
like ... what themes must it have?

 

[glitterfairy]

Grr @ continued reference to Sylvia Plath poems. Not grr at you, but grr at your teacher

Birthday Letters is the study of HUGHES' poetry. Not "their" poetry, or "Comparing The Different Stories Told By Sylvia Plath And Ted Hughes". You should be focusing on Birthday Letters and be able to analyse it WITHOUT having to make extensive references to Sylvia Plath's poetry at all.

In regards to related texts, Birthday Letters offers you much more flexibility than it's other TTT counterpart Frontline. Rather than being all "hahaha see how they're totally lying, like yo" I see it much more about time affecting memory, and the impact of telling stories that have been hidden for so long (key word on STORY. Think about the Da Vinci Code - if you tried hard enough I guess you could use this as a related text - whilst it's not neccessarily rewriting textbooks and converting the world over, it's opening up people's minds to the possibility of ANOTHER perspective and another "truth"). Texts that deal with "stories finally coming to the surface" would probably do well, however if you want to go down the "time affecting memory/reasons for wanting story to be made known" path then that could probably be alright too. I can't remember the name of this book, but it's something that just jumped to mind - it's about a girl in an unhappy relationship but who just can't bring herself to tell him the truth about how she feels - she writes letters to him instead, and destroys them before he has a chance to read them.

They say "truth" is merely a subjective account of an event that happened. Whatever is written, and whatever is read - is biased. How biased? Why biased? Has the author made any attempt to be objective? If not, then do they willingly admit to it being a subjective account? Why? These are good questions to ask of Birthday Letters, and of your related texts.

The most interesting thing I find with Birthday Letters is that Ted Hughes never overtly tries to jump on the "he says she says" bandwagon. Read his poems... in fact, the entire collection of poems starts off by saying "As I remember" (or something to that effect). Is Hughes saying "YOU GUYS SUCK YOU'VE HAD IT WRONG ALL ALONG!!!"? In my opinion no. It was probably a good choice for him to make, given the large amounts of people *cough* feminists *cough* who have taken Plath's suicide and added it to their cause. And all throughout the poem are "As I remember's" and "Was it's" and so forth. Does this sound like a man who is trying to convert the world over? Not in my opinion. It sounds like he's just trying to get his side of the story out.

 

[shinji]

well, it's good that i looked on here first .. or else i would have been doing Plath's poems for the related text.

What bout this text as a Related text:
Idlewild - Nick Saga;

The book is about a group of teenagers who live in this virtual world. Little do they know, is that when they escape to "reality" .. it's still part of the program. So basically their being lied to about reality where the world is dead because of a plague and blah blah blah.....
They figure out the truth themselves and yeah ...
but i guess i could use the DaVinci Code...thanks for the ideas giltterfairy!!


Man am i gonna shock the teacher in the trials; every1 would be doing thee Sylvia Plath poems and then there would be me; a unique entity with a different related text. ^^
She would have to mark me as the same as the other people wouldn't she? like; she can't discriminate me because i used a different related text yeh?
What should i say/do if she does? What would be my arguement..? lol.

would i just say:

The whole point of this module is to look at how a subjective truth (for this module, it's more like "story" as it's not half as clearcut as Frontline) is told through the poems, not WHAT the truth is.

one other little question; how many related texts should we prepare?

 

[glitterfairy]

oh wow, that book sounds a lot like a Sci Fi one called "Violet Eyes" in which two genetically modified teenagers (YES! Genetically modified to be superior in every way!) live in a "history immersion" thingo where they THINK it's 1996 but it's actually 4375 or something like that. On a similar tangent are films like THE MATRIX which would be an excellent one to study, but whatever you do make sure there is still a goodly amount of 'truth manipulation' in the text so it doesn't look like you're trying to spin moonbeams out of cobwebs

Unless the assessment is a direct "compare and contrast the poems of Birthday Letters with x Sylvia Plath ones" then no, she can't mark you down

As to how many related texts you should prepare - off the top of my head I think it is 2 (I'm getting mixed up with 3, however I think that's for AOS). You'll probably only end up using one, however be prepared for them to ask for two. If you are doing any collection of poems/short stories, then you should be using at least TWO of those (so for example if you are comparing Birthday Letters to Macleod's "LSGOB", then you will essentially be looking at 2+ poems and 2+ short stories = "4" texts in total). Same rule applies to song albums.

 

[shinji]

and just to confirm; we should study at least 2 poems (Ted Hughes) in great detail yeah?

besides the whole related material thingy, i like these texts. i <3 Poetry. I love the idea of people expressing their emotions and describing places through the uses of imagery, metaphors and the whole flow of poetry is the best.

i think im going to enjoy these texts as much as i enjoyed KingLear!

 

[glitterfairy]

Yes. At least 2 poems in detail, however you are welcome to make references to other poems (if appropriate) or even the collection as a whole at times.

Good to hear that you're enjoying it so far, Birthday Letters was my favourite eng adv module

 

[shinji]

also, would i be able to use related texts that i use in the Aos essay?
coz i wanna use Nickelback - Photograph for this module (which seems really appropiate) .. but i also wanna do it for the AoS essay.

i've also been reading on the hsc.csu.edu.au notes for Birthday letters, and i found that it relies heavily on the plath-hughges relationship, rather than how Ted Hughes tells his version of the truth.

are we also supposed to focus on our personal opinions? like .. whether we think ted hughes is telling the truth or not?

 

[glitterfairy]

Sure, feel free to use the same related texts, but make sure you're analysing them appropriately in relation to the module (ie don't be stupid and start waffling on about journeys in the middle of your eng adv exam )

I guess it's impossible to study Birthday Letters without touching on the plath/hughes relationship. They were the catalyst for the poems - they were the inspiration, and also the subject matter. And so to a certain extent, yes you will talk about their relationship (or touch on it) at various points of your essay.

But to repeat myself in an earlier post, far too many people focus on the relationship... naturally, this leads to a "he said she said" kind of thing and poetic technique analysis tends to fly out the window with lines like "In ____ Hughes confesses to killing Sylvia with ______" etc. Now, I've read a number of BOS resourses and critiqued a number of eng adv essays, and I've seen a scary trend of people focussing on "who really killed Sylvia Plath" rather than an analysis of Birthday Letters. This isn't to say you have to take Hughes' side. Or Sylvia's side. Look at the poetry. And answer the question

*flips through BOSresources* Ok, here's a random practice question.

"You are required to write about how the practice of telling the truth through poetry, biography and autobiography necessarily results in varied constructs and representations. How we are invited to take a position by the way the composer has constructed his text. Consider the nature of biography and autobiography, memory and recollection. Consider the purpose of the writer and how he has represented himself, his wife, her death and their marriage. Refer to two articles."

Now that's one heck of an essay question - it's basically four rolled into one. How interesting that only ONE refers to Sylvia Plath and their family?

For all those reading this thread, I think it's a good idea for you to try and answer these questions (free form) in your own words:

A) Write about how the practice of telling the truth through poetry, biography and autobiography necessarily results in varied constructs and representations.

B) How are we are invited to take a position by the way the composer has constructed his text?

C) Consider the nature of biography and autobiography, memory and recollection in relation to Birthday Letters

D) Consider the purpose of the writer and how he has represented himself, his wife, her death and their marriage.



In regards to how to present your personal opinion, this should be part of your introduction. Pushing AOS essays aside, remember that your introduction frames how YOU are going to answer the essay question. Now, high school students rarely use the term "I" in essays and many are encouraged not to (even in uni, I feel hesitant saying "I" think, just because it's... scary! lol). However, through subtle means you actually ARE giving your own opinion. For example: ("I" moments illustrated in italics)

"Through the (read: my) study of Birthday Letters it could be argued (by me) that Hughes is not (ie other people's opinions are wrong! Listen to me because I'm right!) trying to 'prove his innocence' or to 'tell the truth', rather (in my opinion) he is trying to say _______"

Every single time you bring up a new paragraph topic (and this should support your opening argument in your intro, it's really very much like a one-sided debate written on paper) you are essentially giving your own opinion. Talking about how you think Birthday Letters is or isn't misinterpreted is just as valid a point as the sensual and deeply personal nature of Birthday Letters in comparison to Hughes' other poetry. It's an area that other people may not feel comfortable dealing with (namely because it IS subjective and not something you can steal from a study guide ) but is still perfectly fine to talk about IF it is related to your argument.

 

[sem77]

argh i have an assesment tomorrow and i'm so unprepared!! anyway... related texts i did in my trial were the movie sylvia and one of her poems but thats only cause the teachers told us to organise others after the trials!

 

[YBK]

We're doing Birthday Letters too....

*prints off this thread for glitter fairy's advice.. hehe thanks *