Connections Bladerunner 2049 & Klara And The Sun

 Our task today in English is to answer these questions about Bladerunner 2049 (BR2049) & Klara And The Sun (KATS) in a paragraph.
What connections can you draw so far between Klara and the Sun and Blade Runner 2049? For example themes/ideas, characters, relationships, style, etc?
Has your understanding of what it means to be human/have personhood changed since studying these texts? How so?

A connection that I can make between the two texts is that they both talk about discrimination. In KATS, it is between the 'lifted' and 'unlifted' kids. A lifted kid is a kid who has been genetically modified to be 'better', smarter, stronger, etc. In BR2049, it is between the replicants and the humans. The replicants are bioengineered humanoid robots who are smarter, stronger etc. Another connection that I can make is the fact of the main characters are robots/humanoid AI. Klara is an AF (Artificial Friend) and K is a Replicant (Robot police kinda). Another connection I can make is the theme of what is love. Klara worked out that, even if she was to copy Josie, it wouldn't be the same, even if Klara perfected how Josie acted, because of the people who loved her, it wouldn't be the same. And in BR2049 K loved Joi, an AI hologram, and learning about things that way.  Both texts also cover the idea of Personhood, with both main characters being humanoid robots who are trying to fit into the human world. 

I've not finished the other paragraph but I want to answer this question before I ran out of time again.

 My understanding of what it means to be human/have personhood hasn't really changed after studying these texts. My thoughts on personhood are, that if it looks like a person, sounds like a person and acts like a person, it probably is a person. Looking like a person would probably be looking like a human like K and Klara do. They, in my eyes, look like people. Sounding like a person would mean being able to communicate with others. This could be in a spoken or written language. I know that some pet owners are teaching their pets to 'speak' with special buttons, but since the pets don't follow the other two requirements so it doesn't count as a person. Both K and Klara communicate with humans/others, therefore, they both sound like a person. Acting like a person would be walking upright, following the human laws that have been set, doing things that others do, like reading, playing sports etc. Again both Klara and K do this. Nothing in the texts changed that for me. 

Klara and the Sun

 Hi, I'm not dead!

We have been reading Klara and The Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro in English. We just finished it and here are some things we have to do. 

1. Read the Guardians article (This one)

2. Read the New York Times article (That didn't work, so no link sorry) 

3. Locate 3-5 new vocabulary words in the articles and define them.
- I don't like these tasks as I already have a large vocabulary and very rarely come across a word I don't know. And if I don't I can work it out by the context clues around the word. That being said. have some interesting words and their definitions. 

        -ludicrous: so foolish, unreasonable, or out of place as to be amusing.
        -scientism: thought or expression regarded as characteristic of scientists.
        - beguiling: charming or enchanting, often in a deceptive way.

4. According to the articles, what important themes/ideas do 'Klara and the Sun' raise? Answer in complete sentences, with accompanying explanations as necessary (think of who your audience is)
    -Honestly, I have no idea. I have read the article multiple times and don't know. I know we are looking at what it means to be human/have personhood, and that's kinda the theme, but apart from that, I don't know. 

        -Class ideas 

                - Identity - who are you really? 

                - Faith - Praise to a deity (The Sun) 

                - Loneliness - Lockdown

                - Mortality - you will die

                - Relationships 

                - Discrimination - rich vs poor - Haves vs Have-not - "Lifted vs Not Lifted" 

                - Ethics

                - Enviroment - "Big bad guy" = Polution 

                - AI - Replacing us

                - Personhood

5. Locate another article about Klara and the Sun and record something new that you learned after reading it. Link the article in your post.

        - Didn't have time to do this one sorry. 

BR2049

 In English, we are doing the Close Viewing internal Practice paragraphs on the movie Blade runner 2049. I worked with Thomas on my paragraph. The scene we are looking at for the practice is the scene where K comes home from retiring Spinner (I don't remember his name, so let's just pretend that's his name) Here it is. 

Denis Villeneuve used the film techniques of dialogue combined with setting to show the aggressive relationships between man and replicant. We see this when K is verbally abused while coming home from his job when a Hungarian lady yells at him; “What’s up, you beautiful tinplate soldier? So you choose to come home now, you prick. Who’s waiting for you in there? I’ll kick your leg out, you bastard”. The dark grimy stairwell, crowded with people, shows that none of the actual people cleans it since they believe it should be left to the ‘slaves’. This dialogue is used in a way that gets more and more aggressive as K ignores it. This was done to help to explain the relationship between replicants and humans. It shows that replicants aren’t well thought of and that they are seen as useless no matter what they do. It invokes a feeling of sympathy from the viewer because it makes the viewer realize that the lady is blaming K for the dark living space. This also helps us to better understand the background character’s feelings. This is important because it helps us to empathize with K because he is the main character and is intended to have a similarity to the viewer. This is comparable to peaceful protest, no matter what happens to the replicants they don’t retaliate. They take the verbal abuse and deal with it.

If anything is wrong, we're blaming Thomas, ok? 

Sad Joke on a Marae by Apirana Taylor analising questions.

In English, we are practicing for the  Unfamiliar Text exam. in the unfamiliar text exam you are given 3 pieces of text you have never seen and are asked questions on them. This is one of the examples we have been given to practice on.

Sad Joke on a Marae
Apirana Taylor

Tihei Mauriora I called
Kupe Paikea Te Kooti
Rewi and Te Rauparaha.
I saw them
grim death and wooden ghosts
carved on the meeting house wall.

In the only Māori I knew
I called
Tihei Mauriora.
Above me the tekoteko raged.
He ripped his tongue from his mouth
and threw it at my feet.

Then I spoke,
My name is Tū the freezing worker.
Ngāti D. B. is my tribe.
The pub is my Marae.
My fist is my taiaha.
Jail is my home.

Tihei Mauriora I cried.
They understood
the tekoteko and the ghosts
though I said nothing but
Tihei Mauriora
for that’s all I knew.

These are the questions we have to answer 

• What senses does the poet mainly appeal to? The poem mainly appeals to the sense of sight and hearing. It gives the readers/listeners an image of a Maori standing in front of a Marae and shouting at the tekoteko and his ancestors 
• Which images are most powerful or striking? the tekoteko throwing his tongue at Tu. This is because it sought of like the tekoteko is giving Tu the ability to speak Maori. 
• Which sounds are particularly memorable? The calling of Tihei Mauriora
• Which words do you find most striking / vivid / disturbing / moving? propbaly when the tekoteko throws their tongue at Tu
• What are your first impressions of the speaker of the poem (if there is one)? He is a stereotypical Maori, being drunk. I also see him as almost a small man, trying to keep his belief going, but doesn't know how, but is trying his best 

1. Why do you think Māori language is used in this poem? to show that Tu knows more Maori than he thinks he does
2. Is this a rhyming poem, or a free verse poem? Why do you think that is? it is a free verse poem. Free verse poems are easier to write if you don't know the language as well, so it shows Tu's lack of knowledge 
3. Who are: "Kupe Paikea Te KootiRewi and Te Rauparaha”? they are important Maori historical figures 
4. In the third stanza, the poem uses a pepeha style. What is a pepeha, and why would it be important in this poem? A pepeha is a Mihi which is basically a Maori all about me and it tells us that he knows more than he thinks he knows. 
5. Find examples of the following techniques and explain why they have been included:
1. metaphor - My fist is my taiaha. It tells us he is a fighter and strong
2. personification - The tekoteko ragged. It shows us that the ancestors are mad at Tu for losing his heritage. 
3. strong verbs - The teketeko ragged. It shows just how mad the tekoteko is. 
4. first-person pronoun
5. repetition

Organising 2021 Term three (Unfinished)

 These are the major things that are happening in Term Three

School-related
Mock exams (Week 7-8)

Personal
My Birthday (Aug 28)

My goal for Term Three is ...

Pathos, Logos, and Ethos

 In English, we are learning about persuasive writing. As a part of that, we have to look up what pathos, logos, and ethos are. We have to give examples and definitions of each one. Here we go

Pathos - Is using emotions and Feelings to convince the reader/viewer/audience. A quick way to do this is to use, a cute animal, a sappy love story, a devastated family, a sad song, etc. 
An example of pathos is "If we don't do something about this issue now, we are all going to die!" 

Logos - Is using logic and reason to convince your audience. You can use statistics, graphs, charts, and or facts to do this
An example of Logos is "Over one hundred people have tried and tested this and over 80% of them agreed that this works.

Ethos - Is using ethics and ethical imperatives to help sway or convince your audience. This is done by making your audience believe that your way of thinking is the 'right' way to do things. 
An example of Ethos is "As a licensed builder I believe that if we do it this way, we will be done by Christmas."

We are doing this to become better writers and to write more convincing arguments. 

I currently don't have any questions about what we are doing, but I might add some later if I have one.

Links to websites I have gotten my info from
Studio Binder
Writing Explained.org
Your Dictionary.com

Final art post

 In this art post, I am going to be talking about the differences/similarity in Giorgio de Chirico's and Tracey Tawhiao's use of grids. I will be using these two pictures as my examples 

In de Chirico's artwork, he uses quite a loose grid. If you overlay a three-by-three grid, you see that some lines/points match up. he also uses unique perspectives. Normally artists have one vanishing point but it looks like de Chirico has at least 3. 

On the other hand, Tracey Tawhio uses quite a strong grid. She works over the top of newspapers, which naturally has a grid, which she can use as a guide for her artworks. 

These are the differences in Giorgio de Chirico's and Tracey Tawhiao's use of grids that I can find.