Saturday, April 20, 2013

Online Easter-Eggs for Usher Finals

Location: Place where brains get wracked

Score updates are shown. If you have gotten an egg, it's time to e-mail me the solutions to the riddles they contain. I'll bestow a key icon (like those in Ready Player One) beside your scores above once you have reached that point. Divij, this can be your Art3mis moment--get me that Pet-Peeve violation and you'll vault upward and bask in the glory of a key beside your name.

Now on to NEW clues!

I am having a devil of a time coming up with more riddles, tasks, and such for the Virtual House of Usher Final Exams.  But three ideas struck me as interesting, given the tales we have read and and simulation itself. So here we go. You students must reply in the comments section with your answer.

My judgement will be subjective and as capricious as the contents of Roderick Usher's addled mind. Each of these could earn you one extra point.  Here we go: you tasks, Gunters! Be sure you are logged in with your Google account to reply, or at least put your name into the answer.

  1. Poe was a master of descriptive language. I want you to re-read "The Fall of the House of Usher" and in a comment of NO MORE THAN 300 words (no easy task!) make the best argument you can for the mood of the story, using the adjectives--and no other parts of speech--that Poe employs. +1 point to winner (not your team). If you win, I'll give you a hint about Usher.
  2. Our classmate Carly (now basking in one extra point) called Ready Player One  "cheesy." That is, itself, a fine adjective of its own. So let's have fun with Cline's book. He's a geek like me and can take the abuse. We will have a contest to find the cheesiest sentence in his entire novel. Post your nominations in the comments. Keep in mind that it must be a serious and not ironic sentence. You must do research, but as Wade reminds us (in a sentence that is not at all cheesy) research is easy if  you have no life. +1 point to finder (not your team). If you win, I'll give you a hint about Usher.
  3. There have been speculations since the time of Poe's death about his abuse of the opiate Laudanum. We have some clues about it in the House of Usher, in fact.  I don't know that Poe ever drank Absinthe, but we put a tray of the drink in the House, too. Your task: write a haiku (using formal haiku form) in honor of either drink. +1 point to finder (not your team). If you win, I'll give you a hint about Usher. If you manage to Google and steal someone else's haiku, AND I find out, you'll lose your point...and one more!
Note well: all Gunters who want credit for any of these three tasks must  turn in their comment to this blog by MIDNIGHT Sunday. Cue the fiendish laughter.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Answer to 3 (Rayna):

Anise-flavored drink
Spirited and glowing green
Longue vie la fée verte

Unknown said...

<2> I am in love with you! And I want to be with you, more than anything. (Cline 186)

Iggy O said...

Rayna has the 5-7-5 format down correctly for Haiku in English!

Say that to Roderick when you see him in the final. Anything might happen!

+1 and scoreboard will now change!

Nuannuan, that is a very cliched line, right off a greeting card. I'll keep that contest open until midnight tonight. Let's see if your classmates can out-do you for the worst line!

Beaumont said...

"Some time later, she leaned over and kissed me. It felt just like all those songs and poems promised it would." (Cline 372)

Leah Gerald said...

Answer to 1
The mood of the house of the fall of usher is definitely a mood of suspenseful caveat. From the beginning of the stories description of the house being decrepit, just barely holding itself together, the story is being set up for the house to crumble. Also the fact that the story begins with Roderick in a similar state as the house (mentally and physically) from the start, the reader knows that Roderick is unstable, and that he’s going to go over the edge at some point in time during the story, we just don’t know exactly when. Also the story of the dragon at the end is a definite give-away of the suspenseful nature of this story. As he reads the book, all of the actions and sounds from the story play out, but slowly. First he hears a sound, but he’s unsure if he made it up or not, then the situation escalates to Roderick speaking to himself and the door being banged down, and then Madelyn finally coming in. these are all very suspenseful parts of a very suspenseful tail, and the warning in the story is unclear, but I feel that it is definitely foreboding of something.

Answer to 2
Cheesiest line in the book would have to be page 365, location 6442 (sorry, that’s how my e-reader shows me where my highlights are)
"Congratulations wade, I heard Art3mis say. And I could tell she meant it to. "Thanks," I said. ***"But I couldn’t have done it without you guys."***
A true cliché. I can’t even count how many times I’ve heard that one before.

Samuel Díaz said...

N-2
"Kira was the only woman he ever loved.. I can understand why Jim felt that way. Kira was very special. It was impossible not to fall in love with her.. You know what it's like to meet someone like that dont you?" (Cline 325)

N-3
Deceiving and deadly,
Absinthe is the right way
to reach heaven or hell

Tatianna Padmanabhan said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Question 1 answer (Rayna):

The overall mood of the story is dark, gloomy and miserable. There is a sense of morbid terror throughout which culminates in a grim and disturbing end. When the story begins, the mood is bleak and dreary. The neglected House of Usher provides a gray and comfortless atmosphere, which aids in the creation of this sorrowful air. As the story continues, a nervous and ominous energy exists leading to Madeleine’s entombment. The mood grows increasingly hopeless and terrifying after Madeleine’s death. Finally, the tone of the story becomes ghastly and sickening at the appearance of a bloodied and terrible Madeleine.

Tatianna Padmanabhan said...

2."'I’m up for that, too,' I said. 'If it means I get to spend the rest of my
life with you.'" (Cline 371)

Anonymous said...

Cheesy quote:

"My heart felt like it was on fire." (Cline 372)

Anonymous said...

“She grinned. "Don't you want to build a huge interstellar spaceship, load it full of videogames, junk food, and comfy couches, and then get the hell out of here?" "I'm up for that, too," I said. "if it means I get to spend the rest of my life with you.”
Cline 371

Anonymous said...

oh you green lady
why do you not come to me
pure, plush and tasty

Iggy O said...

Oh, the Haiku! I am going to have to give Sam and Hadi each a point, if only because their verse made me laugh out loud!

As for the cheesy verses: this is going to be very difficult. I must suspend judgement until Midnight.

I'm going to temporarily make comments auto-post, since some of you are not slowing down to read the blog's reply. I've had comments moderated.

Maria Eugenia said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Pouring the bitter
Absinthe into lucid glass
Oh ecstasy flows.

Maria Eugenia said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Maria Eugenia said...

cheesy quote:

"I decided that whoever Art3mis really was, I was in love with her. I could feel it, deep in the soft, chewy caramel center of my being." (Cline 179)

Maria Eugenia said...

Oh Lady Absinthe,
did you dare to tempt the great
Edgar Allan Poe?

Unknown said...

The taste of sorrow
Inducing or stifling
Dear Poe, stay away