Class responses to presentations on May 31

Group 26

Of the presentations performed yesterday, the one that I found most meaningful was from group 26. This group presented their game called the game of innocence and experience. The game featured eight questions, four of them were about the poems that were written by William Blake and the other four were about every day experiences. The questions asked for the audiences opinion on these topics. One answer was always innocent and naive, the other was pessimistic and experienced.  At the end of the presentation the audience was asked to tally their answers and grade themselves as being innocent, neutral or experienced. If you were innocent, you had a similar attitude to Blake near the beginning of the French revolution when he was happy and hopeful for the future. If you were experienced, you were similar to Blake at the end of the French revolution when he was depressed and sad about the way that the war was going. I really liked this presentation because it made it very clear how Blake's attitude to the war directly influenced his poems. They explain Blake's feelings about the two states of human beings, innocent or experienced.  The four readings that the group talked about are the chimney sweeper, tyger and the lamb, infant joy v infant sorrow, and the nurses song. All of these are two poems with contrasting viewpoints. The four everyday experiences that the group showed us were about the joy or hate of Disneyland, coming back to campus after a break, looking up a mountain, or seeing a playground, seeing these pictures should have given you the thought of pleasure or pain, very similar to the contrasting emotions in Blake's poems.

The Project from today that was most meaningful to me was group 26’s game based on Blake’s songs of innocence and experience.  I think that the group did a very good job of coming up with a unique way to analyze Blake’s works by asking us to analyze what he wrote before and after the French Revolution.  Blake very clearly changed his outlook on life after the revolution, and he has many works that can be compared, which the group demonstrated to us.  By showing us the various versions of his works such as The Chimney Sweeper, The Tyger vs. The Lamb, Infant Joy vs. Infant Sorrow, we were able to see how Blake became more bitter throughout his life.  I particularly enjoyed following along with the “game” and keeping track of which outlook I most identified with.  I also enjoyed how the group included more easily relatable examples such as “what do you think of when you see Disneyland” (crowds and extreme prices, or great family memories).  The group kept things very simple by only leaving two choices for each section, and they really tied it all together in the end with the results section.  I thought it was very funny how they told us to classify ourselves as innocent, neutral or experienced based on how we answered our questions (which I was very relieved to find myself listed as innocent).  I could tell that the group really put in a lot of effort and thought into their game, and I think they did a great job of covering many of Blake’s poems.

As good as all the presentations were, the one that did the best job of instructing the class of William Blake's work was group 26. Their presentation consisted of an interesting game that measured everyone's innocence or experience level, and thus their outlook on life. They went over Blake's history as it pertained to his sweet innocence before the French Revolution, and his bitter experience after the French Revolution. They used four different of his poem's that, depending on the reader, could be interpreted as either innocence or experience. Two questions were asked for each poem to measure each person's experience or innocence, which really drove the point home. I liked how they interacted with the audience and in my humble opinion, did the best job. Nicely done group 26

I think that Group 25 did a great job with their project this week.  I thought it was very interesting how they were able to compare William Blake’s poems by producing a game show for the class.  I think that this concept allowed for the students to relate their experiences and life easier to the poems, which William Blake made somewhat difficult and hard to understand.  For example, for the Nurses’ Song, they asked the audience “which outlook should people take on life as they age?” This allowed you to see if you see the class half-empty or half-full.  I really liked how the sum of your letters “supposedly” led you to see what your personality type was, whether is was “bitter and dischanted,” “neutral and balanced,” or “upbeat and optimistic.”  I also liked Group 27’s video of The Chimney Sweeper as well.  I think that it was a very cool juxtaposition between the innocent, happy pictures of the children, and the harsh, sad story of The Chimney Sweeper.  I was not as affected after reading the book.  I knew it was sad but I think it is harder for us to grasp because these wrongdoings do not occur in our world today.  However, I was very affected when they said that the children were so young to realize how this “torment” would affect them as they got older. I thought the images flowed well, and I thought that the group did a great job

Of the presentations on May 31st, the one with the most meaning to me was group 26’s presentation. They got me thinking about how we all see the same reality, but we can choose to focus on different aspects of it. For instance, with the chimney sweep, both songs have a different perspective on the same reality. So, which perspective is better to have? Even if the positive view of the chimney sweep is naïve and delusional, it is much better than adopting the negative view. The chimney sweep himself will profit more from holding the positive view than holding the negative view, so who cares what the actual “truth” is? I also thought the nurse was interesting because the experienced nurse was actually out to maliciously destroy the innocence of the children, where as the nurse in the songs of innocence was indeed experienced, but she was not malicious to the children. It’s as if the nurse in the songs of experience had become the very thing she despised, as though she had forgotten what it was like to be a kid. I also liked the group’s observation that the songs of innocence were written before the French Revolution, and the songs of experience were written after the French Revolution. That fact makes me think that Blake himself sort of gave up on life after experiencing extreme disappointment, and that is a weak thing for a man to do. As far as I see it, pessimism helps nobody. Even if pessimism is closer to “reality,” it still helps nobody. I thought this group asking us which song was closer to reality was a creative way to get us thinking about Blake’s work, and its implications in our own lives.

The group that appealed to me the most was the first group . I loved the way they created their own game using the poems from the story. Getting the audience involved was another aspect I enjoyed. It reminded me of magazines years ago I used to play and it told me about what kind of person I was, it was kind of fun. Allowing us to see which of the scenarios we felt more accurately represents reality, revealed whether we were more on the innocent side of things or the experienced. I really liked that they presented things like Disneyland; there are definitely two sides to going there. When I was young I thought it was quite a magical place, which is still true to an extent. But the lines are quite a nightmare. You could tell this group put a lot of time and effort into this presentation and I applaud them.

Today I really enjoyed the presentation by group #26.  They created a game based off of the Blake poems we read.  The game was interesting to me because it reminded me of a quiz that you might find in a magazine; one that a reader would take just for fun to see what famous movie character they were or something similar.  I liked that there were two sets of questions that were distinct from each other; one question would be related to one of Blake’s actual poems and then the second would be a question dealing with the real world.  The quiz was more appealing in my opinion because of the ties to the real world.  I thought the group did a nice job of formulating the questions and coming up with ones that had a lot of depth to them with great relevance to the Blake readings. I also like that after taking the quiz you were able to see where you fell in the categories of innocence, experience, or somewhere in the middle.  The thing that struck me the most about this presentation though was that it allowed every member of the audience to interact with Blake’s poems in a way that applied to our every day life.  It was such a simple form of audience participation that I really appreciated because I didn’t have to answer a question in front of the class.  I could simply participate from the comfort of my own seat, which really made me feel like I was actually taking a magazine quiz.

Out of all the presentations yesterday, I enjoyed that of group number 26 the most. This group titled their presentation "the Game of Innocence and Experience." Based upon the poems written by William Blake in his compilation "Songs of Innocence and Experience," the Game consisted of comparing pairs of poems. Each poem set that was compared had one poem from the Innocence section of Blake's work and one poem from the Experience section. In addition, there were two options (A and B) which described the overall mood or tone of the poem. The class individually would decide which option they would choose. We kept track of all our A's and B's and at the end of the sequence of questions, group 26 revealed what "type" of person you were based upon your answers. If you had all B's, you were experienced and negative. If you had a mix, you were balanced. If you had all A's, you were innocent and optimistic. I ended up having mostly all A's. This presentation was enticing because it involved active audience participation while at the same time incorporating Blake's poetry in a relatable fashion. I enjoyed keeping tally of my answers and discovered my attitude on life according to WIlliam Blake!

Out of all the groups that presented yesterday, I thought that group 26's was the most well thought out. This group combined the analytical process with an interactive activity, keeping us enticed to keep on listening. Between every question, they showed the two poems pertaining to the same topic. This slide would include an analysis of the poems and their topic, which I found very refreshing. The main idea of their presentation was the "personality" test. This part was fun and actually kept me interested in listening to what group 26 had to say. The ending part where they revealed what your answered revealed was a bit generic and kind of lame, but it was okay. I just wish that they had more than just three options for what our level of experience was. They could have easily had 5 categories. Disenchanted, somewhat negative view, balanced view, somewhat positive view, and then upbeat and optimistic. I think that those 5 would have worked better and lent a bit more variety to the ending. I also didn't really understand what their last picture was and how it related to their project. Maybe I just didn't get the joke but what does sterilizing your pets have to do with the songs of innocence and experience?

Out of all the presentations given on May 31, I thought that Group 26 had the most informative material.  They did a nice job of summarizing William Blake’s work and relating it to more modern questions.  It was great how they included the audience.  Having the questions made the audience pay attention and learn more.  The conclusion was a great self-reflection of how each individual audience member views the world.  It made me realize that I might be a little more pessimistic than I should be.  A presentation that goes beyond just showing what was in the story by providing a deep connection deserves a good grade.  I would also like to given an honorable mention to two other groups.  I thought that the first speaker in Group 29 did an excellent job of speaking – definitely one of the best.  I also enjoyed the creativity of the song they did at the end; it was unique from every other presentation this quarter.  I would also like to mention Group 30.  Their Cal Poly proverbs were very funny and clever and were a great way to relate to the material created by William Blake.

I enjoyed all the group projects this week, but the one that stood out to me the most of was Group 26. Their creativity and well-thought out project not only was entertaining to the audience, but was engaging and kept the class involved. This group created a board game based off of William Blake’s book that was strategically planned and began with how to play the game. Starting with eight rounds that was based off of each poem and asked the class a question to relate each poem to our own lives as the main purpose of the game to see what kind of person we are. The group touched on each one of Blake’s poems, including first ‘The Chimney Sweeper’, then ‘The Tyger and the Lamb’, then ‘Infant Joy and Infant Sorrow’, and lastly ‘Nurse’s Song’. At the end of the board game the audience was to tally up our final score. The rank was based on As and Bs. The more Bs you received, the more bitter and dark a person you are perceived to be, just like Blake during the time of the Revolution. If you received equal As and Bs, you are perceived as a neutral person. The more As you received, the more youthful a person you are perceived to be, just like Blake during the time of the beginning of the war. Their group presentation on William Blake was well thought out and related back to the text with a sense of creativity. As I stated in the beginning, the last group of presentations were not only entertaining but related to the book itself very well.

Group 26's The Game of Innocence and Experience was the most memorable to me. They examined four of the songs innocence and experience and gave two choices where A was an upbeat outlook of the two and B was sad outlook of the song. This really helped me understand the material on a higher level. After each set of songs they gave an modern example such as climbing Mt. Everest or the playground and gave two different outlooks for each. They had you keep track of whether or not you choose A or B. If you had more A you where an Upbeat person and if you had more B you where a morbid person. If you where even with the A and B then you where neutral. I thought this was cool because it was one of the more interactive projects that I have seen so far in this class. Thank you group 26 for a fun presentation.

Group 27

The groups that presented the other day all seemed to do a great job connecting their presentations to the material.  The group, which stood out the most in my mind, was group 27 which did an analysis of the Chimney from songs of Innocence and Experience.  The movie with voiceover was entertaining to watch.  The songs of innocence and experience are supposed to show that people don’t understand the long-term implications of what they see or do.  As in the Chimney sweeper the message was a good boy who clean chimneys will go to heave.  The problem is the boys don’t understand the future implications of their job.  Blake is trying to show that people never dig deeper than the surface in evaluating their choices.  Group 27 did a great job of making this connection through their movie.  Their presentation really grabbed my attention and allowed me to understand the message Blake was trying to show us through his songs of innocence and experience.  I applaud the job that group 27 did.  It is hard to engage the audience and get them to understand the message that you are attempting to convey.  They did an excellent job of accomplishing both of these things.  Blake’s message goes below the surface and can be applied to different tasks and jobs that happen in today’s world.  Many people fail to look beyond the surface and dig deeper for underlying messages and themes.  This is why many people get taken advantage of in life.  Blake’s songs can be an eye opener and Group 27 did an excellent job of showing what Blake was trying to get across to his audience.

I enjoyed Group 27’s commentary on William Blake’s poem “The Chimney Sweeper.” The group did a very good job of incorporating the images of innocence and experience into their presentation. The job of chimney sweeping was traditionally done by young boys, and the group clearly explained Blake’s stance on the exploitation of these young boys. I didn’t realize that Blake intended his poems to be a commentary of corruption that was rampant both in society and the church. He wanted his poem from the boy’s perspective to seem naïve, because the boy wasn’t realizing what was happening to him. The poem from the older man’s perspective is that of bitterness and jadedness. The group explained these ideas effectively. The group accurately portrayed images of both young and old chimney sweeps as they explained the themes of both poems. The pictures showed the innocence and happiness of children that were not forced to work, and also showed the sadness in the young chimney sweeps’ eyes and faces. Overall, the group did an excellent job explaining Blake’s reasoning and intentions for both poems, while also giving a visual representation of the plight of the chimney sweepers.

All of the projects today were very interesting and insightful. The project that was most helpful for me was the project made by Group 27. They made a narration of the plot and analysis of the Songs of Innocence and the Songs of Experience that played over a slideshow of related images. I appreciated that it kept to the story and explained that instead of talking about other unrelated stories like a number of other groups. The other groups that took this approach were interesting but they didn’t really teach me a lot about the William Blake’s stories. They talked about the plot of the story while uncovering Blake’s underlying beliefs. They would say something that happened and then follow it up with “this shows…” It made their message very clear. They talked about how in the first story the character was personalized so that the reader could make him more real in their mind, and it would tug on their heart strings. I like how the team contrasted the first Innocence poem with the Experience poem. They showed how the tone drastically changed from the first to the second. Blake had lost his faith in human kind, and there was a lot more pessimism after all the struggles and hardship. I liked how they talked about how this was seen by calling Tom the “little black thing among the snow” and how they talked about the symbolism of the white snow. They also talked about Blake’s criticism of the church. However, I would have liked the visual to be a little more meaningful.           

All of the groups did a great job today! My favorite was group 27's video. They did a fantastic job preparing for this as they had put together a video with voice over and images. They really went into deep analysis and there video was able to convey a very strong message about The Chimney Sweeper from Songs of Innocence. They made comments on the cruelty of society with a commentary on child labor which I felt was very unique to their project. They really expanded on the abuse and critique of the poem on innocence. All in all I feel like their project was very well put together, presented in an emphatic, eye-catching way, and really captured the deeper meaning of Blake's commentary. 

I thought that the most meaningful presentation on Thursday was by group 27 who showed The Chimney Sweeper movie.  The movie was based on William Blake’s poems the Songs of Innocence and the Songs of Experience.  They did a good job explaining the real meaning behind the poetic satire of each poem.  I have a difficult time understanding poetry, and it was very helpful to hear them walk through each poem and break it down in a way that I could easily comprehend.  I the Songs of Innocence, it deals with the innocence of children before adulthood.  In the time, young children were tragically sold off to be chimney sweeps.  The victims were too young to understand the effect it would have on their future.  The poem represents a sad reality through a boy named Tom who characterizes other neglected children and poverty.  There is a dream of an angel, which appears to offer happiness in sight.  The dream is much like the church, which seems to offer hope, but in the end actually do nothing to help the unfortunate situation.  In the Songs of Experience, we are offered a different viewpoint on a similar story.  This time instead of a young child, the boy is now grown up.  The boy is no longer called Tom, but is referred to as a little black thing on the white snow.  The boy has lost his innocence and no longer has a name to identify him.  The two poems read side by side offer contrasting view of purity and the hardened, or youth and age.  I appreciated the straight forward analysis that clarified each poem and their relationship to one another.

Group 27 offered a very well demonstrated documentary on William Blake’s poems: Chimney Sweeper, Songs of Innocence and Experience. The symbolism they explained throughout their film gave a greater insight in Blake’s pieces. I also enjoyed the pictures they included because they really portrayed the poverty stricken society in which children grew up in. It also depicted the difficulties chimney sweeper underwent. For me, these poems were difficult for me to interpret and understand, and I felt like this group gave me a deeper understanding of the meaning behind these poems. Some changes I would have made would have been the tone of the speakers and also the quality of the sounds. I felt that the speakers were not very animated, and sometimes it was difficult to listen. Also, the quality of the sound was low, and I would have maybe fixed this prior to the presentation. Other than that, this group demonstrated great knowledge of the literature by explaining the tone, language, and symbolism of each poem.

Group 27 had a very serious and powerful presentation. The only thing I think they should have done is make sure that their voices were clear in the video because some of them were difficult to hear speaking.This presentation used a lot of powerful images of young children and chimney sweepers from that time period. The images they used left a more lasting impact about the reality of what William Blake was talking about. They started the presentation talking about the first part of "The Chimney Sweeper", which is titled the "Song of Innocence". The group then gave background information about what Blake was talking about in this part of the poem. Children were being sold for labor and working as chimney sweepers at a very young age. Some of these children were so young that they were barely able to speak, let alone understand why this was happening to them. The fact that these children were so young when they were sold means that they were denied the ability to experience being innocent and having a childhood. The thought of these poor children and the images being shown really portrayed a realness to what Blake was writing about. The second part of the poem is the "Song of Experience". This is about when the boy has grown up. The group explained how when Blake talks about the boy becoming just a black speck in the white snow, the snow is the representation of innocence. Then when the old mans hair is taken away from him he is left with no innocence at all. This also left a very strong image of how innocence is a terrible thing to lose and shouldn't be taken away from anyone.

In this final set of presentations, Group 27’s The Chimney Sweep/er analysis stuck out the most for me. I enjoy the slideshows as much as the next person, but I like it more when presentations have an in-depth discussion of the source material. I agree with your overall analysis, but I was surprised when you equated the angel with society. Angels are usually synonymous with all that is good, and not usually used in the same sentence as the word “cruel.” There are the two views, both which you have mentioned, and that Blake has separated out into the two categories of poems; the view of religion and faith (innocence/naivete) and the view of cynicism (experience). The last point I want to add is that maybe, the young narrator isn’t as innocent as Tom, but wants to believe in and preserve Tom’s innocence. Moving onto the darker version, in addition to the hypocrisy of the church, there might be something to be said about parental duties and attachment. And then what also can be said about the relationship between “religious piety” and “parental love”? Both of these (synonyms for love) seem to be lacking in (that) society if people, especially the parents, can sell their children into slavery. As pertaining to the words of the poem and your analysis, I’m not sure whose parents are being discussed, since the quotes aren’t specified. But due to the “weep weep weep” reference, I think you’re right in saying it’s referring to the narrator in Paragraph 13, which means that the analysis in Paragraph 11 is in contradiction. Looking back, I think all of us are looking at both these poems in the POV of Experience.

All of the groups did a great job in their presentations, however, the one that I enjoyed the most and that was the most meaningful to me was group 27 and their movie that they produced.  The movie focused on the two different poems that showed different persepectives of chimney sweepers.  One poem is positive and uplifting whereas the other poem is depressing and negative.  I liked how there were many pictures throughout their explanations that went along with what they were speaking about.  These many pictures were a great visual aid and kept my interest.  I also enjoyed how they switched up the voices that were talking in the movie so that not one person was talking for a super long time.  This showed that the group members were able to split up the work fairly and all had an equal share in the creation of their movie.  The explanations of the poems and their summaries were very detailed which allowed me to have a greater understanding of the poems and their meanings.  They even went into more depth with analysis of the two poems written by William Blake

Group 28

I enjoyed all the presentations, but my favorite was Group 28.  They used the concept innocence vs. experience and made a modern day comparison.  The group used the movies The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland and Snow White to show that something can bring so much innocence as a child, but yet carries a whole other meaning now.  I learned a lot from this presentation because I didn’t know all the different conations that the movies carried.  Each character in the Wizard of Oz had a different political representation for the time.  There were many political issues that were represented by characters Toto being the same as the average American and the Scarecrow being the farmers.  I also didn’t know how many drug references were made in Alice in Wonderland.  Almost everything in the movie related in some way to LCD or cocaine.  It was helpful to not only hear what references were made it the movie, but also get to see them.  The movie clips allowed us to see exactly what they were saying was something we had probably never known before and made the movie not so innocent.  The group did a great job showing the relationship between innocence and experience.  I would never have known that something I loved as a child could mean something so different to me now that I am older.  I could really tell that the group understood the story and their topic because they made it easy and relatable to something everyone in the audience knows.  I really enjoyed this presentation and learned a lot from it.

My favorite presentation from May 30th was group 28s project. I felt like comparing children movies from a kids perspective and then from an adults perspective is a really good way of portraying the essence of innocents and experience. I don’t think any movie was a better example then the Alice in Wonderland comparison. I knew that there were some drug and alcohol references in the movies but I didn’t realize how many there actually were. I was shocked to see the marijuana leaf on the teapot as well as the many LSD references throughout the film. Some of the connections I felt were a little far fetched such as the seven dwarves all representing different states of cocaine use, however it is entirely possible. I think the group did an excellent job of presenting these connections as well researching them.  They did a good job of explaining how things can be masked by innocence yet can be revealed once experience is had. My view of Disney has changed completely. I knew that their history wasn’t as pure and clean as they try to portray but I had no idea how dirty it actually was. If these hidden messages are in fact real, its really quite surprising how they were able to start and maintain there image as a family friendly company, as it turns out they might be the dirtiest. Overall I thought group 28 did a great job,

The group that was most meaningful and interesting to me was Group 28. They took a modern spin on William Blake and his Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. What they did was compare things that were innocent to us as children but when we finally reach adulthood, we notice that they have hidden corruptions in them. They gave us various examples displaying this corruption. For example, the Wizard of Oz references many political issues that are apparent in every character. In Alice in Wonderland there are many references to drugs. For example, the white rabbit signifies cocaine. There is also a discrete marijuana leaf on a teapot.  Snow White is another Disney movie that gives reference to cocaine. The seven dwarfs are seen to represent the side effects. It was very interesting to see these hidden things in all the childhood movies that I watched as a child. This presentation was very different to any of the projects that I’ve seen so far in class. It related to Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience but in an interesting way. It was not boring in that they did not simply describe and analyze or act out Blake’s works. Because of the uniqueness, I believe that it was one of the best group projects of the day. I was engaged in their presentation for its entirety. They did a great job describing everything. This group obviously spent a significant amount of time researching and creating this power point .

My favorite project of the day was group 28’s modern spin on Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. I thought it was very clever and funny how they related it to movies of our childhood. It was very interesting to see how as we get older the subtle signs in movies, that were supposed to be made for young children, are much more meaningful and scandalous now. The three movies that the group used were the Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland and Snow White. I have watched all of those movies many times when I was younger and never realized any of the signs they pointed out. The first movie dissected was the Wizard of Oz. It actually originated as a politically charged piece of literature in the late 1800’s. It was mocking and referencing politicians of the day and the government as a whole. The next movie was Alice in Wonderland, which is supposed to be an innocent movie about a young girl, but is instead loaded with drug imagery and drug references. Snow White was supposed to be another movie that was a children’s movie but as the group pointed out had subtle hints of drug references. It appears that Blake may have had a point in saying that when you are young the world in innocent and as you grow up the world is bleak. To me it relates back to the old saying of ignorance is bliss. In some circumstances, such as Disney movies, I believe that may be the case and I would like to continue to live in my fantasyland of ignorance.

The project that affected me the most from yesterday's presentations

was Group 28's report on the differences between childhood innocence

and experience. Group 28 had a great presentation that applied William

Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience, and applied them to

literature/movies that may have been popular when we were children.

They used examples like Alice in Wonderland and Wizard of Oz to

demonstrate that these stories may have alternative meetings to

adults. The project itself was very creative, the slideshow was well

done and the different elements like clips from the movies helped to

demonstrate their point and kept the audience engaged. The presenters

also used great tone and vocal projection that helped to keep the

class interested.The takes on the different stories was also interesting. I had heardrumors that the Wizard of Oz was an allegory of the

historical/political events that took place in the 1900s, but I didn’t

think that these were true. Regardless, it was interesting to see an

example of how the story could be construed different by an adult than

a child. As a child, you see the story as merely fantasy, while an

adult with experience may try to read into the symbolism and themes.

The same thing applies to Alice in Wonderland. As a child, you are

unaware and oblivious to the idea of drugs and how they may be

portrayed in the story. I liked that this group was able to take a

reading from our class, and apply it to other literature that we are

more familiar with in modern time.

I thought the group that compared our childhood Disney movies to our understanding of those movies now did a really great job.  This was group 28, I believe.  Choosing Disney was a really smart decision, because it is a really safe assumption that almost everyone in the class has seen these movies.  With everyone having seen them, it is easy for the class to relate to the presentation.  Disney is often seen as the pinnacle of childhood innocence and is loved by so many children around the world.  However, as the group pointed out, there are adult themes that run through almost every Disney movie.  Personally I do not think this as negative as group 28 portrayed it.  As a huge Disney fan, even at the age of twenty, I think that the ability to maintain the innocence of the children watching, and crack jokes that appeal to adults is the beauty of Disney movies.  The jokes, or references go completely over the kids heads and are meant only for the eyes and ears of adults, and I think the way they have managed to maintain this through all their movies is brilliant.  One of the main reasons I liked group 28's presentation so much was because it really got me thinking.  It sparked an interest in me to go back and watch all of my favorite childhood films with the understanding of an adult.  Great job group 28!

Group 28's project stood out the most this week because I had never known about the different underlining meanings in these children's movies. The only book that I had known of that had political meanings are the Orwell's novels. Wizard of Oz stood out especially when they went over every symbol in the movie from the characters to the settings. It was amusing that Toto represented the common man because it actually makes sense when the presentation was going over his significance. From how we as the common man can follow Dorothy blindly with out question yet we can tell who is evil and who is not. The yellow brick road symbolism was also a symbol that made sense because money takes people everywhere and leads people to the leaders of any country. Alice and Wonderland symbols opened my eyes to how far Disney references can go. The LSD and other drug references brings the movie together and makes sense how "tripping" out can really open up Alice's imagination. The marijuana leaf on the tea pot was a subtle reminder of what the movie's plot is all about. I have heard of cocaine being called "snow white" but I had no clue of what the seven dwarfs symbolized. But with the group 28's explanation, I can now understand how it can relate to drug use.

My favorite presentation from the last groups was number twenty eight. Their creative presentation and adaptation of the innocence and experience poems were very interesting and unique. This group did well explaining the different poems as well as the difference between the two. The main reason why I really liked this group was because they found famous childhood movies that from a children's point of view seem clean of any inappropriate content. However, after experiencing years of life and looking at the movies from a different of view, these movies are anything but innocent. By looking at "commonly" thought innocent childhood movies from both the point of innocence and experience, this group did exactly what William Blake was trying to do in The Chimney Sweeper. Also, their witty pictures and slideshow presentation really added great detail to the overall ten minute presentation.

Group 28s project of comparing movies that are well known to us was very creative and is something that I actually find very interesting.  Growing up with Disney movies it blew my mind with all the references that went over our head when we were kids.  I highly doubt that our parents would have let us watch these movies if they had even gotten the hidden innuendos.  The group drew some very good resemblances between the movies and Songs of Innocence and Experience.  The poems have many hidden meanings that you would most likely never figure out even if you have read them.  I had known about the drug references in Alice in Wonderland but not in Snow White.   At the time that Alice in Wonderland was written drugs were a very large part of ordinary life. Drugs were not seen as a problem or a black mark on your record as they are interpreted today.  They used them to expand their minds and be more creative.  This is one reason why Alice in Wonderland was full of crazy vivid colors and designs, it was like being on a “trip”.  The presentation kept the class interested with its comedy from the different innuendos and references in the movies.  Finding a topic to compare to the poems of Songs of Innocence and Experience must have been fairly difficult, and group 28 did very well with what they were given.  The girls presented it very well and were enthusiastic about their project

Group 28 was great! Their presentation was very funny, and it kept my attention the whole time.  William Blake had a lot of hidden meaning in his writing, and the group did a very good job at showing these hidden meanings in a fun and hilarious way.  They took clips from a couple Disney movies and showed a lot of the hidden meanings in them.  In a lot of these hidden messages, the casual observer would not be able to pick them up.  I believe this is a lot like the Blake’s writings, where if you are a casual reader, you will not pick up on the true meaning of the text.  This was also true in the presentation.  If you were not paying attention to group 28’s presentation closely, you wouldn’t pick up on some of the main correlations they use between Disney movies and Blake.  However, this made the presentation a little bit confusing.  At first I was not sure why they were showing the movie clips, but they ended up doing a very good job at explaining themselves, and making it a comprehensive project.  All the projects from today did very well, and they were all entertaining.  Group 28, though, stood out to me the most because of its quirky and interesting way of showing these correlations.  They made it very entertaining, and they kept my attention the entire time. The group also was very good a presenting their material, as they did not appear nervous at all.  This makes for a much more entertaining presentation.

Of all the projects presented, number 28 was my favorite. I thought it was a very creative idea to use the theme of the William Blake poems and use it to analyze some childhood favorites. It was interesting to learn that what we thought was just fun and had no meaning as children, actually has a lot of meaning and is representative of things we would not have been able to understand as children. I did not know that “The Wizard of Oz” was representative of political issues of the time. It does make sense though, hearing what the characters represent. I also was unaware of all the drug references in “Alice and Wonderland” and “Snow White”. It was interesting to learn about these hidden meanings now, but I am glad I did not know about them when enjoying these films as a kid. It was a creative idea to take things the class could relate to and tie them into the poems.

Of the groups that presented today on William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience, the one that impacted me the most was Group 28’s project.  Their comparison of movies as they are viewed through the eyes of those who are innocent (children) versus those who are experienced (adults) really impacted me and greatly reflected the songs by Blake. All three of the movies they showed are classic movies that are viewed by children all over the world as fun, entertaining, and sometimes silly. However, when the true meaning behind these movies, which were created by experienced adults, is revealed you see that they are not as innocent and silly as they originally seem. They all express the very adult themes of political and economic issues as well as the use of drugs. The most shocking thing to me was the fact that there is actually a marijuana leaf on the teakettle in Alice In Wonderland. When you are watching this film through the eyes of an adult, the leaf is a very blatant reference. I think that the two views of the movies that were presented greatly reflected Blake’s songs. The Songs of Innocence all present topics of everyday life as fun, joyful, and full of love and respect. While the Songs of Experience take the same topics and put a very dark, cynical, and melancholy feeling to them. I think that Group 28 did an excellent job of taking something all of us are familiar with and showing us how they have the same qualities as Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience.

Of all the project presentations today on Blake, the one I best connected with was group 28's.  The comparisons of innocence versus experience they made between the more modern and well-known, yet classic movies and Blake's writings were very convincing! It was amazing to hear of all the specific examples from Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland and Snow White.  It was obvious that the movies and comparisons were well-researched because these movies are most often looked at in the way we all grew up with them: as children's books and stories full of imagination and innocence.  This presentation opened my eyes to the hidden ideas behind each of the stories, regardless of whether it was a poor intention of Disney to secretly incorporate such adult/mature/experienced situations into the movie.  It was most interesting to internally compare the texts of Blake's Songs of Innocence with how I have always seen Disney movies.  After growing up and learning more, I now see things that I did not know existed, just as Blake's Songs of Experience outline.  I really enjoyed this presentation, as it encouraged me to think of many more issues that I have been naive to and have only seen through innocent eyes. Group 28 did a great job!All the groups did a great job presenting their projects to the class on Thursday. The group that stood out the most was group 28. I felt that I could connect with this groups project the best. The way they compared innocence to Blake’s writings was very believable and thought out. This group did a great job putting an image in my head about all the older movies for example, Snow White, and bonding the connection between them. I felt that our imaginations as children were so free and innocent. I have always had an “idea” or image in my head about Disney movies and Blake’s Songs of Innocence changes your perception. This group did a fantastic job making a clear and powerful presentation. I feel like this presentation makes you take a step back and really look deep and you will eventually realize what is the truth and it will open your innocent eyes.  Great job Group 28

Group 28 compared the poems Innocence and Experience to modern day society. I thought it was a very relevant idea and they had funny examples. For instance the comparison between the characters of the poems to the characters of the Wizard of oz had good contrast. While using the subliminal messages in Disney movies was an example of how as a child we don't notice the sexual or drug references but as we grow older we see that as a form of humor. Something I would say about the performance is the girl who was speaking first kept saying 'try' 'what we are going to try and show'. Instead of telling the audience that the group is going to 'try' to show the similarities just do it and convince us that they are similar. Also they got the title of the book wrong, it's 'Alice's adventure underground' not 'Alice's adventure in wonderland'. Oh and by the end of the presentation I felt like I was just getting a lesson on the history of Disney productions and lost track of the purpose.

The group presentation that stood out to me the most yesterday was Group 28’s “Innocence vs. Experience” analysis. They really took a controversial view on the topic of how we once perceived things when we were younger compared to how we view the same things now. Although it is the same material we have known for so many years, our experience through age enables us to see past the facades that once appealed to us in our youth. This group discussed this occurrence through Disney movie examples, including Alice in Wonderland and Snow White. Even though I have heard theories on this topic before, I have never encountered such an analytical, in-depth presentation on it. Thus, Group 28 really opened my eyes to the fact that innocence can be quite blinding, as there are indeed hidden suggestive material within those child-friendly movies. For example, they mentioned that several drugs can be alluded to in Alice in Wonderland, such as LSD and cocaine. They even pointed out a marijuana leaf painted on the side of the tea pot in one scene of the movie. It is shocking that things so blatantly obvious to us now were once not even a thought in our minds. Even though innocence can be thought of as an ideal state of mind, I think that too much innocence can really hinder personal growth and create bias in the world because of its one-sided point of view. Experience, although sometimes pessimistic, allows an individual to experience things themselves and see all views on topics.

The group whose presentation I enjoyed the most this round was Group 28. They chose the Songs of Innocence and Experience and related it to movies of our childhood. The poems in this collection compare the innocent, past world of our childhood with the corrupt and repressed world of our adult life. That being the main theme, it was a clever idea for the group to analyze this theme through another form of art, film. Most of us still viewed the Wizard of Oz as a silly tale teaching us that there is no place like home, until we learn of a lot of political satire and representation throughout the whole movie. I had always felt that Alice and Wonderland had underlying themes of drugs and tripping, because lets be honest, that movie is crazy. But nonetheless I never thought about the specific references such as the rabbit symbolizing cocaine. And finally, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. That movie was never my favorite out of the Disney collection so I never watched it much. Therefore, I had no idea of the cocaine reference. Whether or not that was Disney's idea in creating the film, that is a really clever and sneaky hidden theme. All in all, a very intriguing presentation.

The five groups who presented the other day did an excellent job in

getting their message across to the audience.  Out of the five groups

I thought group 28 was not only creative but entertaining.  They were

able to but a modern spin on Blake and the idea of Innocence versus

Experience.  By taking childhood movies that everyone has seen they

were able to engage the audience.  They then were able to show how

people view these movies as innocent and fun when really there are

hidden messages and ideas.  My favorite example they came up with was

there interpretation of the really meaning behind Alice and

Wonderland.  How the rabbit hole was a state of confusion and the

Rabbit himself represented Speed.  By using modern day references they

were able to grab not only my attention but the entire audiences’

attention as well.  Comparing Blake’s songs of innocence to modern day

influential films was a creative way to show what Blake’s message was.

I found it entertaining that they were able to come up with so many

examples from Disney movies.  We all believe Disney to be innocent and

pure but looking back on the films now I can see the messages that

they described in their presentation.  I thought it was a very

creative presentation that the group was able to pull off effectively.

They were able to engage the audience with a modern idea but still

get their main points across effectively.  It was an entertaining presentation that I believe everyone enjoyed.

I think that group 28 made a good presentation contrasting innocence and experience. They brought in the two poems infant joy and infant sorrow. They wanted to explain the difference between children being innocence to when they grow up and experience real life. The group wanted to bring light to some of the modern movies that we watched as children. When we were children we believed the movies were innocent and were just telling a happy story. Now that we have experience with life we can look back at the movies and see them in a new way. Experience shows us that the Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, and Snow White all have hidden messages that should not be portrayed to children.  Drugs, sex, corruption, and politics are some of the themes. The group explained that the rabbit in Alice in Wonderland represented cocaine because he is white has heavy eyes, and is running around very fast. The caterpillar was said to be smoking marijuana or opium and is sitting on a mushroom. All of Alices experiences were thought to be her tripping out on LSD. These are just some of the examples the group gave that showed the loss of innocence this movie has now. I felt that this was a good comparison to make with William Blake’s Songs of experience and innocence. I feel now the shift of having watched these movies as a child to now watching them and seeing them in a new way. I was innocent and now I feel experienced.

Of all the presentations today, I found group 28’s to be the most effective. Although they only briefly discussed William Blake’s poetry, they clearly understood where Blake was coming from, as they were able to translate the idea of the differences between naïve understanding of stories and the more mature understanding that comes later in life. This group chose to analyze three very common movies that we are all familiar with: The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, and Snow White. I enjoyed their presentation because these are all stories I have enjoyed for most of my life, but like most, never knew about these allusions to politics, social chaos, and geographic issues that are hinted at in The Wizard of Oz, the multiple drug references in Alice in Wonderland, and the cocaine references in Snow White. Obviously these allusions are fairly well hidden, or at least seem to be innocent in the movie to the young eyes watching, although as children grow up and become more cognizant of the world around them, it is likely they become more aware of these allusions Disney includes in their animated movies. I was impressed by this group’s ability to show how our perceptions of the same movie can change drastically depending on our maturity level, similar to the way Blake writes Infant Joy and Infant Sorrow. Although this presentation was not closely tied to Blake’s poems, it was definitely the most interesting. 

Although I thought all of the groups that presented this week did a decent job, I believe that Group 28 did the best job presenting William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience.  Their presentation interested me because I could relate to it so well.  I grew up watching a lot of Disney movies, and hearing that these movies might not be as innocent and child-like as they appear was immediately attention-grabbing to me.  I thought that comparing Snow White, Alice and Wonderland, and the Wizard of Oz to Songs of Innocence and Experience was a great way to show the class the contrasting views that Blake presented in his poems.   I already knew that there was some speculation that Alice in Wonderland was referring to LSD and other various drugs, but it was shocking to me that Snow White and the Seven Dwarves might have been referring to cocaine and its side-effects.  It was very interesting to hear about how politically-driven the Wizard of Oz was as well.  I thought that it was clever to portray an unpopular politician to the cowardly lion and the Emerald City to the wealth of Washington.  This group took a different route when compared to the other groups because they presented us with a modern connection to William Blake’s poems, instead of just analyzing Blake’s writings.  The next time I watch any of these three movies I will remember their underlying meanings and their similarity with Blake’s poems.

My favorite group presentation was group number 28. I really liked how they compared the main ideas of Blakes Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience to Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, and Snow White. They are all movies that I remember and have seen throughout my childhood. I knew some of the hidden corruption in the movies, but it was very interesting to see the ones that they pointed out as well. Like all the Alice in Wonderland drug references and the political associations with the Wizard of Oz. By comparing our childhood innocence to our experience today, and ability to see the hidden messages in the movies strengthens my understanding of Blakes Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. The concept of no longer having an innocent mind, and now with time and experience we see the subliminal messages that are tied into these movies was illuminated throughout the presentation. They are the same movies from when were children the only difference now is that were are no longer innocent and we are able to see these references to drugs, and political figures in children movies. As a side not, I also was unaware that some of the employees at Disney believed Walt Disney was addicted to cocaine. But in some way this also reflects this idea that at some point everything and everyone is innocent, but with experience we lose the innocence; in this case we lose the idea of a perfect world with no evil. I also find it interesting that (if this assumption is true and Walt Disney was indeed addicted to cocaine) that there is an intersection of innocence and experience. Walt Disney is compiling movies for the innocent with concepts of the experience, for one day there will be no innocence, however a new light within the movies will be seen by the experienced.

The presentation that was the most meaningful to me was the one comparing and contrasting innocence and experience with Disney movies, I believe it was group 28. First of all, I liked how they all spoke with conviction and knew what they were saying. It kept my attention the entire time. Their power point was done very well and the inputting of videos really added to their performance. I liked how they enforced their talking points with the video. I really enjoyed how they took the idea of infant joy and infant sorrow and connected that to something more modern to keep us all interested. I think it made me understand the ideas of Blake more. It must have taken a lot of research to show exactly what movies may have subliminal messages or alternate meanings, so I commend them for spending the time. It spoke volumes of their commitment. I’m not sure how accurate the hidden meanings were, but they were definitely interesting and seemed somewhat true. My favorite was when they were discussing the Wizard of Oz. I feel like that one, over the others, could most likely be true because of the issues going on during that time period. I really think they incorporated many subjects in to enhance their presentation; it was a combination of English, history, and film. I thought it was great. I thought they could have spent some more time on Blake however. Ultimately, this presentation kept my attention and entertained me. I would definitely love to know how accurate their facts were! Great job.

Of the presentations in the last class meeting the project that was the most interesting to me was that of Group 28. The presentation used Blake’s contrast of innocence versus experience to analyze Disney’s Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, and Snow White. Most everybody in the room grew up watching Disney films and didn’t think the least of the themes or symbolism in each film.  I found the most interesting portion of the presentation to be about the Wizard of Oz. I’ve seen the film a few times and was surprised by the incredible amount of symbolism behind each and every character or event. The symbolism largely represented political tension and issues of the late 19^th century when the book was first published. Characters represented social groups and their ideologies while the events and materials of the movie brought about tension between them. The cyclone symbolized political upheaval at the time while the yellow brick road represented the gold standard. Dorothy representing the American people, the munchkins the common folk, and the tin man the industrial workers. Overall I found the newfound symbolism to be very thought provoking. Alice in Wonderland and Snow White were somewhat similar mostly showing the hidden symbolism and themes representing drugs, addiction, and effects. The seven dwarfs being the side effects of cocaine abuse, Alice’s script having hidden meaning about addiction, and even a cannabis leaf on a tea pot. By using more modern and relevant sources to contrast Blake’s Innocence versus Experience theme made the contrast much more interesting to think about. In my innocence I would have never made the connections to political meaning, drugs, and addiction that I know see from my experience. 

I thought that group 28's project on Innocence and Experience was the best overall project from this last batch of presentations. It analyzed a central theme of Blake's writings and paralleled that concept with the childhood animations and other movies that our generation is almost unanimously familiar with. For instance with the wizard of oz, I really enjoyed all the various comparisons that they were arguing for about the fact that the wizard of oz is actually a political statement. Many of the arguments such as the tin men representing factory workers and the scarecrow representing farm labors would be difficult to deny. They also analyzed Alice and Wonderland, which most people already knew had drug influences since the original story was written by an addict. However the group really suprised me when a pot leaf was revealed on the tea pot in the you tube video that they presented along with their power point. Snow white was also compared to cocaine, however the arguments for this parallel were not as strong as the others. Yes "Snow White" may be another name for cocaine but perhaps the cocaine is named after the story rather than the story after cocaine. Overall though, I related a lot to this presentation, which improved its impact on me and my understanding of the themes involved in Blake's writings. On a side note, I was very impressed by the song at the end of the chimney sweeper presentation by group 29.

My favorite presentation I would have to say would be Group 28’s presentation. They’re theme was on how media from when we were children now means something different grown up. They had many different examples of children’s movies, such as Snow White and Alice in Wonderland, and how they had deeper meanings than what we thought when we were children. They took The Wizard of Oz and showed how it symbolized different political issues of the late 1800’s. They showed how Dorthy represented the American people while the yellow brick road represented the gold standard. Another movie that they showed hidden corruptions in was Snow White. Apparently Snow White is another term for cocaine. I thought it was funny how they showed that the different names of the dwarves represented different states while using the drug, and how it would eventually end up in a trip to the “Doc.” My favorite analogy they made between mature audiences and children was Alice in Wonderland. This was another movie which represented drugs. Alice chases the rabbit like an addict would, and her behavior represented that of someone who was on drugs. There was even one part of the movie which they showed us where she is at the tea party, and the tea kettle that they are drinking from has a marijuana leaf on it. Also the tea that she drinks makes her change sizes as someone on drugs might feel from the effects of them. Overall, they did a good job showing how our innocence as children can be corrupted from knowledge as we grow older and are able to understand more things.

I thought that Group 28 did an exemplary job with their presentation. The idea of using the contrasts between innocence & experience and comparing them to modern day movies was not only original but also quite effective. Their choices of movies: Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, and Snow White, are all movies that the audience was able to relate to. Everyone grew up on these movies and failed to see much of the symbolism in them. Group 28 did a good job of opening our eyes to see that the childhood movies aren't as innocent as we originally perceived. Not to take away from the other groups but this group really took an interesting perspective on the presentation; a perspective none of the other groups took on. Hats off to you, Group 28.

I chose Group 28 as the best presentation for today. Their comparison of “Infant Joy” and “Infant Sorrow” with modern movies we enjoyed as children was a fresh and innovative take on the creative project assignment. It definitely captured the attention of not only me, but everyone else in the audience. I had previous knowledge that Disney snuck in little snippets for parents, but I had no idea of the extent it went to. Group 28 showed us exactly how different meanings the same film can have when it is viewed as an innocent child, compared to viewing it as an experienced adult, who knows the true meaning behind the movies. I loved those three movies as a child, so it was crazy to see the true meaning behind them. In the Wizard of Oz, the most surprising fact was that the entire movie was based around political issues from the 1800's. Every character had a meaning, and even the scenery meant things that one would miss as a child. To a kid, the lollypop guild is just a happy group, but when you know the meaning behind it, you see it is meant to represent the children who swept chimneys. It was also really shocking to see the prevalence of drug references in two different movies! I had noticed the hookah as a child, but obviously never any references to LSD, opium, magic mushrooms, cocaine or marijuana. Group 28 did a great job in finding these sources and succeeding in shocking the audience, much like the shock compared to Songs of Innocence and Experience. Their ending was especially creative with the Blake-inspired song.

Group 28’s presentation was my favorite this week. They were inspired by William Blake’s poems Songs of Innocence and Songs of experience. Most groups just compared the two poems together but Group 28 actually gave the idea a modern update. Using the theme of looking at a subject through the eyes of innocence and the eyes of experience, the group analyzed a few famous movies. The group started with The Wizard of Oz, a beloved classic. What appears to be a simple children’s story is actually metaphor for the political climate of the late 19th century. Each of the characters represented a group of people or person in the American economy of the time. The next movie was Alice in Wonderland. The whimsical fairytale actually had strong roots in drug reference. The white rabbit was an allegory for cocaine addiction and there was even a hidden marijuana leaf on a tea pot. The final movie was the biggest surprise for me personally. I had heard before of the other two movies being more than what the initially appear to be. The last movie discussed, however, was Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. I always saw this story as the most pure a kids movie could be. The group was here to tell us otherwise. The seven dwarves actually represented the symptoms of cocaine addiction and “Snow White” was cocaine. The whole presentation was an original and refreshing take on Blake’s work and very entertaining for the audience.

I really enjoyed group 28's project comparing innocence to the subliminal messaging and interesting ideas in Disney movies. All of us watched these Disney movies so innocently when we were younger, and it's interesting to notice these sexual ideas that may have been subtly added in the films. I thought it was well done how they compared Blake's writings to the robbing of innocence as we grow older. It kept all of our attention because we were interested in what was really added to these movies, like the marijuana leaf on the Alice in Wonderland tea pot, which I had never noticed before. This group did a really good job relating Blake to modern day, and I really enjoyed their presentation!

The group presentation that had the most meaning to me was group 28’s presentation on innocence and experience. Their connection between movies from our childhood to adult themes was rather eye opening. I had never really thought about it, but it makes sense. It reminded me of when I go back and watch a movie that I loved as a child. I find now that I see things I never noticed before. Typically it is some sort of innuendo or reference to another movie. For instance, in the movie Space Jam there’s a scene with a reference to Pulp Fiction. Yosemite Sam and Elmer Fudd are holding guns and dressed like Vincent and Jules from Pulp Fiction. As a child I hadn’t seen Pulp fiction yet due to its adult themes. At the time, I thought it was funny, but did not think it had any further meaning. When I do watch a movie I liked as a child, a lot of times I find the movie to be boring or ridiculous. I’m glad this group was able to point out some more instances of references I never noticed before. I can’t wait to look for more from now on. 

I felt that out of today's projects, Group 28 was the most entertaining and applicable to me.  Again, I am a huge cinephile, so anything to do with movies I really enjoy.  I watched all of those films as a kid, but the deeper meaning went right over my head.  They described when comparing it to the two contrary states of the soul as stated by Blake, innocence and experience, which was incredibly true for those, and many other childhood favorites.  It wasn't until later in life that I realized them.  In my high school history class, we studied the Populist movement.  At the time, I was re-watching the Wizard of Oz, and I saw some corollaries.  I inquired to my teacher and she confirmed my suspicions.  It surprised me that all of the intense politics of Baum's time were central to the seemingly innocent adventure of Dorothy and her companions.  In addition to what the group said, the story of the Wizard of Oz is written in the Monomyth format, in which the main character goes on a long quest filled with hardship, and gets help along the way.  At the end, the protagonist ends up back where he or she started as a more knowledgeable person.  There have been many interpretations of the Wizard of Oz.  Another (which I believe as well) is that Baum studied the works of Gurdjieff, who was a spiritual teacher during the early 1900's, and based the events around his principles. The group also hit on Alice in Wonderland, which is full to the brim with hidden (and not so hidden) adult innuendo.  Carroll was actually in love with a wealthy eleven-year-old girl he tutored, who was named Alice, and all of the sexual innuendo was directed at her in the books.  It makes the books even creepier knowing that.  I really enjoyed their presentation, and the thoroughness of their analyses of the childhood favorites.  It really showed how through the lens of experience, many seemingly innocent things are just the opposite.

Once again, choosing a group to label as the most impressive this week was very difficult. I think this was the hardest week to decide the group that I felt did the best because each group put forth a very strong effort. I was excited about the group’s presentations because they gave a clearer definition of the challenging literature. Ultimately, I decided the interpretation I liked the best was Group 28. Group 28 did an amazing job at presenting the information in a relatable and exciting fashion. I never realized all the connections my favorite childhood movies had to drug references. It was almost sad that if I were to go back now and watch those films I without a doubt would recognize the references. This really paralleled the ideals of innocence and experience. I guess now, my third year into college I have had the experience and exposure to easily recognize drug references and other phenomenon. I was very interested in the undertones referenced in The Wizard of Oz. I never knew that there were the references to the social setting and government in what I thought was such an innocent film. Great job group 28 for opening up my eyes and exposing me to the references sited in these classic works.

I enjoyed this group because they referenced popular childhood movies

that made William Blake’s work feel more relevant to me. I also

learned much more about the movies I enjoyed as a child that had never

occurred to me at that age. William Blake, in his “Songs of Innocence

and Experience”, contrasts a naïve, and optimistic viewpoint of a

harsh, and unjust world, with a stark, cold viewpoint of the same

subject. In the naïve and optimistic poems, the reader may not

understand the weight of the setting from which the speaker delivers

the song. “Infant Joy”, for instance, speaks of birth and the

introduction to life as a newborn. “Infant Sorrow” recounts this

experience as a grueling tragedy, exposing the reality of the

situation. This group likewise exposed the reality of my childhood

movies, exposing me to a darker, more reflective memory of those

experiences. For instance, I never knew “The Wizard of Oz” to be

symbolic of political tension and the Great Depression. As they talked

about the flying monkeys as symbolizing  politicians and the tin man

as symbolizing industrial factory workers, everything made sense. The

movie no longer became a whimsical fairytale land, but a strange

caricature of the conflicted history I learned of. Seeing “Alice in

Wonderland” explained as a stoner trip was not surprising, but still

disturbing. Snow White was slightly more disturbing but I’m not

thoroughly convinced of the drug use themes in that movie. Either way,

the possibilities of these themes are good examples of how William

Blake presents his themes in his “Songs of Innocence and Experience”.

Of all the groups that presented yesterday, I found Group 28's "Innocence vs. Experience" to be the most compelling presentation. The theme of reconsidering a situation that you had a naive or innocent perspective about later in life, the most critical theme of Blake's work, is certainly prevalent in everyday life- it is easily related to events in our own lives which we feel that we later know the truth about. However, memories from childhood that are never challenged or reconsidered remain "innocent" despite us believing our current state of mind to be "experienced". I felt like this presentation was an excellent example of these types of unchallenged memories- the group chose to bring up movies that most of us likely watched as children, took at face value, and never really reconsidered. While I knew beforehand that Walt Disney used psychedelic drugs and that certainly some of the scenes in Disney movies were no doubt inspired by drug trips, I had never before considered the story of Snow White to relate so much to cocaine- the group made especially interesting points about the names of the dwarves. Though sitting and looking at it I still feel it's somewhat of a stretch, there were definitely valid points about the possible cocaine references. Ultimately I believe that it is much less important whether or not your memories are really so naive, but it is important to at least challenge and reconsider them rather than clinging to them as hard and fast truths in your life, and I felt that this group did a great job to inspire the audience to reconsider their own childhood experiences.

I thought the “Infant Joy vs. Sorrow” presentation by Group 28 was the most interesting and entertaining. The group was able to connect the theme about the different views of youth from William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and relate it to videos that the class could relate to. Using culturally popular movies made the comparison even more interesting, as everyone could understand the references. I was blown away by the hidden information encoded within The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, and Snow White. For instance, all of the drug references in Alice and Wonderland became incredibly obvious after learning what certain things symbolize: the white rabbit and sugar for the tea was cocaine, the “Drink Me” potion was LSD, and “down the rabbit hole” refers to the neurotic state experienced after using cocaine. Even obvious things that had escaped my attention, such as the marijuana leaf on the tea pot, made me realize how much experience contributes to perspective, as I would not have understood the reference when I was younger. All of these contributed to the idea that things which seem innocent may actually have a negative side to them that come with experience. The presentation not only conveyed fascinating information, but also used a well-organized Powerpoint that contained an assortment of bullets, pictures, and videos. This variety made the project easy to follow and kept my attention the entire time. Because of this project, I now have a deeper understanding about the different ways one can view a subject. Innocence and experience always skew the way people look at things, whether it be characteristics of youth or the hidden messages in a classic childhood movie.

I really liked the subject of this week’s presentations as the material of Blake’s poems is indeed still applicable to today. My favorite presentation from this week though was by Group 28, who compared Blake’s “Songs of Innocence and of Experience” to some of my generation’s most loved kid’s movies. I feel like their presentation captured the message Blake was trying to convey, but with a modern spin. I loved that the girls focused on three famous children’s movies, especially ones so beloved! I knew that Wizard of Oz had a double meaning, but I still find the whole subliminal message fascinating. I had no idea though that there were alternative meanings to the plots of Snow White and Alice in Wonderland. I’ve read Carroll’s story, and I have always found it very odd, but the subliminal messages, mainly referencing drugs, were new to me! One part that I found most fascinating was that the girls mentioned a marijuana leaf on the tea pot. I, of course, hadn’t ever seen that when watching the movie as a kid. The same goes for the breakdown the girls gave of Disney’s Snow White. I’ve heard rumors, as we all have, that every Disney movie has some part of it that’s, though hidden, twisted. But I would have never thought this would be true for a movie dating back to 1937. I was actually saddened to hear that these three films have subliminal messages and that they aren’t as innocent as I thought. I guess the film makers succeeded in hiding this from children, but, as an adult, I don’t find it humorous either. I wish things could be purely innocent and unspoiled by this world, but apparently it doesn’t work that way. 

All of the presentations today were really good. They were all so entertaining and presented their information so well. However, I really like group 28’s presentation. They decided to present on the idea of Innocence v.s. experience, and put a modern twist on it. The group selected movies from our childhood and showed a side of them that we would have never known. I think this was an excellent idea and good example for innocence vs experience. When we were younger and watched these movies we saw them through fresh eyes and had not yet experienced a lot in life. Now seeing the correlation between the movies and different references and parallels is so easy because we have experienced and witnessed so much more in life. This was a great idea because the presentation was so relatable to the audience, which made it easy to pay attention. The group discussed three disney movies: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Snow White and the seven dwarfs, and Alice and Wonderland. They should the audience a correlation between The Wizard of Oz and political issues, Snow White and cocaine, and then Alice and Wonderland and drugs. The group presented these correlations with a powerpoint and a few clips of the different movies. Overall the group had a good presence in front of the class, they made good eye contact and had strong voices throughout their presentation. Next time I watch any of the movies they presented on I will be thinking about the different references and representations of the characters in the movies.

This week group 28 had the presentation that interested me the most. There presentation was called Innocence verse Experience. What they did was look at the two songs “Infant Joy” and “Infant Sorrow” and applied it to more modern times with movies of their generation “kid’s movies. They looked at the animated films of Alice in Wonderland, Snow White, and the Wizard of Oz. What they pointed out was that as a kid you see these movies at face value and what the makers want the kids to see. But when you grow up and learn a little more about the world and gain a little more “experience” you start to see that these “kids’” movies aren’t so child friendly. For instance the points they brought up was the fact that Alice in Wonderland was heavily influenced by drugs, and well as Snow White. The Wizard of Oz was based off of the political issues of the early 1900s.  What really had me going about this presentation was how I always see cartoons that I used to watch as a kid and when I watch them now I see how much of the show that I missed. This presentation really made me think of all the things I didn’t realize that was going on when I was a kid. The group did a good job of presenting the material especially with the Alice in Wonderland video clip and showing all the references that lead back to drugs in it.  They also did just spew out the facts like some group can do; they had the lecture hall laughing which is always great. I think this group did a good job and I understood the song of Blake a great deal more.

Group 28 was my favorite group that presented today.  It was extremely interesting to see the connections between William Blake’s innocence writings “Infants Joy” and “Infant Sorrow” with more modern day childhood stories.  The allusions made in these stories were not easily seen until they were pointed out.  However, once they were pointed out it was crazy and weird to see all of the drug references.   I had never noticed the marijuana on the teapot in Alice in Wonderland until this group showed us.  The other LSD and drug references seem so comical in movies that are made for the younger generations.  “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” showed the relationship between drugs and their side affects.   Who would have ever thought that Snow White is another name for cocaine?  The seven dwarfs were also named after cocaine’s effects: cocaine causes exhaustion (Sleepy), mood swings (Happy, Grumpy), allergies (Sneezy) and alteration of personality (Bashful, Dopey) eventually resulting in a trip to the doctor (Doc).  I was also very intrigued by the political references made throughout “The Wizard of Oz.”  The characters, events and objects all relate to political issues in the 1800s and the Great Depression.  Group 28 did a great job keeping the audience engaged by showing these fun and interesting fact.  Showing video clips also made their presentation stronger by supporting their findings.  The PowerPoint presentation was appealing with both the colors and layouts.   This group was able to reference William Blake’s work in a modern way by showing clips from movies that everyone has seen.  This group did a really good job!  

My favorite presentation from today was group #28. I enjoyed this project the most because I liked how they compared the innocence versus experience theme through Disney movies. I learned a lot about the Disney movies that I grew up watching. My innocence with Disney is over because I know that the stories are not as carefree as I once thought. For example, the Wizard of Oz is full of symbolism about the political issues in the 1800’s. Each character and object in the movie simplifies a much bigger issue. Dorothy was thought to represent the American people while the tornado represents political chaos. The movies Alice in Wonderland and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs are filled with drug symbolism. Some references include cocaine and its seven side effects (7dwarfs). The growing and shrinking Alice goes through in Wonderland represents what people can feel while high on LSD.  The lines in the poems that are portrayed in the presentation are very similar in type but different in meaning. I believe that these verses side by side are more powerful than if they were individually read because they compare the emotions of childhood versus adulthood. I felt like I went through my own joys and sorrows when I watched the clips of the movies during the presentation because they reminded me of my childhood but I also felt sorrow because I had knowledge of the subliminal symbolism in the movies. My knowledge has corrupt the way I see Disney movies and they are not as fun anymore. I think this presentation impacted me the most and it really relates to

I really liked the premise of group 28’s project. They decided to compare things we all saw as children to how we see them now. This went along well with the theme of Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience. They decided to compare many movies of our childhood that seemed extremely innocent at the time, but truly had many deeper meanings that were invisible to us as children. The first movie that they covered was the Wizard of Oz, and it blew my mind. I had never thought to analyze the Wizard of Oz in a political manner, but after they presented the evidence, it truly all made sense. I particularly was shocked that Lollipop guild was representative of child labor, as it seemed like such an innocent part of the movie at the time. Also, the Great Wizard of Oz representing the US president makes perfect sense now, because he seems to have unlimited power throughout the movie, but at the end, he turns out just to be a normal man. Alice in Wonderland was another fun movie that this group analyzed. I had heard of people saying that there are drug references in the movie, but I never thought that there would be so many. I especially liked the video clip in which they showed the weed leaf on the teapot, because that was evidence that the references were intended. It was also very interesting to see that the seven dwarves were actually associated with the different stages of cocaine addiction. Now that I look back at all of these movies, the references seem obvious, even though they were slyly incorporated into the films.

Group 28 had a very good idea of taking a modern spin on Blake.  I believe that taking older pieces of work and putting a modern spin on them helps to better understand the works themselves and makes it easier for the audience to relate.  I also liked the use of specific childhood favorites that the group liked.  The analysis of Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, and Snow White show hidden references in all of the films and kept the audience interested.  The use of film clips from YouTube and other images were wonderful.  A fresh and new idea that kept the audience interested and allowed for a better understanding of Blake.

Group 29

Reading The Chimney Sweeper by William Blake made me think about how difficult and miserable life was for the children who were forced to work at such a young age. Group 29 did a wonderful job describing that time period and I was blown away when they wrote a song and sung it to the class. It really took courage for the group member to go up in front of the class sing it the way he did, I really commend him for that. Re-writing a song was very creative and thoughtful. Slavery and child labor is still present in our society and not a lot of people are aware of this. It made me think of songs that are played on the radio constantly and the fact that the majority of them do not talk about anything important, just love, sex, and other pointless topics. There are certainly some artists out there that do stand up for what they believe in and write songs about certain political issues, and it does take a lot of courage to do that being that thousands or millions of people are able to hear the song and make a quick judgment that can lead to a scandal and have the potential to end someone’s career. I feel like if artists took a stance like William Blake did writing these subliminal poems, it could really make a difference.

My Favorite performance from today’s acts was from Group 29. Their creative work on William Blake focused mostly on the “Chimney Sweeper” but compared a bunch of poems between innocence and experience. It was awesome to listen to. The group started out with a short biography of William Blake, which helped introduce the artist to everyone who still didn’t know much. They then started out with comparisons between several seemingly opposites, such as “The Lamb” and “The Tyger”. Next they explained the “Chimney Sweeper” in the Songs of Innocence. This poem is told from the point of a child, who is naïve to his environment and represents the sadness behind child labor. A couple clips from Disney’s “Mary Poppins” made out chimney sweeping as fun, a sad and unacceptable message to today’s standards. Their pictures caught my attention as well. While ioncluding the colorful works of Blake himself was nice, their presentation was also spiced up with their own pictures. These other pictures either made people laugh, or increased the gravity of the situation.  They made clear the loss of innocence that came with experience. The experienced child understood his situation and was forced to cope with it. However, it was their original song that was truly unique. It was sung to the tune of Mary Poppins’ “Chim Chim Cher-ee” and captured the sadness and despair of the song of experience. This creative solo was a first in the class and really explained the poem at a deep level. Overall, the performance had insightful messages and really brought out the emotions in William Blake’s poems.

I was a little disappointed in the group presentations this week. Since it was the last day I assumed they would continue raising the bar. This said, I did enjoy the last two groups, Group 29 in particular. Their song was very clever and original. It tied in various aspects of William Blake's character and history with serious modern day issues we face. I found it very educational looking at the similarities of slavery in modern day and Blake's time. I think they did a great job relaying how Blake was regarded in his society and clarifying our misconceived notion of his status. Also, it was awesome that we got a debut of their original song. It definitely caught my attention.

My favorite presentation of the day was Group 29's project The Chimney Sweeper. I liked that it was very informative on William Blake's background, to learn where the poems came from. It was funny to compare Blake to how he would be in his present time, today. Also, finding out that some of William Blake's poems were in the English building made known how great his poems truly are and since I never go in that building, I might go to see the walls now!But besides just the background of the author. I loved their comparison to Mary Poppins. I never realized where those scenes actually came from and how opposite the portrayal of chimney sweepers were in different stories. Blake's representation was way more clear in how the boys were treated and what actually happened. Mary Poppins seemed to glorify such a dangerous job, to please the audience.My favorite part of the The Chimney Sweeper presentation was the song that was created based on Mary Poppins' song Chim Chim Cher-ee. It was so creative and really got down to the core of what really happened and what the song should be about. I was very impressed and the student who sang it was pretty good! All around the best presentation on William Blake and his poems was this group; way to go!

The two group presentations that I enjoyed the most was group 30 and group 29. I couldn’t decide between the two of them. Group 30 was wildly entertaining and comical. I felt that they put a great amount of time into writing their script, and developing their powerpoint. All of the comparisons they made about college life were so accurate and hilarious they could only have been written by college students. And considering they only had two members in their group, they did a great job of handling the load between themselves. In fact, I think it worked out for the better since one person could start the comparison, and they other could finish it. This seemed to work quite well.

Group 30... I had to give group 30 mad props for that original song. I was blown away. I was sort of half in and half out of paying attention up until the singing started. I was immediately jolted into being engaged in the project. I thought that it took a huge amount of courage to do what he did, especially considering that this wasn’t required and they could have done a million other things besides singing a song. I think that it was successful in that the lyrics were very well written and timed nicely with the instrumentals. Overall I enjoyed all of the presentations today and felt that they all should be proud of what they produced. Group 29 and 30 were just the ones that stood out to me at the end of the day.

Every group who presented today did a great job, but the one that I connected most with was group 29’s presentation on The Chimney Sweeper and The Chimney Sweep.  I personally connected with this presentation because in high school, I also did a presentation on these songs, so I feel like I had some background knowledge yet I still learned a lot from their group.  I thought the group did well analyzing the material and pointing out the major themes within the poems. I liked that they compared and contrasted the two poems because it shows the change from innocence to experience, which is what Blake wanted.  He wanted to show that although both poems criticize the child labor of cleaning chimneys, there is a difference between someone who is older and has a different outlook on life and someone who is younger and does not quite understand the life they are living, and I think this group did a wonderful job of explaining those differences. I also enjoyed the clips from Mary Poppin’s because it was entertaining and made their topic more relatable because I have seen Mary Poppin’s many times.  The movie portrays chimney sweeping as fun when all of the men are dancing around, but what they don’t show is the child labor aspect of it.  Some facts that shocked me from their presentation are that the boys were about four or five when they were sold to do this labor because they were small, and the fact that the employers used to light fires under the boys to get them to work faster.  It is crazy to me that this used to happen in real life and is very hard to believe that people could be so cruel.  I learned a lot from their presentation and they did an all around great job!

Although all of the groups did a great job presenting, the group that stood out the most to me was group number 29.  This group not only presented the material in a very organized manner, but also transformed this difficult piece of literature into something that was easy to understand.  It was obvious that they prepared for this project far in advance and was able to expand upon it through collaboration and group meetings.  What stood out the most to me about this presentation was how the group paralleled the Disney movies we all saw as kids to William Blake’s childhood.  If I were to watch these movies now after the presentation, I would recognize all of the similarities and discrete symbolism implanted behind the plots.  This was really interesting considering every student in the class could relate to the comparisons being made.  My favorite slide was the one of Forest Gump standing over his mother’s grave.  By placing light hearted pictures and animations, it made this depressing novel not so sad to watch.  William Blakes childhood was sorrowful, but also showed the intense working hours and conditions experienced by kids before child labor laws.  This group did an amazing job presenting as well as correlating their presentation to the novel.

Out of all the presentations presented on Thursday, I enjoyed group 29 the best. The group decided to do a power point of the chimney sweeper. They had useful information throughout their PowerPoint and  the information presented was clear and helped explain William Blake along with the stories. The most interesting aspect of the presentation was the relation to the Disney movies and song of innocence. They did a very good relating the two to show you how Disney portrays chimney sweeping to be and what chimney sweeping was actually like. As the presentation went on the information provided on the slides gave the audience good background details to relate the two. From the slides you could see how Disney movies like Marry Poppins portray one thing when in actuality the truth is very different. I appreciated this interpretation because I know of a lot of Disney movies that have hidden or suggested themes that don’t reveille themselves to kids. The theme of the presentation was to compare child labor and abuse to nice themes of innocence in Disney movies to show the difference. I

The presentation that blew the others away was that of Group 29. Not only was 29’s presentation creative, but it was informative and easy to follow. Focusing on William Blake’s two renditions of The Chimney Sweeper, the presenters utilized a professional looking power point presentation, movie clips from Marry Poppins, and an original song in order to embody the spirit of The Chimney Sweeper from both The Songs of Innocence and The Songs of Experience. Kicking off their presentation with a quick overview of Blake’s life, Group 29 gave the audience a broad perspective on where The Chimney Sweeper’s poems came from. Moving on to the actual poems themselves, the presenters etch feeling into both versions of The Chimney Sweeper. Focusing on the “innocent” chimney sweeper, Group 29 explains how the story is narrated by a young kid, and highlights how the kid’s innocence allows him to be naïve to the true horrors of being an abused chimney sweep. In depicting the Songs of Experience, Group 29 displays how an older, jaded man in the chimney sweeping business has become “experienced” and does not believe in the promises fabricated in the Song of Innocence. As this group came to a close, they ended with an original song associating the life of a chimney sweep to the current plight of human trafficking. Overall, I believe this song, and the entire presentation as a whole, has allowed me to better understand the depth and meaning behind Blake’s chimney sweeper.

All of yesterdays presentations were very good. Although i did find the Disney films and their drug references interesting and valid at times, they could have tied it back to Blake a little more. In my opinion, Group #29 did the best job of tying in outside sources with Blake's poems in order to strengthen their analysis of his works. FIrst they gave some background on William Blake and his accomplishments, including the "Illuminated Printing "Relief Etching"," which was very interesting to learn about. They also emphasized the fact that Blake was not popular at all in his own life and was "obscure" until many years after. I also didn't know that he thought of himself as a prophet, which is quite humorous. They focused on Blake's poem about chimney sweeps and Tom Dacre, who was a representation of any children who were neglected by their parents and forced to become chimney sweeps. They did a good job with contrasting Blake's two poems, the innocent one and the one of experience. They talked about how Tom Dacre doesn't realize he was abandoned in his innocence and in his experience he realizes he has his parents to blame for his misfortune. The use of the happy, excited clip of the chimney sweeps dancing around from Mary Poppins helped contrast the reality of being a chimney sweep, which is incredibly dangerous. This group also related chimney sweeps/child labor to sex trafficking in the world today. The song written for Mary Poppin's song was also very creative and bold. 

This round of presentations represented a great wealth of research in combination with such creative exploration; but of all, group 29's collaborative piece made the greatest impact. Seeing the primitive printing process behind Blake's array of works really opened my eyes as to how difficult and involved it was to get any sort of drawing published during his time. With today's innovations and the internet, you can publish your own piece while sitting at home and clicking a mouse. In comparison, Relief etching, or illuminated printing as it was called required a sheet of metal and strong acid to cut through it and engrave the detail of the picture. And to think that William Blake invented the process. Tribute to this process can even be seen around Cal Poly's campus in the form of painted murals on classroom doors. As for research, I enjoyed the group's insight into the poor chimney sweep boy, Tom Dacre. Not only is "Songs of Innocence" a poem about the troubles of young boys and the questionable ethics of working these kids at such a young age with such grueling work, but the group noted that it aims to depict a much larger issue, and that Tom Dacre represents all neglected children in society. But most exciting of all was the re-writing of Mary Poppins chimney sweep song. Certainly Mary Poppins' version is not even a mildly similar enactment of the attitude of chimney sweeps during that time, and to hear a more realistic version set to the same cheery tune, gave me eerie chills down my spine. Great presentation.

Group 30

Group #30 had the best presentation in my opinion.  They related Blake's Marriage of Heaven and Hell poems to the Book of Proverbs in the Old Testament of the Bible and also to "Proverbs of Cal Poly."  This group interpreted William Blake's writing the best.  Almost every slide in their presentation was connected to at least one verse from the text.  The Proverbs of Hell are Blake's version of a satire on the actual book of Proverbs from the bible.  They did a great job of briefly interpreting Blake's writing then comparing it to the words from the bible.  It was interesting to see how the verses literally meant the opposite of one another.  My favorite part of the presentation was the group's parody of Blake's satire.  They made up Proverbs of Poly which, based off the language used by Blake, depicted the average social and academic lives at Cal Poly.  The connections made to Poly were surprisingly very similar to Blake's verses.  Although this group did not spend much time talking, their points were reflected to the class clearly and in interesting ways.  The class remained engaged in the presentation which helped me to comprehend their words.  Verses from the Proverbs of Hell, Proverbs from the Old Testament, and Proverbs of Poly were lined up next to each other neatly to help the audience understand the material.  This group was very organized and successfully expressed their ideas to the class.

I really enjoyed all of the presentations give in class today however my favorite by far was the final presentation given by group 30. I was especially impressed with it because there were only two people working on it. The group took William Blake’s, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and put a twist on it to be Marriage of Studying and Social Life. They came up with humorous and creative proverbs of their own in order to present the material and entertain the class. They were called Poly proverbs. I’ve never heard that class laugh so hard, and applaud with such enthusiasm. The class appreciated this presentation especially because most could at least relate to one or more of the Poly proverbs presented. It was the perfect way to end the class period and the quarter.

While other groups showed great strengths in thoroughness and detail of their analysis of Blake’s works, my favorite group presentation would have to have been Group #30. I thought it was necessary and very beneficial to providing background to Blake’s work by including his biography. In doing so, it allowed for me to gain a little insight on his works. While the group only had two members that presented, I felt that their presentation didn’t lack at all. My favorite part would have to have been when they had cleverly made proverbs of their own called “Proverbs of Poly” as a spoof of Blake’s proverbs which spoofed the Bible’s proverbs. This was an ingenious idea that allowed for the whole class to relate as well as laugh about. My favorite proverb they had come up with was “A locked door is a barrier to sight, not sound”, I thought that their delivery of this quote alongside a picture was stark enough to draw a large amount of laughter from the class as most of us Poly students could have at one time related to this instance. As clever as their witty proverbs were, they were also very thorough in their analysis going so far as to delve in on Blake’s criticism on religion by writing “Proverbs of Hell”.

I felt that all of the presentations from May 31^st were very well done and filled with humor.  I really enjoyed the presentations from groups 28 and 30.  I really enjoyed the way group 28 brought the ideas of innocence and experience from the works of William Blake into some of the movies that we all watched in our childhood, but I am going to focus on the presentation from group 30.  The first reason I liked this presentation was because this group had the disadvantage of only having two members but they were still able to complete the ten-minute presentation very successfully.  Another reason I really enjoyed this presentation was because of how the group reworded the proverbs from William Blake into their own proverbs for Cal Poly students.  I thought this idea was extremely creative and humorous.  One of the proverbs this group created that I was very entertained by was “the engineer never asks the business major for help with calc, nor the business major, the engineer, how to make friends.”  Being an engineer myself and having a roommate who is a business major I have seen this proverb in full effect during my time at Cal Poly.  I also thought it was clever when the group did not change the words of Blake’s proverb “You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough” but used it in a manner most college students can relate to, drinking too much alcohol.  Overall, this group did a very good job of presenting the proverbs of Blake along with adding humor with their own proverbs for Cal Poly students.

 The two group presentations that I enjoyed the most was group 30 and group 29. I couldn’t decide between the two of them. Group 30 was wildly entertaining and comical. I felt that they put a great amount of time into writing their script, and developing their powerpoint. All of the comparisons they made about college life were so accurate and hilarious they could only have been written by college students. And considering they only had two members in their group, they did a great job of handling the load between themselves. In fact, I think it worked out for the better since one person could start the comparison, and they other could finish it. This seemed to work quite well.

Group 30... I had to give group 30 mad props for that original song. I was blown away. I was sort of half in and half out of paying attention up until the singing started. I was immediately jolted into being engaged in the project. I thought that it took a huge amount of courage to do what he did, especially considering that this wasn’t required and they could have done a million other things besides singing a song. I think that it was successful in that the lyrics were very well written and timed nicely with the instrumentals. Overall I enjoyed all of the presentations today and felt that they all should be proud of what they produced. Group 29 and 30 were just the ones that stood out to me at the end of the day.

My favorite group was Group 30 "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell".  I thought they did a tremendous job despite the fact that they only had two members in their group.  Their proverbs were witty and creative and they did a great job of bringing the ideologies of William Blake into our era.  Also, I thought that their quick biography of William Blake was very appropriate and they were able to segue nicely from the biography into the proverbs.  Group 30 used humour and comedy to get their point across, and I believe that their methodology was very effective.  I noticed the class was restless during the first half of the presentation, but once Group 30 hit their stride, the class was engaged and laughing at every hilarious modernized proverb.  Overall, I thought they did a marvelous job.  A great way to end the class on a high note.

Of all of the groups, 30 was the most memorable for me because of how well they related the information to Cal Poly. Despite having only two group members, they provided a presentation that was original and quite comedic. The proverbs of Poly were excellent; it reminded me of how much there is to truly learn from college outside the academics. So many people are finding their way in college and it is truly the great transition into adulthood and being responsible for your own self. When you think about college as the last step of the transition it is crazy to see what people do with their selves. There are a great many mistakes and irresponsible decisions made in college and I think everyone is just trying to learn those proverbs. Another part that I really enjoyed was the proverb about getting classes and being able to graduate in four years. Less and less of my friends tell me that they will be able to get their degree in four years. Although part of this might be because of not being able to get classes, I think that a greater reason is just the amount of classes required to be completed by four years. It may very soon become that a four year degree is a thing of the past and five years or more of schooling is required for your bachelor’s degree. Group thirty was an excellent presentation and a great way to end the class.

My favorite presentation from today was Group 30's presentation on Blake's proverbs. The presentation was modern, entertaining and incorporated the presenters' interpretations well. More so, Blake's text, from which the presentation was based, was adequately illuminated and helped me to better understand that poem in particular as a result. I enjoyed the comparison that was made between Blake's proverbs and Proverbs from the Old Testament in the Bible. I thought that the quotes taken from Blake's text, along with those taken from the Proverbs chapter in the Bible, were chosen well and adequately supported the presenters' argument that Blake's writing opposes what is stated in the Bible in regards to Heaven and Hell. I thought this was interesting considering Blake, though he disagreed with organized religion, was a religious man who believed in God and what was written in the Bible, which the presenters also touched on. The interpretations provided by the presenters of some of Blake's other proverbs were very clever, and their modern take on these aphorisms not only provided an explanation of Blake's writing that was relatable to the audience but portrayed college life at Cal Poly in a fun, humorous way as well. I especially liked the comments made about Metro and VG's and the quip about locked doors at the very end. That is so true! Overall, I thought it was a great presentation, especially with only two people to put it together, because it was an equally entertaining and informative analysis of this text by Blake.

After seeing all four of the presentations on Thursday I think everyone did great but one group stood out the most and that was group 30. This was the group that wrote their own lines to the marriage of heaven and hell. I enjoyed this presentation because the provided comedic inferences to the William Blake poem and also were able to engage the audience. The presentation was not only engaging but informative and creative as well. If I had never read the poem I could have understood the gist after watching group 30 presentation. Overall it was well planned out and interesting. The clever references back to the poem allowed them to be funny without loosing the idea they were trying to convey. I found it particularly funny during the portion of the presentation when they created their own lines and called them the proverbs of poly that was pretty hilarious.I enjoyed the way the group was able to incorporate all of its members with out making it feel like one person was controlling the who presentation. Although other groups tried to do this group 30 did it best. There were many things I enjoyed about the presentation but my main reason for choosing group 30 is that they hit all of the key points from the poem that needed to be mentioned where other groups could have used more clever way of portraying Blake’s message. All this said the group presentations were all great but if it came down to a vote for the best one I would choose group 30.