Mallory O'Bier

@hope Hmm. Toughy. Well, success sounds like it might work. Another one I thought of is power. Then maybe your focusing question could be, what gives one the power for success. Ethaniel goes from thinking he has to make himself succeed to knowing his only success is through God’s power. The villain’s belief is that he finds the power to succeed…[Read more]

@aratrea

The theme is the one thing I’m not quite sure about. The idea is that man cannot succeed on his own. Man is finite and there is a limit to what he can do and know – as compared to God, who is infinite, and in Whom true success and final victory lies. Themes themselves are naturally broad, but I’m thinking I might be able to focus mine…[Read more]

I am playing the piano for our church service this Sunday. It’s not my first time, but I’ve only started in this role recently and I still get a little nervous. Also, this is communion Sunday, so it feels a bit of a bigger responsibility, and there’s more songs. Please just pray that I would have humility, reliance on God and that I would give any…[Read more]

@audrey-caylin, I got a 78. @bluejay and @sarah-h did you do it? If so, what did you get?

@leumeister, I’m definitely not an authority on sci-fi, So all I can say is that it looks pretty good to me. 🙂

@overcomer, praying for you guys!

@hope Good choice! There definitely are a number of themes in LotR (the lust for power is another central one), and that theme is certainly one of them.

@hope Those are great possible answers to the focusing question; I really like how many of those answers are pretty sympathetic answers that many people would choose, and not just obviously wrong answers like fame or power. That has the potential to make your theme a lot more compelling as readers can see themselves drifting to those wrong…[Read more]

@hope Great analogy! I like it. And I definitely agree with you on how great it is to find books with great themes. Nothing hooks me to a story as much as a strong theme does.

@hope That’s great. Haha, I can definitely sympathize with the struggle of moving a theme from the concept-level into the actual story! Keep that goal in mind while working through the course and I’d love to hear your thoughts on the other end of the course on how much the course helped you with that goal.

@anne-swiftblade That’s great! We’ll be…[Read more]

@kate-flournoy Plays are great! And that sounds like a great example of catharsis. I haven’t read those plays before, but I’ll need to put those on my reading list now…

@northerner Ah, I guess I didn’t catch that. Well, I caught the part about heaven and earth and philosophies, but nothing else.

@northerner Hmm. What’s that a parody of?

The subject matter is really horrendous (I’m a metaphor fanatic), but I’m interested to know if there was anything particularly witty about it.

@northerner hm, yes. :/ Unfortunately the comedies have a lot of that. Quite honestly I stopped reading the comedies once I got a quarter of the way through The Merry Wives of Windsor. Not worth it. The Taming of the Shrew and Much Ado About Nothing were good. Otherwise, pretty much senseless.

@northerner No. What’s it about?

@Northerner *is consoled* His histories are definitely my favorites. Most of his other work I really don’t care for. A few exceptions— The Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet, and Macbeth if only for the villain 😛 but the histories are most certainly wonderful. Probably doesn’t help that it’s my favorite period of history too.…[Read more]

@emma-flournoy Here’s the original.

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That f…[Read more]

@Emma-Flournoy it’s a passage from Hamlet with the key words replaced. 😉

@DAEUS! *groans* You ruined it! *sobs* And Hamlet isn’t even my favorite either. *oceans of tears*
*goes to console herself by reading Henry V for the eighteenth time*

(Hilarious, by the way. 😀 )

@aratrea

Story: Lord of the Rings

Theme: Hope and Perseverance

Focusing Question: Is there ever a time one is justified in giving up?

Message: One must fight and persevere through every darkness, doing what one can whether there is hope or not.

I have a feeling there is probably more themes in LotR, but those are the main ones that I think…[Read more]