Jack London Studies
Current Topics(in order of appearance) - Why Jack London?, Reference Sites, A Physics CHALLENGE, A Literature CHALLENGE, JACK LONDON: ON WRITING.
Why Jack London? Unfortunately Jack London is remembered most often as "the guy who wrote dog stories." In fact, he did write wonderful adventure stories about dogs and the far north, stories well worth examination by students grade 5 - College. However, he also wrote sci fi, sailing, sports, and South Seas stories, and was an accomplished journalist and war correspondent. His writing generates the kind of excitement necessary to keep reluctant readers turning the pages, and provides an excellent vehicle for teaching reading/writing skills. - Cyber Jim Seeley
Reference Sites (clickNgo)
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/london/ (biography, documents, photographs, teacher advice and curricular materials, free, 5 - College).
www.jacklondonfdn.org (Jack London Writing Contest, grades 9-12, descriptive essays or stories, judged on content and form, with an emphasis on creativity; interesting London photographs, biography, books - publication dates; Jack London's Ranch Album; free).
http://london.centenary.edu/ (literary criticism, biographical information, pictures, bibliographies, free, 5 - College).
www.geocities.com/jacklondons/ (downloadable copies of Jack London's writings, free).
A Physics CHALLENGE - In The Sea Wolf, Humphrey and Maud must reset the masts on the Ghost, a large sailing ship, so they can return to civilization. How can they do it alone? "I remembered hazily the physics of my school days," thinks Humphrey. He solved the problem. Can you?
The challenge for teachers is to design class lessons or projects. Maybe have students help design the lessons. Please share them with the rest of us by sending the results as an email attachment to cyberjimseeley@juno.com, or fax them to: 1(646)383-2355, or send them regular mail to (address on home page). - Cyber Jim Seeley
For a clean student copy of Chapters 34 and 35, go to http://www.geocities.com/jacklondons/seawolf34.html and download. Good luck. - CJ
A Literature CHALLENGE - The short stories: "In a Far Country" by Jack London, "An Outpost of Progress" by Joseph Conrad, and "The Outstation" by Somerset Maugham, share a similar plot line, but each author treats it very differently. This is an interesting group of stories for a literature or writing class to examine. Download clean copies of "An Outpost of Progress" , "In a Far Country", and "The Outstation" here. The CHALLENGE is to create specific lessons or strategies for comparing and contrasting these three classics. Please share the results with us by attaching them to an email addressed to cyberjimseeley@juno.com, or send them regular mail (address on home page). - Cyber Jim Seeley
JACK LONDON: ON WRITING
* Don't quit your job in order to write unless there is none dependent upon you.
* Don't dash off a six-thousand word story before breakfast.
* Don't write too much. Concentrate your sweat on one story rather than dissipate it over a dozen.
* Don't loaf and invite inspiration: light out after it with a club, and if you don't get it you will nonetheless get something that looks remarkably like it.
* Set yourself a 'stint,' and see that you do that 'stint' every day.
* Study the tricks of the writers who have arrived. They have mastered the tools with which you are cutting your fingers.
* Keep a notebook. Travel with it, eat with it, sleep with it. Slap into it every stray thought that flutters up into your brain. Cheap paper is less perishable than gray matter, and lead pencil markings endure longer than memory.
* And work. Find out about this earth, this universe ...
- From "Getting into Print," article, 1903
* ... You wrote your story at white heat. Hell is kept warm by unpublished manuscripts written at white heat. Develop your locality. Get in your local color. Develop your characters. Make your characters real to your readers. Get out of yourself and into your readers' minds and know what impression your readers are getting from your written words. Always remember that you are not writing for yourself but that you are writing for your readers.
- Letter to Ethel Jennings, aspiring writer, 1915
* "I once thought, when I was a little more callow than I am now, that I should like, above all else, to be a professor of English literature ... now I do not care to be a professor at all. Life is so short. I would rather sing the one song than interpret the thousand."
- Letter to Charles Warren Stoddard, 6 December 1900.
|
