On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

• Engels
• Upper Secondary (Key Stage 4)
• GCSE

Goals today 

Welcome back 

Writing a postcard 

Return EOYT - pointers 

Introduction On Earth... 

Take a postcard from the table

Write a postcard to your future self. Add your address. 

I will post it to you after your exams. 

Thank yourself for what you did to pass your exam. 

Be specific about the choices, actions and attitudes you had to be successful. 

Thank any other people who contributed to your success. 

Compelling questions 

(How) can the cycle of intergenerational trauma be broken?

Through the blurring of conventions how is the author’s message impacted?

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

• Primarily known in the USA as a poet. 
  
•  Born in 1988 in Vietnam to a half-Vietnamese/ half-American mother and a Vietnamese father.  
• His mother's mixed ancestry led to her flight from Vietnam in 1990 with Ocean and her own mother to the Philippines and finally to America. 

Concepts HL Lit 

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous 

Concepts to consider: trauma, identity (sexuality), language,    racism, memory

Conceptual relationships 

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous 

How does trauma impact memory?

What is the role of racism on identity?

What is the relationship between language and memory?

How are language and identity connected?  

Supporting 

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous 

• War
  
• The opioid crisis in USA
  
• Mourning
  
• the power of memory which remains when everything else is gone 
  
• Storytelling
  
• Beauty 
  

www.theguardian.com

www.newyorker.com

Goals today 

Ideas from your homework 

A poem by Ocean Vuong 

'Writing in spirals" 

Exploring an extract in light of our concepts 

Information about the Opioid crisis in the USA

Rikard

Coen

Elsje

Anna

Kate

Zoë

 

Andrea

Emilia 

Aamu 

 

Hugo 

Erik

Shamatmika

Ella 

Lena 

Mia 

Cleo 

Neysa 

Megan 

Dheeshitha

Alastrina 

Damien 

Robin

Kim 

DOOR

WINDOW

BOARD

Influences 

Vuong acknowledges two important factors in his upbringing: 

• Raised by women (abandoned by his father) 
  
• His family's illiteracy and, probable, dyslexia
  

 

" What I do know is that when you are telling stories it's very hard to hate each other." 

Homework for Monday 

Listen to the interview. Write in your exercise book: 

- three points that surprise you. 

- three points that you feel are linked to the concepts we've identified. 

- How are these points linked to the concepts?

Supporting 

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous 

War

The opioid crisis in USA

mourning

the power of memory which remains when everything else is gone 

Storytelling

beauty 

The fall of Saigon 1975 

Aubade = a poem or piece of music written about or influenced by the early morning. It usually describes the regret of two lovers at their imminent separation. 

source: Oxford dictionary 

Read and listen to the poem

www.poetryfoundation.org

"Aubade With Burning City"

The poem references the fall of Saigon in 1975 and "White Christmas" written by Irvine Berlin and sung by Bing Crosby. 

Notice how the poetic voice contends with the voice of the classic Christmas song. 

What poetic effect is achieved? 

Read and listen to the poem

Form in poetry 

In a 2013 interview with Edward J. Rathke, Vuong discussed the relationship between form and content in his work, noting that “Besides being a vehicle for the poem’s movement, I see form as … an extension of the poem’s content, a space where tensions can be investigated even further. The way the poem moves through space, its enjambment or end-stopped line breaks, its utterances and stutters, all work in tangent with the poem’s conceit.” Acknowledging the ever-increasing number of possible directions each new turn in a poem creates, Vuong continued, “I think the strongest poems allow themselves to collapse completely before even suggesting resurrection or closure, and a manipulation of form can add another dimension to that collapse.” 

Do we see this idea in the novel?

"Writing in Spiral" 

The poem references the fall of Saigon in 1975 and "White Christmas" written by Irving Berlin and sung by Bing Crosby. 

Notice how the poetic voice contends with the voice of the classic Christmas song. 

What poetic effect is achieved? 

Read and listen to the poem

Writing in 'spirals' 

• Opening sentence: "Let me begin again." 
  
• Why does the narrator have to 're-start' the story? 
  
• What is the format of the novel? 
  
• Letters/correspondence = epistolary form 
  
• However, there is only one letter in this novel and it will never be read by its intended recipient. 
  
• The letter formal allows the writer to recall intimate details in a non- chronological order, drop them, then cycle back to them. 
  
• Is repetition an effect of trauma? 
  

Read the extract 

On the left of your extract write down concepts, ideas, topics or a significant word from the text. 

On the right annotate for technique. What do you notice about the presentation of the ideas. What is the author's purpose in this extract? 

The 'oxtail' incident 

"No object is in a constant relationship with pleasure, wrote Barthes. For the writer, however, it is the mother tongue. But what if the mother tongue is stunted? What if that tongue is not only the symbol of a void, but is itself a void, what if the tongue is cut out? Can one take pleasure in loss without losing oneself entirely? The Vietnamese I own is the one you gave me, the one whose diction and syntax reach only the second-grade level. 

1. Research a little who Roland Barthes was and the focus of his work. 

2. How does this reflection follow the scene from the butcher's shop? 

Goals today 

Considering further development of the topic of language to express ideas

Closely analysing a longer extract to explore concepts and techniques used by the author 

Concepts HL Lit 

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous 

Concepts to consider: trauma, identity (sexuality), language,    racism, memory

The Individual Oral prompt 

"Examine the ways in which the global issue (GI) of your choice is presented through the context and form of one of the [literary] works an one of the [non-literary] bodies of work (BOWs) that you have studied" 

IBDP Guide for Language A: Language and Literature, 2019

What comparison or descriptive ideas links these extracts together? 

“Two languages cancel each other out, suggests Barthes, beckoning a third”, p.35-6​

“It has started to rain; the dirt around the woman’s bare feet is flecked with red-brown quotation marks—her body a thing spoken with”, p.36

“There is something running inside the woman, a beginning, or rather, a rearranging of syntax”, p.38.​

“she is standing on the life-sized period of her own sentence, alive”, p.43​

The motif of language is deepened and expanded by the use of punctuation, syntax and spoken language as a vehicle to convey emotional experience. 

How does this image relate to the reading you have done? 

Zoonotic diseases

non-linear plot construction, juxtapositions, flashbacks, flash forwards

Third chapter pgs 35 - 44

What do these juxtapositions achieve? Relate them back to the sentence that opens this sequence:​

“It is a beautiful country depending on where you look”, p.35

Read from "It's a beautiful country ..." to "the Year of the Monkey" 

1. How does the author use imagery and symbolism, such as the sky-blue shawl and the helicopter, to convey the themes of hope, oppression, and resilience in the text? 

2. Analyse the significance of the characters' names, particularly Lan's choice to rename herself "Lily" and the soldiers' anonymous identification through military tags. How do these names contribute to the exploration of identity and power? 

Concepts: Memory and language 

"In other words, macaques employ memory in order to survive.  

The men will eat until the animal is empty, the monkey slowing as they spoon, its limbs heavy and listless. When nothing’s left, when all of its memories dissolve into the men’s bloodstreams, the monkey dies. Another bottle will be opened.  

Who will be lost in the story we tell ourselves? Who will be lost in ourselves? A story, after all, is a kind of swallowing. To open a mouth, in speech, is to leave only the bones, which remain untold. It is a beautiful country because you are still breathing.

     Yoo Et Aye numbuh won. Hands up. Don’t shoot. Yoo Et Aye numbuh won. Hands up. No bang bang." 

How are the concepts languge and memory explored in this extract? What is the message (theme) about these concepts in this extract? 

Read from "It's a beautiful country ..." to "the Year of the Monkey" 

3.Look at this extract "If I say the woman... with human voices" Why and to what effect has Vuong employed metafiction at this moment in the chapter? 

4. Explore the recurring motif of alcohol consumption and its ritualistic nature throughout the text, from the men drinking vodka to the macaque being force-fed alcohol. How does this motif reflect broader topics of power, control, and escape? 

Read from "It's a beautiful country ..." to "the Year of the Monkey" 

4. Discuss the role of language and communication in the story, considering both verbal and non-verbal forms of expression. How does the inability to communicate effectively contribute to the characters' experiences of conflict and misunderstanding? 

5. Discuss the narrative structure of the text, which weaves together multiple perspectives and timelines. How does this non-linear storytelling enhance the reader's understanding of the interconnectedness of individual experiences within larger socio-political contexts? 

Goals today 

Exploring idea generation for the HLE

Using a technique to refine and bring focus to the HLE

Concepts HL Lit 

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous 

Concepts to consider: trauma, identity (sexuality), language,    racism, memory

Higher Level Essay brainstorm 

• First idea: The role of memory in the novel. 
• More detailed idea: How is the topic of memory, both personal and collective, explored by Vuong to explore the characters' developing understanding of themselves and their place in the world?

The next step would be to kill you darlings and decide where your focus is for an essay of max 1,500 words ( 3 pages single spaced and 6 pages double spaced).

Then start to populate, in a second circle, examples that would specifically support your argument. 

Mindmup.com

1. Go to mindmup.com and use the free option.
   
2. Make, for yourself, the central idea as focused as you can. 
   
3. Generate more than you need to be able to find focus for your essay. 
   

Example thesis statement

Vuong dramatically employs non-linear and disrupted plot construction to convey 

The opioid crisis USA 

Read the article for some context to the novel. 

Dopesick TV series 

 

Tiger Woods 

• Find references to Tiger Woods in the novel. 
  
• Why do you think that the author chose to use this allusion? 
  
• What characteristics could be connected to Tiger Woods?
  

His mother’s identity as a mixed-heritage American citizen – like Tiger Woods, “a direct product of the war in Vietnam”

Significant quotes connected to Tiger Woods