“A narrator should not supply interpretations of his work; otherwise he would have not written a novel, which is a

machine for generating interpretations.” ― Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose

"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad
attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth."
— Umberto Eco (Foucault's Pendulum)

“Interpretation is the revenge of the intellectual upon art. ”

― Susan Sontag

“All worthy work is open to interpretations the author did not intend. Art isn't your pet -- it's your kid. It grows up and
talks back to you.”
― Joss Whedon

"Between what is said and not meant, and what is meant and not said, most of love is lost."
— Kahlil Gibran

"I think that's what art is: art is communication made in the hope that interesting miscommunications will arise."
— Misha Glouberman

"Between two brains, there will always be misunderstandings and lies caused by parasitic smells, drafts and poor-quality
reception."
— Bernard Werber (Empire of the Ants (La Saga des Fourmis, #1))

"Well, it's really no use our talking in the way we have been doing if the words we use mean something different to each
of us...and nothing."
— Malcolm Bradbury (Eating People is Wrong)
In stories, newspapers, and the spoken word, people all over the world are trying to convince you to think as
they do. They are bombarding you with facts and figures, opinions and projections. It is up to you to create
order within this chaos and find the patterns that will help you to understand what is true, what could be true,
and what is outright false. In order to do all this, you need to have a firm grip on what is objective and what is
subjective.

Choose one of the following questions and answer in the form of a 3-5 paragraph essay. Include two or more
quotes and/or other examples/evidence. Please circle your selection before writing.

1. How has the internet/social media effected our perception of reality, for better or worse?
2. What is the purpose of art, if any, and should artists be allowed to express themselves freely, even if it
involves something illegal?
3. To what degree do you agree/disagree with the following statement?
“The biggest problem in this world is misunderstanding each other and being emotional when taking
action about it.”
4. Cognitive scientist Prof. Donald Hoffman argues that, “what we think of as the nature of our reality is simply our
subjective reality or our current interface. There’s a world of objective consciousness that lies underneath this
interface.” How do you interpret this statement?
5P Pop Parody Project (Plus Party?)

Musical parody involves changing or copying well known musical ideas and/or lyrics usually with the intention
of being funny. Another term for this is called a “spoof”. For this project you will form a mock musical group
and spoof a popular song of your choosing.

How to Spoof?

While the word choice, meaning and delivery of your parody should be entirely different than the original work,
there are some elements you should keep:

1. Syllable count/meter - a syllable is a unit of pronunciation having one vowel sound; for example, there
are two syllables in water and four in Hello Kitty. Poetic meter is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse
or line of verse.

Count the syllables in each line of this example from A Million Dreams:

‘Cause every night I lie in bed ( )

The brightest colors fill my head ( )
A million dreams are keeping me awake ( )
I think of what the world could be ( )
A vision of the one I see ( )
A million dreams is all it’s gonna take ( )
A million dreams for the world we’re gonna make ( )

Hopefully you can recognize certain patterns which repeat themselves. Essentially you want to count the
number of syllables in each line of the original song and match this syllabic/rhythmic structure.

2. Rhyme scheme – rhyme is essentially the correspondence of sound between words, especially the
endings of words, usually at the ends of lines in poetry and song. A work’s rhyme scheme is the overall
pattern of where different rhymes occur. Mark matching rhymes with letters A, B, C, etc.

‘Cause every night I lie in bed ( A )

The brightest colors fill my head ( A )
A million dreams are keeping me awake ( B )
I think of what the world could be ( )
A vision of the one I see ( )
A million dreams is all it’s gonna take ( )
A million dreams for the world we’re gonna make ( )

Note: your spoof should match the original’s rhyme scheme, but your words don’t have to rhyme with the
original (necessarily). Also note rhymes occurring in the middle of a lyric (i.e., My achy, breaky heart…)

3. Wordplay – important words and phrases such as the title of the song, chorus/hook, and even the artist’s
name are most expected by your audience. So try to replace these words with ones that sounds similar.
For example, Ariana Grande – Break Free, might become Affogato Grande – Breakfast.

A very useful resource you may use:

https://rhymezone.com/
This project is worth 20 points. 15 points are based on the following criteria:

Creativity – You are able to show English – You show an effort in Basic Requirements – You are
original thinking, making a funny using unique/clever words and able to follow directions, retaining
and interesting reworking of a phrases. Clearly challenging meter, rhyme, and some wordplay.
famous song. ( /5) yourself. ( /5) Due dates, materials, etc. ( /5)

An additional 5 points of Teamwork/Effort will be decided by your group members.

Name: ________________________________________

Band/group Name: __________________________________________________________________________

Parody Song Title: __________________________________________________________________________

Original Song Title: _________________________________________________________________________