Reading/Discussion Questions for Morris' Liar, Liar Pants on Fire (753)
PART I: Define the following
words as they are used in the essay (in other words, make sure the definition
matches its use in the sentence).
1. inherently
2. preternaturally
3. context
4. inadvertently
5. objective
PART II: Answer TWO of
following questions in a short paragraph (at least a few sentences). Do not simply respond with a "yes" or
"no" response. I am less
interested in what you think than why you think it. Try to use support from the essay--show us where
your ideas about the essay come from.
In other words, why is this your answer?
1. Why, according to
Morris, can you never apply the words “true” or “false” to an image? Explain
this using one of the images in the essay.
2. Morris writes in this
essay that “there is nothing so obvious that it’s obvious.” What does
he mean by this? What isn’t “obvious” in a picture—and why don’t we
see it (or worse, think we see it)?
3. What role does
historical context play in what we see and how we understand it? Can we see
anything without context according to Morris?
4. Explain how the three
images on page 757-759 relate to one another, even though they seem to have
nothing in common. Why would this relationship be obvious to a reader
of 1915?
1. inherently- infixed
ReplyDelete2. preternaturally- out of the ordinary
3. context- the parts of a written or spoken statement
4. inadvertently- unintentional
5. objective-of or pertaining to something that can be known, or to something that is an object or a part of an object; existing independent of thought or an observer as part of reality.
1. According to Morris “true” or “false” cannot apply to an image because the image has no answers themselves. Take the image of the Lusitania for example, without its caption giving the boat its name; I just thought it was an image of a old boat. A person could not ask, “True or false, is this boat the Lusitania?” or “True or false did 20 Americans die on this boat when it sank.” I would not b able to answer that with out the aid of a caption at the bottom of the photograph. Being so, the true and false would apply to the caption not the actual picture itself because, (as Morris said) this could very well be a picture of an entirely different ship.
4. All of the pictures have the sinking of The Lusitania in common as well as the loss of American lives. The picture of the woman with the little baby drowning was a poster made by Fred Spears, to help motivate men to enroll in the army to help fight in WWI. While the photograph of the coffins was for the funeral of the 60 Americans that, was found, had lost their lives during the horrific event. In the final photo, there is a pocket watch that stopped after the first thirty minutes of the horrible down fall of The Lusitania.
Great responses--and good use of the text to support your answers. As you say, without context the picture is just a picture; the context is what makes it true or false. We'll talk more about this on Tuesday!
DeleteJordan Nickell
ReplyDelete1.Inherently- existing in someone or something as a permanent and inseparable element
2.Preternaturally- not ordinary
3.Context- parts of a statement that precede or follow a word or passage usually influencing its meaning.
4.Inadvertently- unintentional
5.Objective- part of an object or an existing thought or observer as a part of reality
1.An image cannot be true or false because we don’t know everything about that image. We could only assume or hypothesize what we think it means. Most of the time we are wrong also. For instance on page 758, there is an image of a large crowd standing around a massive open grave. If it didn’t have a caption I wouldn’t have any clue what it was or why they were gathered around the grave.
2.The pictures all pertain to the sinking of the passenger ship Lusitania. The people of that era knew the sadness and anger wrapped in with that image. They felt the emotion every time they viewed the images and they helped call them to action for enlisting in the army.
Good responses: a T/F statement is based on context rather than an image. However, an image is often used to make a T/F statement, especially when emotion is behind it. We'll talk more about this on Tuesday.
DeleteFaith Armstrong
ReplyDeleteInherently – belonging by nature or habit
Preternaturally – exceeding what is natural or regular
Context – the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood and assessed
Inadvertently – without intention
Objective – not influenced by personal feeling or opinions in considering and representing facts
3. Historical context plays a huge role in what we see and how we understand it. Whenever we don’t know the historical context, like the example that Morris gave, we can’t see anything, but a picture. If we only see a picture that we don’t know any context about, how can we understand it? We don’t necessarily know that there is something we are supposed to be understanding. In the book, Morris gave the example with the Lusitania. We saw the picture on the first page, but it just looked like a ship to me. After he explained the history of the ship, and what was going on in the world at that time, it gave me a whole new perspective on the picture. I started to ask myself questions about the picture. I understood the picture. According to Morris, we cannot see anything without context according to Morris.
4. The three images would seem to have nothing in common if we didn’t know the historical context. As I stated above, they would only be pictures with no meaning without the historical context. Morris gave the background of the Lusitania, and then we saw the next two images. As a result of one thing, another thing happened. The next two images show effects. If we had not entered WWI, then there would be no need for the Enlist poster. If the German torpedo would not have hit the Lusitania, then there would be no need for the newspaper article. All three of these images are connected. This connection would be obvious to a reader of 1915 because they were alive at the time, and they knew what was going on at that time. They would see the cause and effect factor involved. It’s just the same as 9/11 to us. When we hear about certain things or read certain articles we know how they are all connected.
Excellent responses--very thoughtful and detailed. I can see you 'thinking' and understand why you see the pictures as simply pictures without context. The context makes us see a T/F image, and possibly, an incentive to go to war. We'll talk more about this on Tuesday.
DeleteHayden Blakemore
ReplyDelete1. Inherent- Existing in someone as an inseparable quality.
2. Preternatural-Out of the ordinary course of nature.
3. Context- The set of circumstances that surround a particular event.
4. Inherently- Without intention.
5. Objective- An object aimed at or sought to, also referred to as a goal.
1. The reason you cannot use “true” or ‘”false” to apply to an image is because they do not always provide enough information to give a definite answer to the question asked. Given the photo of the ship on page 755, we have no clue what it is or if it’s still around today or if it even held a worldly known story behind it. It’s only when a caption provided underneath the image that we find out that the Lusitania is the ship in the photo and that it also had a very grave and tragic story about it. Therefore, no you cannot ask whether a photo is “true” or “false”, even with the caption and back story of it.
2. The role that historical context plays in what we see and how we understand it is that it gives us enlightenment to a subject that we thought was something that it was not. Referring back to the photo on page 755, if all we had to go on was the photo, then most of our generation would say the Titanic. This is easily mistaken because we were never taught very much about the Lusitania, if any at all. Its only after we are told and shown that this photo is indeed the Lusitania that we start to understand and know we were wrong. Without the context, according to Morris, then the photo is neither true nor false, but only what we make it to be.
Great responses--without context, a boat is simply a boat, or perhaps the WRONG boat. Good details from the text as well. We'll talk about this more on Tuesday.
DeleteHayden Blakemore
ReplyDeleteInstead of 2 that's supposed to be 3. Miss read it, sorry.
Inherently – The way Morris uses this word is to solidify the “foreignness” of the people in the photographs. Inherently means to add an inseparable quality, element, or attribute to something or someone.
ReplyDeletePreternaturally – the way this word is used in the essay, as “…a photograph preternaturally unfamiliar.” suggests that they were so different as to almost be of alien in content.
Context – here this word almost seems to mean a description, or a clue. As if the context would be the background of the picture.
Inadvertently – this word almost always means “by mistake” or “accidentally” just as it does here.
Objective – I believe the way he uses this word in towards the end of the essay has the definition leaning towards “solid” or “single”.
Q.2 – When Morris says “there is nothing so obvious that it’s obvious,” This means that no matter how simple something may seem, we should not just assume we know the answer. This being because many things in this world have a much deeper meaning that what we can see by just glancing at it.
The truth, or more importantly, the story behind the truth, is not completely obvious when we first see it. This can be from a number of reasons, ranging from other pictures we may relate to this one and get the two confused, or a story we heard about the object that the picture is about that may not hold all the facts.
Q.4 – All three images have to do with the sinking of the Lusitania. The woman and child, both victims found at dead at sea after the attack. The mass grave marking up huge publicity for the war efforts of the media as they buried all those who did not make it back alive, and the news article about the last thirty minutes of the Lusitania. Furthermore if a random person was just shown these pictures without reading about them, the images would fade from memory in seconds, which emphasizes the need for captioning, just as Morris said.
These images would have been easily recognizable by someone in 1915 for all three were largely known and the whole incident was a large push that helped the U.S.A enter the war.
Great responses--very sound and intelligent!
DeleteJenna Rose Demastus
ReplyDelete1. inherently- The way this word is used makes me think of something permanently unknown.
2. preternaturally- The way this word is used makes me think of something crazy out of what is usual.
3. context- The way this word is used leads me to believe that it means the background or meaning of the picture.
4. inadvertently- This word means without intention or on accident.
5. objective- This word means not influenced by personal beliefs or ideas .
Q1. The words "true" or "false" cannot be used to describe a picture alone due to the lack of context. Everyone looks at a photograph and gets personal meaning from it, few of which could be what the true meaning is. Looking at the photograph of the women and child on page 757 I begin to think of enlisting to help out the poor. Captions are what give us the background to decipher whether the photo is factual and even then captions can be falsified.
Q4. The photos on pages 757-759 all relate to the Lusitania sinking.The photo on page 757 was influenced by the finding of a woman holding her baby dead at sea after the Lusitania went under. On page 758 we see a photo of a grave filled to the brim with coffins these coffins belong to the victims of the attack. Lastly on page 759 we see an article that is talking about the last thirty minutes of the Lusitania. To modern day folks this photos without captions would be just photos unimportant and insignificant. For the people that lived in 1915 these would be a well known heart breaking reminder of what was going on at sea.
Great responses! As you suggest, pictures are merely art, and we all respond to art differently. Captions provide context, and make us think we're seeing only one thing--though even that thing could be 'false' (as you point out).
Delete
ReplyDelete1. inherently - existing in someone or something as a permanent and inseparable element, quality, or attribute
2. preternaturally -out of the ordinary course of nature; exceptional or abnormal
3. context -the set of circumstances or facts that surround a particular event, situation, etc.
4. inadvertently - unintentional
5. objective - not influenced by personal feelings, interpretations, or prejudice; based on facts; unbiased
1. According to Morris one can never say that an image alone is true or false because an image has no context. The picture of the ship without context is not true or false because we do not know what to say is true or false until someone gives it some context. once Morris put the context about the Lusitania in with the image we are able to say if we think it is true or false.
3. historical context plays a big role in how a person understand an image because it give insight about the image and its origins. It is like Morris said we cannot truly see anything without context. It is not humanly possible because we give an image context in our minds. Everything we see has context.
Great responses! As you suggest, everything we see has context, since we provide context to a contextless picture. However, when context is added, it limits what we see, and pushes us toward a more true/false reading.
Deleteinherently-Unknown, unable to be defined further.
ReplyDeletePreternaturally- Unnatural, different
Context- the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood and assessed
Inadvertently- Unintentional, on accident.
Objective- Main mission, or goal of a person, or team of people.
Q1 There are so many questions that can be asked about a single painting but the thing is, none of them can be true or false without having any context to use. Our whole lives in English class we've been told to look at context clues to figure out the meaning. Well if you have no context to go from you can not figure it out. You can not simply answer the painting, you can only answer questions about the painting.
Q2 In my opinion, Morris is saying that what is obvious to some is not obvious to others. For instance, the artist paints a picture based on their emotion. Even though we might see what they felt, we don't see exactly HOW they felt.
Good responses--but try to use the essay to help explore/explain these answers. In a way, you could answer these questions without reading the essay, but I want you to answer them specifically based on the essay.
DeleteSavannah Lincoln
ReplyDeleteInherently- existing in someone as a permanent and inseparable element, quality, or attribute.
Preternaturally- exceptional or abnormal.
Context- the set of circumstances or facts that surround a particular event, situation, etc.
Inadvertently- unintentional.
Objective- not influenced by personal feelings, interpretations, or prejudice; unbiased.
Q1 Morris says a picture cannot be true or false because it has no context. The picture of the ship could be one of hundreds of ships from the past, we don't know which one until it is given the caption, "The Lusitania." Once it is given words, the caption, then we can ask whether or not the statement is true or false, but still the picture itself can't be determined as true or false.
Q4 When I first looked at the images, they looked to be separate but after reading about them, I realized they were all related to the sinking of the Lusitania. The drowning woman and her baby, the people who died from the ship, and the watch of a man who was on the ship before it sunk. It seems like propaganda to encourage WWI because it would enrage the people of 1915. I'm sure many emotions arose when they looked at the pictures, because those were their people, their loved ones.
Great responses! And yes, context can create propaganda--which, according to Morris, can quickly make a picture "false". We'll have to discuss this tomorrow.
DeleteAdria Abella Villafranca
ReplyDeletePART 1:
1)Existing as a natural and permanent quality of something or someone.
2) More than is usual or natural
3) The influences and events related to a particular event or situation.
4) Done or happening unintentionally
5) Not influenced by personal beliefs or feelings; fair or real
PART 2:
Why, according to Morris, can you never apply the words “true” or “false” to an image? Explain this using one of the images in the essay.
What I can interpret from the text it’s that the photographs doesn’t give us answers, the photographs only take the pictures. We are who change or introduce different subjective ideas. The answer about “true and false” only can be answered by an additional investigation. If we look the last picture, we can’t know if the picture is “true or false” we only know that in the picture appears one ship with similar characteristics with the description of “The Lusitania”.
Explain how the three images on page 757-759 relate to one another, even though they seem to have nothing in common. Why would this relationship be obvious to a reader of 1915?
The three pictures are related only by the history of the ship. The context of these pictures is the way by they are related. Without this context these pictures haven’t got any in common. This relationship was obvious to a reader of 1915 because this reader knows that one ship called Lusitana was sunk. By this context, one reader of 1915 knew that in the Lusitana were a lot of womans and children and lived all the tragedies. The reader of 1915 understood and knew about the three pictures because he/she was incited to go to the war.
Great responses: true false questions can only be answered by context, but context can also make the picture "lie" to us. It gets tricky to ever say if we really know what we're looking at in a photo!
DeleteMacy Ellis
ReplyDeleteInherently – existing naturally and permanent quality of something
Preternaturally – exceeding what is natural or regular
Context – the circumstances that form the setting for an event, or situation
Inadvertently – without intention
Objective – not influenced by personal feeling or opinions in considering and representing facts
3. Historical context is a very important part of understanding some literature, especially when it comes to Morris' stories. He only provided us with a picture. An image and expected us to understand the background. Morris gave the example with the Lusitania. I saw a picture, but all I saw was an image of what appeared to be a ship. After the history was explained, and what was going on meanwhile in the world, it was coming together easier and starting to make sense. The thing Morris wanted us to take away from the images was that we cannot see anything without context.
4. Images in a book would have gotten me nowhere. No footnotes, no context, not anything but three images I had to decipher through and see what made any sense. The first background was of the Lusitania, and then we saw the next two images. As a result of one thing(cause), then another thing occurred(effect). All three of these images are connected. This connection would be obvious to a reader of 1915 because they were aware of what was happening, and they were made to be apart of the war.
Great responses: we can't see anything without context, since we always supply context (even when none in provided). The question comes when context tells us what to see and tries to make a picture "true"--which in some cases can actually make it "lie." We'll talk more on this tomorrow!
DeleteHannah Sigman
ReplyDeleteInherently means mysterious.
Context by this definition means know what something says without saying it.
Preternaturally means existing out of nature.
Inadvertently means by accident.
Objective means reality.
1. We never apply the words true or false because we never know what is actually happening in the picture. For example the picture of the boat is just a boat without its title. We can name it many other things because in the picture it is just one boat, no names, and no special details.
4. The three images are all alike because they are all from the same time period. In 1915 the picture would mean a lot to the people of that time because it was the big news. It would bring sadness and heart break to everyone it affected.
Good responses--though some of your definitions are a little off. Make sure to actually look them up and don't just rely on guesses. Inherently, context, and objective are not quite right, and this might affect how your read/misread the essay.
DeleteHunter Robinson
ReplyDelete1. Inherently- A trait you can't take away.
2.Preternaturally- unnatural
3.context- the meaning behind the words
4.Inadvertently-unintentional
5.Objective- unbiased
1. you can never apply true or false to the picture itself because the picture isn't stating anything. The picture isn't asking any questions or saying what it is or not its just there. if there were a statement with it that would probably make it true or false but a picture is just there doing its own thing.
2. no matter how simple we think things are or how easy it looks its never that easy. our brain just gets fooled easily and we see a lot of obstacles and objects as obvious or easy but they aren't so never assumed something is too obvious because it will bite you in the butt.
Good ideas, but try to use the essay to help support your answers. Remember, I want to see how you can think about/interpret the essay instead of just answer the question. The more work you do on the questions, the easier it will be to write the essays that follow.
DeleteJamison Elston
ReplyDeleteInherently: a quality about someone
Preternaturally: something out of the ordinary.
Context: The meaning behind something
Inadvertently: by mistake.
Objective: a goal
1. You can never apply the words "true" or "false" to an image because pictures do not have the qualities that can make them true or false. A picture is just a picture. You can disagree with a meaning behind an image, but that doesn't make it false.
2. We tend to overlook things that are so obvious that they are right in front of our face. An example of this would be any old picture. When we're trying to read a picture and figure out what it means, we won't realize the obvious clue that the picture is in black and white.
Good ideas, but try to use the essay to help support your answers. Remember, I want to see how you can think about/interpret the essay instead of just answer the question. The more work you do on the questions, the easier it will be to write the essays that follow.
DeleteAmber Simpson
ReplyDeleteI am aware this submission is a day late, but just in case you give late points, I did it anyway. I apologize and it won't happen again.
Inherently – existing in someone or something as a permanent and inseparable element, quality, or attribute.
Preternaturally – out of the ordinary course of nature.
Context – the parts of a written or spoken statement that precede or follow a specific word or passage, usually influencing its meaning or effect.
Inadvertently – unintentional.
Objective – a goal.
Q1.) An image cannot be referred to as true or false because the picture does not hold a question. As Morris stated: “True or false in regard to what?” A picture can have a false caption or have something photo-shopped to it to where the picture isn’t at its true state anymore. If there is no question that is being asked about the picture, the picture cannot be considered true or false.
Q2.) When Morris stated, “there is nothing so obvious that it’s obvious,” he is stating if you look at a picture, and it is a picture of a big boat, it is obviously a ship. With that said, it is not obvious which ship that is. When I saw the picture, I thought it was the Titanic! Therefore, “there is nothing so obvious that it’s obvious.”
Remember, these responses are due by 5pm the day we discuss the essay (so on Tuesday in this case). I can't give you credit for this one, so be careful next time!
ReplyDelete