Oliver+Duggan

**__50 Word Story__ ** As I sit on my rocking chair, I look at my surroundings. Old paint, slowly coiling away from my surrounding walls. All within my room is thick with dust. Just like this room, thoughts of my past lay dusty and hazy but thoughts of my family grant tranquility in my condition.

__**12 Word Story**__ Intrigue, excitement, lust, determination, pride, love and peace. From birth to death. 

__**NAPLAN Revision**__

__The Keeper’s Log__ 1st December 2009

The Curator Australian Maritime Museum, Sydney

Dear Sir I enclose the remains of a ‘Keeper’s Log’ document dated 1895, discovered during this year’s restoration of the lighthouse on South Solitary Island. The log has been verified as the records of one of the earliest keepers of the lamp, James Harlan, who tragically died maintaining his duties to the Government during the Great Storm of 1895. We have been advised that this piece of history should be placed in your care for preservation. Sincerely Walter Mitchell NSW Tourism Board

Monday, 3rd August 1895 Today I am very weary of body, and slightly bored of mind, after another long day of menial tasks. Fine weather has allowed the repainting of the lighthouse to begin in earnest, and anticipate it’s completion within the week. The kerosene light stores, coal, and domestic rations are at very low levels, but I have received word that the steamer has now left Sydney Cove port and should be anchoring here tomorrow with the fortnightly supplies. The lamp rotation’s clock mechanisms are wound, the wicks and kerosene are now prepared for this evening’s lamp. The weather is fine with the low winds, but there appears to be signs of a possible storm on the distant horizon to the northeast. It is in these quiet moments that I reflect on how deeply I miss my patient and lovely wife, Lillian, and my young children, Peter and Beth. Six months have passed since my last shore leave to the mainland. While I live a chosen keeper’s path of solitude, as my father before me, I can’t help but use these long hours to imagine the busy lives of people filled with laughter, family and friends. Darkness is falling and so I must attend to my duties.

Tuesday, 4th August, 1895 A brutal storm has hit the island and mainland coast throughout the night and is the most devastating in it’s nature in my living memory. The gale winds are ferocious and continue to gather in force. My exhausted body begs for rest, but I keep vigil on the lamp and bell to signal all poor souls off our coast. The Keeper’s Quarters have been lost to the sea along with all food, water, and coal for heating. I continue to push these facts from my mind as despair will not be of any aid now. The Lighthouse and I now stand together against the storm. I will need to keep my wits about me, and rely on my father’s teachings from so many years ago.

I make haste in writing this log, as I fear that if I do not return to the lamp many lives will be in peril.

Wednesday, 5th August, 1895 The storm continues and is merciless and cruel. I know that I will not see rescue for myself and surprisingly do not fear my impending death. My only regret is that I leave behind a young widow and children. My heart aches to know I won’t see them grow. I will place these pages in the safety of the inner walls and return to sound the warning bell until my final breath.

James Harlan Keeper

__**Original Poem**__ Disgust

A white wave of exclusivity, Rolls across the dry land. Immense ferocity, In the palm of a white hand. - Superb verse!

A heavy burden of guilt Sucks my body dry. My expression doesn’t tilt, - 'tilt' does not work But on the inside, I cry.

Although my feelings aren’t of recognition For those that I am referring, This is my true position, For that I am deserving. - Rework this verse. The forced rhyme is not working. You could keep the first verse as a refrain and then lose the rhyme for the rest. 7/10

__**The Depths of the Mariana Trench**__ Although the passengers on board the K-46 were filled with the overwhelming feeling of excitement and complete euphoria as they descended further and further down the Mariana Trench, the submarine was perfectly silent. The only movement from within the cabin was from the depth and pressure gauges as they frantically jolted about from side to side. The silence was replaced with the loud gasps of the crew members as they fixated on what lay before them. (Superb suspenseful opening!)

As they began their rapid climb towards the surface, they noticed that the beast was beginning to marginalise the distance between it and the submarine. “Get me the marine biologist from C cabin now!” said Captain Yates, “Yes sir!” replied the crew member. He had returned in a matter of seconds with a man dressed in white, with rimless glasses and a worried expression on his face, walking closely behind. “It is not my intention to put you a in a position of extreme pressure, but what is your recommendation as to what we should do at the moment, Professor?” “I have thought about this carefully from the moment we got into this mess and I have realised that this animal would not catch its prey by using its sense of sight, but its ability to feel the vibrations within the water that are created by another animal. To put it simply… you must stop if you want IT to stop.” The captain took one look at the professor before he pulled back on the throttle and closed his eyes. (New line for direct speech when a new person speaks. I really want to read more!!! 8/10)

__**An Awkward Introduction**__ “Sarah, Sarah Porter,” the girl said cheerfully as she held out her hand. Although he intended to respond to her well-mannered greeting, he was overwhelmed with the feeling of sheer astonishment as he peered into her deep, blue eyes. She was the most exquisite individual he h ad ever had the honour of setting his eyes upon. Her face could have been mistaken for a work of immense artistic prowess.

He was completely struck with a sense of attraction and nervousness. He knew better than anyone that his ability to communicate with the opposite sex, especially one of such beauty, was not, in any way impressive or skillful. His immediate reaction was an excessive self-consciousness of his body and how he was to act. A feeling that he was all too familiar with.

As delicate and gentle as she was, her attire was a completely different story. She wore tight fitting jeans, blac k sneakers, a bright red T-shirt and a white hair band forcing her hair to splay out at the back of her head. As difficult as it was, he tried desperately hard not to pay too much attention to certain parts of her body, as he was worried that this might be seen as disrespectful or offensive.

He was in such a state that he didn’t notice the smile that was beginning to spread across her face. “Do you have a name?” she said with an attempt to restrain from laughing. “Oh sorry. Ugh, James Harris,” he said whilst extending his hand to meet hers. “Well then, nice to meet you James,” she smiled. James began to grow red in the cheeks and, soon enough, his whole face was ablaze with a redne ss that could be seen a mile away. (Not keen on the openign metaphor regarding her faec - needs work. However, what fo llows is authentic and well described. 8/10)

Genre Questions · Evidently, there is always variance in the conventions that are found in the science fiction genre based upon the fact that there are many different sub-genres of science fiction that intend upon creating different atmospheres, themes, feelings etc. This being said, it can be seen in the novel //Ender’s Game//, that there is an incorporation of many different textual attributes that make this a science fiction novel. Firstly, the use of space as a setting is an obvious theme that can be found in many science fiction stories, including //Ender’s Game//. The story encapsulates your imagination with abstract ideas that you, as a logical thinker, know to be retrospective to reality.

Another convention that is utelised throughout the novel is the ‘hero’ convention. Although Ender is not big, strong, physical mature and brave necessarily, his mind acts as if it were something similar. His observational skills coupled with his brilliant thinking make him just as powerful, if not more than, the ‘hero’ often seen in this type of genre.

Orson Scott Card challenges many of the conventional features and ideas of the science fiction genre. For instance, his description of Ender is not as an impossibly strong or powerful hero that is seen many times across the science fiction genre. He is more intelligent and observational than most. He compensates for not being the usual type of hero with the use of his brain. Another way that he does so is by addressing the feelings that Ender experiences and the thoughts that go through his head, in such detail.

“Feel sorry for yourself, Ender. He typed the words on his desk as he lay on his bunk. POOR ENDER. Then he laughed at himself and cleared away the words. Not a boy or girl in the school who wouldn’t want to trade places with me.”

Card also challenges the conventions of the science fiction genre by creating such an abstract story (even for science fiction stories). He uses a six-year-old boy as a protagonist who encounters difficult, mature issues, in an obscure world, with the weight of the world on his shoulders. This may be a risky undertaking as a writer, but I believe that it wasn’t a good idea. He captures the setting as being futuristic and otherworldly but with normal humans nonetheless. If this young boy is expected to kill and change the world in a positive way purposefully, I am lost and lack understanding of the novel.

The setting of Ender’s Game is futuristic and very different from our own. It explores the ideas and themes that we, today, picture as being present in the future. Ender’s environment, which he seems to be mostly in, is the Battle School. This school is set in space away from civilisation. In my mind, I imagine the school looking like something of a space station.

The environment that Ender is in reflects on what we feel in an unfamiliar place. His feelings are described near the beginning of the novel when he thinks of his family as he is launched up in a rocket. (Incomplete - excelletn so far 7/10)