"Perhaps the most powerful way in which we conspire against ourselves is the simple fact that we have jobs. We are willingly part of a world designed for the convenience of what Shakespeare called “the visible God”: money. When I say we have jobs, I mean that we find in them our home, our sense of being grounded in the world, grounded in a vast social and economic order. It is a spectacularly complex, even breathtaking, order, and it has two enormous and related problems. First, it seems to be largely responsible for the destruction of the natural world. Second, it has the strong tendency to reduce the human beings inhabiting it to two functions, working and consuming. It tends to hollow us out. It creates a hole in our sense of ourselves and of this country, and it leaves us with few alternatives but to try to fill that hole with money and the things money buys. We are not free to dismiss money because we fear that we’d disappear, we’d be nothing at all without it. Money is, in the words of Buddhist writer David Loy, “the flight from emptiness that makes life empty.”
Needless to say, many people with environmental sympathies will easily agree with what I’ve just said and imagine that in fact they do what they can to resist work and consumption, to resist the world as arranged for the convenience of money. But here again I suspect we are kidding ourselves. Rather than taking the risk of challenging the roles money and work play in all of our lives by actually taking the responsibility for reordering our lives, the most prominent strategy of environmentalists seems to be to “give back” to nature through the bequests, the annuities, the Working Assets credit cards and long distance telephone schemes, and the socially responsible mutual funds advertised in Sierra and proliferating across the environmental movement. Such giving may make us feel better, but it will never be enough. Face it, we all have a bit of the robber baron turned philanthropist in us. We’re willing to be generous in order to “save the world” but not before we’ve insured our own survival in the reigning system. It’s not even clear that this philanthropy is a pure expression of generosity since the bequest and annuity programs are carefully measured to provide attractive tax benefits and appealing rates of return.
Even when we are trying to aid the environment, we are not willing as individuals to leave the system that we know in our heart of hearts is the cause of our problems. We are even further from knowing how to take the collective risk of leaving this system entirely and ordering our societies differently. We are not ready. Not yet, at least. "
Extra Credit Reading Response
Reading the current issue of Orion Magazine tonight, I came across the following quote by the writer Curtis White. It struck me as amazingly relevant to our current discussion. If you would like to receive up to ten extra credit points, you may respond to the following quote on your blog. In your response, you should agree or disagree with the author, present your reasons why you think he concludes the piece the way he does, and point toward some solutions to the problem if you see any problem. If you do not see any problem, you will need to forcefully argue why you think he is wrong in his assumptions. Here's the quote:
Quote to Remember
When thinking about our discussion about Goth kids in class today, I thought about this little snippet of homespun wisdom: "Beware of any enterprises that require a new set of clothes" — Thoreau.
1950s Presentation Schedule
E Block
Thursday, April 5
1. Kelly
2. Alice
3. Crystal
Friday, April 6
1. Jezy/Frances
2. Emily
3. Nick/Paul
Monday, April 9
1. Dave/Louis
Thursday, April 5
1. Kelly
2. Alice
3. Crystal
Friday, April 6
1. Jezy/Frances
2. Emily
3. Nick/Paul
Monday, April 9
1. Dave/Louis
1950s Presentations
Assignment: Working individually or in pairs students are responsible for an 8 minute presentation on the following topics.
Due Date: April 5th and 6th.
List of Topics:
Guiding question:
Each topic should seek to answer a guiding question. A guiding question is a core question that you, as a researcher, keep coming back to during your research. Many of these guiding questions seek to answer paradoxical or ironic observations. For example: "How did materially wealthy suburban America—which on the outside appears so clean and happy—become so commonly associated with feelings of emptiness and depression?" Guiding questions may also help put your topic into broader context of the time period. For example: "What was the Interstate Highway system's affect on sense of place and community in the 1950s?" To be clear: each presentation should seek to answer a specific guiding question. If you are having difficulty coming up with a guiding question, please see me at extra help.
Due Date: April 5th and 6th.
List of Topics:
Music: Jazz in the 1950s
Music: Birth of Rock and Roll
Art: Abstract Expressionism
Art: Minimalism
Film: Film in the 1950s
Literature/poetry: Beat Writers
Literature/poetry: New York School Writers
Activism: Early Civil Rights Movement
Activism: 2nd Red Scare
Activism: Women's issues in the 1950s
Architecture: Architecture in the 1950s
Architecture: Growth of suburban culture
Fashion: Fashion in the 1950s
Technology: Home Improvements in the 1950s
Technology: Car Culture in the 1950s
Government in the 1950s: The Interstate Highway System
Government in the 1950s: The McCarthy Hearings
Government in the 1950s: Role in South/Central America
Corporations: Rise of corporate influence in the 1950s
Corporations: Industrialization of agriculture
Corporations: Birth of chain stores / fast food
Guiding question:
Each topic should seek to answer a guiding question. A guiding question is a core question that you, as a researcher, keep coming back to during your research. Many of these guiding questions seek to answer paradoxical or ironic observations. For example: "How did materially wealthy suburban America—which on the outside appears so clean and happy—become so commonly associated with feelings of emptiness and depression?" Guiding questions may also help put your topic into broader context of the time period. For example: "What was the Interstate Highway system's affect on sense of place and community in the 1950s?" To be clear: each presentation should seek to answer a specific guiding question. If you are having difficulty coming up with a guiding question, please see me at extra help.
Spring Writing Assignments
This term you are responsible for writing two 1,200-1,500 word papers and two 500-800 word papers as well as conducting a 10 question interview. You will have one long paper and one short paper due during each of the term's units. The short papers and the interview are connected to your contemporary counter culture presentation (CCC) which you will be working on all term.
Long Papers:
Paper #1: Literary analysis paper written on Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums.
Paper #2: 1950s and 2000s comparison paper.
Short Papers:
CCC Factual Paper: This is a factual paper written up describing the background research that you have done on your CCC topic.
CCC Analytical Paper: This is an analytical paper written up describing your thoughts (what you have learned, your take, etc.) about your CCC topic near the end of the term.
Interview:
As part of your CCC project, you are responsible for conducting and transcribing a ten question interview with a person actively involved with your CCC topic. The interview-ee may not be a current Proctor staff, faculty, or student.
Long Papers:
Paper #1: Literary analysis paper written on Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums.
Paper #2: 1950s and 2000s comparison paper.
Short Papers:
CCC Factual Paper: This is a factual paper written up describing the background research that you have done on your CCC topic.
CCC Analytical Paper: This is an analytical paper written up describing your thoughts (what you have learned, your take, etc.) about your CCC topic near the end of the term.
Interview:
As part of your CCC project, you are responsible for conducting and transcribing a ten question interview with a person actively involved with your CCC topic. The interview-ee may not be a current Proctor staff, faculty, or student.
Quotation Responses (Explained)
The Assignment:
Each night that you are assigned reading, you are also responsible to complete a quotation response assignment. Please pick out two important quotations from the reading and respond to each quotation in three to five sentences. Post these responses in separate blog entries. Please give the book/story and the page numbers from the reading at the beginning of each response. Come to class prepared to explain why you picked the quote that you did, what the quote means, and what the quote tells you about the story/book. I will grade your quotation responses on a √+, √, √- scale. I will let you know if I feel like you are slacking on these assignments, but otherwise, I will not normally comment on individual quote responses.
Quotation Response Example:
Each night that you are assigned reading, you are also responsible to complete a quotation response assignment. Please pick out two important quotations from the reading and respond to each quotation in three to five sentences. Post these responses in separate blog entries. Please give the book/story and the page numbers from the reading at the beginning of each response. Come to class prepared to explain why you picked the quote that you did, what the quote means, and what the quote tells you about the story/book. I will grade your quotation responses on a √+, √, √- scale. I will let you know if I feel like you are slacking on these assignments, but otherwise, I will not normally comment on individual quote responses.
Quotation Response Example:
Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
Page 166.
1) “Death is my son-in-law, Death is my heir my daughter he hath wedded I will die and leave him all life living all is death.”
Capulet is talking about death metaphorically as a person. He is saying that Death has hurt Juliet—that it has taken her maidenhood away—and that death is really his son in-law instead of Paris. Now that death has taken his daughter away, Capulet questions what he has to live for. Juliet was his last living child and now Capulet has no heirs, except for death itself.
Course Info & Expectations
Tom's Extra Help:
Mondays – 6:30-7:30 pm (American Literature Room)
Thursdays – 8:00-10:00 pm (Gannett House)
Expectations:
1) All homework is due on the following days.
2) Please post blog entries or email me your homework before class.
3) Papers handed in (in person and electronically) after class begins will automatically loose five points from the final draft grade.
4) Papers handed in after the due date will loose 10 points from the final draft grade.
**PLEASE NOTE: It is not my responsibility to remind you to hand in your homework. Nor is it my responsibility to remind you of missing work. Any work over one week late may receive a zero grade at my discretion.
Mondays – 6:30-7:30 pm (American Literature Room)
Thursdays – 8:00-10:00 pm (Gannett House)
Expectations:
1) All homework is due on the following days.
2) Please post blog entries or email me your homework before class.
3) Papers handed in (in person and electronically) after class begins will automatically loose five points from the final draft grade.
4) Papers handed in after the due date will loose 10 points from the final draft grade.
**PLEASE NOTE: It is not my responsibility to remind you to hand in your homework. Nor is it my responsibility to remind you of missing work. Any work over one week late may receive a zero grade at my discretion.
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