Interpretive Questions

One of the options for the blog follow-ups is to generate 10 interpretive questions. Although we have covered what these are briefly in class, if you are going to choose this option check out this page to refresh yourself as to the type of questions these

are. Also check out the links at the bottom of the page.

http://www.greatbooks.org/tutorial/questions/interpretive.html

Model Classroom Blogs

I attach an interesting link for groups and individuals.

It is a class web site/project in which they created a study guide for a novel they were reading--The Secret Life of Bees...Scan down the pages and notice the pictures with text, etc.
http://weblogs.hcrhs.k12.nj.us/bees/

Meditation Video

For those that enjoy meditation (at least in class!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe4rZMGNu6A

Or this one....with music...of the boundary waters

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_cieFDYqR0

Story Rounds and Blogging

By the end, we will all have read 3 stories from each of the five authors. For those authors that have more then three stories listed, you may choose as a group which ones you want to read. Here are the authors and their stories:


T.C. Boyle

Termination Dust, pp. 1-20
She Wasn't Soft, 21-42
Killing Babies, 43-65
Captured by the Indians, 66-81
Key Themes:
-self-delusion, solipsism, and evil
-social critique
-Realism

Flannery O'Connor

Good Country People, 271-291
The Enduring Chill, 357-382
Everything that Rises Must Converge, 405-420
Key Themes:
-Self delusion, sin and Christian realism
-Generational tension, etc. (see class notes)

Tim Gautreaux

Welding with Children, pp. 1-20
Misuse of Light, 21-38
Good for the Soul, 40-60
Easy Pickings, 61-78
Key Themes:


-God's pursuit of us (Hound of Heaven)
-Generational Tension; communal bonds
-Light, truth, and Grace


Raymond Carver

Bicycles, Muscles, Cigarettes, 21-31
Feathers, 332-355
A Small Good Thing, 376-405
Key Themes:
-A tough world; tenuousness of goodness
-The quiet presence of beauty and wonder
-realism

Andre Dubus

Miranda Over the Valley, 1-19
Killings, 47-64
Rose, 198-232
Key Themes:
-The beauty and fragility of love
-Human proclivity toward violence
-The possibilities and obstacles to
Personal redemption

Poem "Entanglement"

Read the following poem and in no more then three sentences identify what you think
the essence of this poem is. After you explain what you believe the essence of this poem is, identify 3 lines in the poem that are particularly potent towards offering you the meaning of this poem. PLEASE do not just say what other people have said. BE original. Also, if you are one of the later people posting, cite other students' interpretations with whom you agree with/agree with.

Entanglement (by Marion Goldstein)
"Where particles remain entangled light years apart"

I am searching
for an image
that will form itself
the way molten glass
responds to the glassblowers' breath
and becomes
the crystal container for claret

My amorphous thought
is wobbling in dark matter
an alternate universe
curled in ten dimensions
where no-thing is every-thing
blocked by light's limitation
where it doesn't matter
that there is no matter
and particles can not be detected
only known
in the wake of their effect

like God

bumping into this three dimensional universe
of spinning neutrinos
and warped time.
What magnificient symphony
of chemistry
plays itself out in the moments of belief
as if the wild field of chaos
a butterfly flaps its wings in Tokyo
and rain cascades from New York skies

possibility is infinite

they say
every action has a reaction
I think of J
her sudden death, cremation, gravesite service
finis
the one Mass card
making its way through the mail
how the family came
that cold January morning
and the stranger priest on the altar
reconstructed from the blueprint of faces
in the wooden pews
the architecture of her life
and gave her back to them
like light escaping from the black hole
of a collapsed star.

Long Essay Questions

On-line Collaboration Experiment

You will be asked to write on 2 of the following 3 (which I will choose). You may, however, write on all 3 and opt out of writing on two of the three short essays. If you choose this option, you

know before hand all 3 questions you will be writing on. Here they are;

(Don't forget to fill out the survey on which of the 5 stories we have read so far is your favorite)

1) Pick three of the following five characters (Mrs. Turpin, Kenneth, the Dad, Jesse, Bub), apply the insights of "The Hound of Heaven" (to give a theological meaning to the protagonist's events/response), and compare and contrast their actions/response with the other characters you have chosen for this essay.

2) One of the main themes across the five stories we have read is that of how we view the outer world from our inner world. This theme of sight and inner/outer frequently manifests itself in the confrontation and changing of the inner world of the character with/by the reality of the outer world. Choose 3 of the five characters (Turpin, Kenneth, the Dad, Jesse, and Bub) and explore this theme--comparing and contrasting how this theme plays itself in each story. If you wrote on #5, you can only choose one of the characters you wrote on in that essay to write on in this one.

3) Choose three of the following metaphors in the following stories. Extrapolate the meaning of the metaphor within the context of the story and compare/contrast it with the other chosen metaphors/meanings. Make sure you can articulate how each of them are used within the story, as well as find some similarities with some of the other metaphors from other stories
Stories and Metaphors:
· Revelation (the Hogs)
· Kenneth: The Gun
· Chicxiclub: The Rock
· Waiting for the Evening News: The Television

Cathedral: The Television/the Cathedral

SHORT ESSAY QUESTIONS

Below are the short essays--2 of which you may write on

instead of writing on all 3 of the longer essays. Remember,

however, I will be choosing the 2 you will write on. Remember

to identify the # you are commenting/questioning.

1) Contrast Heidegger's notion of inauthenticity with authenticity. Make sure you explain each of the characteristics.
2) Compare the themes of a "Hound of Heaven" with "The Road Less Traveled"
3) Compare and contrast Lynch's notion of denial -vs- acceptance of death with Hedges' use of Freud's Thanatos -vs- Eros in his essay on war.

The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost

Weekend Homework. Read this poem most of you are familiar with by Robert Frost: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Road_Not_Taken

After you read the poem do one of the following three in a robust paragraph. Posts that reference the poem, parts of readings, and other students' thoughts in their posts will all be considered "quality" posts. Make sure your post states up front which of the three you are responding to.

1) relate the two paths diverging in the woods, path less chosen theme to three of the following
characters: Mrs Turpin ("Revelation"), Kenneth ("The Intruder"), the Dad in Chicxulub, and Jesse McNeil ("Waiting for the Evening News"). (synthesis of story question)

2) compare the themes of this poem with the themes of "Hound of Heaven"? (poetry question)

3) compare the themes of this poem with Heidegger's Authenticity/Inauthenticity. What are the two paths--one path you are currently struggling over? (Personal divulging question).

The Hound of Heaven

Read the Poem "The Hound of Heaven" by Francis Thompson. Link http://www2.bc.edu/~anderso/sr/ft.html

In your opinion what is the essence of this poem? Explain it as best you can in no more then 3 sentences. If others have posted prior to you and you like or dislike what they said you can add an extra sentence or two (after you have put your own "authentic" interpretation in the post. Following this cite the three lines (together, or spread out) that you found to be most revealing in giving you this interpretation...or that still remain a puzzle to you (just pose this as a question on the blog).

Short Story Writers

The following Blog is an example of how a group might set up a blog. The four authors we will read are Andre Dubus, Flannery O'Connor, T.C. Boyle, and Raymond Carver. Each group (made up of 6 students)will ultimately read work from all of the authors; however, each group will be choosing to read, discuss, respond, and post on each of the writers and their selected stories one author at a time. I have posted a wikipidea link on each author as a basic intro. Further posts will give more detail on each of the authors, stories, themes that we will look for, as well as other directions.

Andre Dubus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andre_dubus








Flannery O'Connor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flannery_Oconnor








T.C. Boyle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T.c._boyle







Raymond Carver http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_carver

Tim Gautreaux http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Gautreaux

Here is an interview of Gautreaux: http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/birnbaum127.php

See this post on Gautreaux http://www.amywelborn.com/gautreaux/article.html