Great speech by Ursula Le Guin ...

Cultural Criticism / Thoughts on Today's Class

Today's class was a productive beginning to what I think is a great way to begin a critical examination and inquiry into visual art--a look at how women have been portrayed in artworks, as well as the role women artists have played throughout art history.  These three short videos offer you great extensions and elaborations on our discussion in class.  the first video (below) is an historical survey of the nude in art--it is in some ways a more contemporary (and shorter) version of episode 2 of "Ways of Seeing" that we watched in class. Pay particular attention to the comparison made between Titians "Venus of Urbino" and Edouard Manet's "Olympia." The difference is illustrative of many of the issues we discussed in class.  Also of much interest is Picasso's very famous painting "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon." What a powerful painting!

The second video (below) offers a look at the role women artists have played throughout art history and the relative short shrift they have received.  The video begins with a look at the "Guerrilla Girls," who were a group of artists that became well known in the 1980s when they highlighted the near total lack of women artists in museums.  Again, I think this is a fantastic addendum to our discussion in class:

The third video offers a more thorough look at the Guerrilla Girls as two of the Girls themselves give a history of their group at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.  What I especially like about the Guerrilla Girls is they create their own art as a means of doing art criticism.  It's a creative an humorous way of shedding light on some of the sexist aspects of the art world / art industry.  Enjoy!

Songs for Cassavetes

As mentioned in class, John Cassavetes is known as the "Godfather of Independant Cinema" and has also influenced many independent artists and musicians.  There is even a band called Cassavetes.  The first clip is the song we listened to in class, "What's Yr Take on Cassavetes?" by the amazing Le Tigre:

The second clip is another punk song--"Cassavetes" by Fugazi:

Psycho / Faces . . . Thoughts / Reflections

Here are a couple clips of John Cassavetes that I think illustrate well his personality and character.  Hopefully, seeing these will shed light on his film Faces for you.  The man had considerable energy to say the least....

Here's an old interview from a french documentary on Cassavetes.  I love how the Beach Boys are playing in the background:

Zizek on Psycho

This is an excellent example of psychoanalytic criticism of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho by the one and only Slovenian culture critic and philosopher Slavoj Zizek.  Enjoy!

This is an interesting clip of David Foster Wallace talking about literature.  Enjoy.

Students are working on their final projects that are due Wednesday, January 30th.

Most students are creating an "artistic response" to some aspect of Foundation.

Quote of the Day

Interviewer: All writers complain of the constraint under which they work and of the difficulty of writing.

Blaise Cendrars: To make themselves sound interesting, and they exaggerate.  They should talk a little more about their privileges and how lucky they are to be able to earn some return from the practice of their art, a practice I ersonally detest, it's true, but which is all the same a noble privilege compared with the lot of most people, who live like parts of a machine, who live only to keep the gears of society pointlessly turning.  I pity them with all my heart.

-from Writers at Work, The Paris Review Interviews, 3rd Series

Notes on Today's Class--Literature of the Future

Quote of the Day

INTERVIEWER: You have given advice to the young all your life.  Do you have anything special to say to them now?

EZRA POUND: To improve their curiosity and not to fake.  But that is not enough.  The mere registering of bellyache and the mere dumping of the ashcan is not enough.

-From Writers At Work: The Paris Review Interviews, 2nd Series

Today we mainly read in class.

For students, the pressure is kinda ON to finish this thing, because we only have a couple weeks left of class . . .

. . . and we've gotta leave some time to work on our final project!

Quote of the Day

"I studied Comparative Literature at Cornell.  Structuralism was real big then.  The idea of reading and writing as being this language game.  There's a lot of appeal to that.  It's nice to think of it as this playful kind of thing.  But I think that another way to look at it is "Look, I just want to be sincere.  I want to write something and make you feel something and maybe you will go out and do something."  And it seems that the world is in such bad shape now that we don't have time to do nothing but language games.  That's how it seems to me."

-William T. Vollmann

Notes on Today's Class--Literature of the Future

Today we continued our class discussion on Foundation.

Students are doing a good job of understanding this plot-heavy and groundbreaking sci-fi novel.

I myself am enjoying it--this is my first go around with Asimov, surprisingly enough.

My own favorite aspects of the novel are its rich, complex themes--primarily the nature of belief, the uses (and abuses) of kowledge, and the desire for power.

In today's class we mainly discussed these themes, and we took note of the new characters introduced in Part 3:

-Poly Verisof--the "high priest" of Anacreon, Terminus educated;

-Sef Sermak, critic of Hardin & possible coup leader

-Wienis, whose name speaks for itself!

Be sure to read the remainder of Part 3 prior to Friday's class!

Quote of the Day

"The Greeks regarded what we call "public" experience as part of human experience.  That's what a man was: he was a member of his city.  And if he was a poet he was a poet who was a member of his city.  This is what gives such ground and scope and humanity to Greek poetry at its greatest.  The Greek poets knew what a city was to them--what a war was, a people.  They knew."

-Archibald MacLeish

Notes On Today's Class--Oral Histories & Scorcese's "Italian American"

 This is an excellent example of family oral history,
 done on film.  It is Martin Scorcese's "Italian
 American."

 An interview with his parents.

 I appreciate how he gives both of his parents a lot of
 room to talk--he doesn't ask too many
 questions.

 But then, his parents don't give him many opportunities
 to ask questions . . .

Quote of the Day

INTERVIEWER: Is there any possible formula to follow in order to be a good novelist?
WILLIAM FAULKNER: Ninety-nine per cent talent . . . 99 per cent discipline . . . 99 per cent work.  He must never be satisfied with what he does.  It never is as good as it can be done.  Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do.  Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.  An artist is a creature driven by demons.  He don't know why they choose him and he's usually too busy to wonder why.  He is completely amoral in that he will rob, borrow, beg, or steal from anybody and everybody to get the work done.

-from Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews, 1st Series

Notes on Today's Class--Literature of the Future

Today was productive in both sections.  We continued the discussion we began last week about the basic plot of Asimov's Foundation, along with new characters introduced in Part 2.  Finally, we discussed some themes that are beginning to bubble to the surface now that the story has some momentum.

Plot
Part 2 begins 50 years from the ending of Part I

The "Encyclopedia" is almost finished

Unique to planet Terminus is the fact that there are no metals--tough to build there

The Galactic Empire is in decline, o my!

Not only is the Empire in decline, but some planets/people in the galaxy do not like the Empire.  OH MY

The reader is introduced to planet Anacreon

Terminus is threatened by Anacreons, who want it for its tactical location.

New Characters

• Pirenne--He is more of an Encyclopedia-centered guy who is on the Board of Trustees on Terminus
• Mayor Hardin--Recently invited to the Board, he is less focused on the Encyclopedia and more focused on the lives of the citizens on Terminus
• Lord Dorwin--He offers some levity halfway through part 2 due to his unique manner of speech--he does not pronounce his Rs.  ("It seems uncommonly woundabout and hopelessly wigmawolish method of getting anywheahs.")  He's also an amateur archaeologist who doesn't take the scientific method too seriously...

Themes / Major Ideas

• Control--There is an emerging issue regarding control of Terminus, control of information, etc.  Stay tuned.
• There is a sense of encroaching DOOM.
• Knowledge--how is is acquired, its value, and the value of book knowledge vs. newly discovered knowledge.
• Citizen Empowerment--Mayor Hardin is tryin' hard to rally the troops...

Great discussions today!  Thanks for all your contributions..

Reading homework--read through page 139.

There is a fantastic audio version of the Foundation Trilogy at the internet archive here.

Meanwhile, the famed economist Paul Krugman credits Asimov's Foundation Trilogy as inspiring him to become an economist.  You can read his article here. 

Sisyphus...

 There are still three weeks left in the semester,

 but you may feel as though your academic fate   resembles that of Sisyphus...

 fear not!

 The end is nigh!

 Do your homework!

 I am done!

Quote of the Day

Check out this insight from George Saunders, about teaching/learning writing:

"...even for those thousands of young people who don't get something (published), the process is still a noble one--the process of trying to say something, of working through the craft issues, and the world-view issues, and the ego issues--all of this is character-building, and god forbid everything we do should have to have Concrete Career Results."

-George Saunders in conversation with Ben Marcus, featured in The Believer book of Writers Talking To Writers

Quote of the Day

"My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel--it is, before all, to make you see.  That, and no more, and it is everything."

-Joseph Conrad