existence, the self and others in poems

"They Don't Have to Have that Look" by David Rattray
"The Ache of Marriage" by Denise Levertov
"Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note" by LeRoi Jones
"In the Waiting Room" by Elizabeth Bishop

This week I've handed out several poems to augment our exploration of the self, existence, and the self's relationship with others. Your comment could take several different forms:

* You might show how the poem addresses a theme (or makes use of an image or technique or relationship or ... that has been developed elsewhere too -- in the existential short story or non-fiction piece you have already written about, in King Lear, in As I Lay Dying, etc.

* You might explain how the way the poem is written contributes to its meaning and effect.

* You could respond in the form of say-play-imply (or say-play-suggest, if you prefer) or SOAPStone + theme or TPCAST + theme.

* You might respond to the poem personally. (Make sure you show an understanding of the poem as you respond to it.) Do you relate or connect? To what? Why?

* You might write a poem or brief play in response to the poem. (Again, as long as the literary work shows an understanding of the poem. Append a little note to the end of your creative piece explaining how your poem or play makes use of the original poem.)

Begin your post this way:
First name and last initial: JCook
The name of the poem(s) you will focus on: "They Don't Have to Have that Look" by David Rattray, "The Ache of Marriage" by Denise Levertov, "Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note" by LeRoi Jones, "In the Waiting Room" by Elizabeth Bishop

I am interested in reading what you have to say about these poems.

King Lear on TV tonight!

Here's what the WGBH website says:

"Actor Ian McKellen (Lord of the Rings, X-Men) returns to the Royal Shakespeare Company after a 17-year hiatus to perform the title role in this production of William Shakespeare's King Lear, widely considered one of the playwright's most enduring and haunting works. The tragedy begins with Lear proposing to split his kingdom among his three daughters (Frances Barber, Monica Dolan, and Romola Garai) according to how much each can profess her love for him, and spirals forward to dramatize the king's deception, betrayal, and eventual descent into madness."

• Wed Mar 25 8pm, 2/HD (That's tonight!)
• Thu Mar 26 1am, 44 (These other times are a bit absurd, no?)
• Thu Mar 26 1am, 2/HD
• Fri Mar 27 3am, 44
• Mon Mar 30 1am, 2/HD
• Mon Mar 30 3am, 44

If you watch the film you can write a 300 word or so response, review, critique that can replace on of the blog posts.

Spring Cleaning...

Happy Spring! The vernal equinox is finally here.

O.K. Here's what's going on.

1. REVISED LITERATURE ESSAY. If you used a letter last week to postpone turning in the revision of your Exploration of the Concept of Literature Essay (that's the best name for it I've come up with yet) then your revision is due on Monday, March 23. Remember to turn in the draft I commented on and a reflection on your revisions--along with the revision.

2. BLOGGING ABOUT KING LEAR ACT ONE. You were to have blogged about Act One of King Lear by Monday night (March 16). If you didn't do so do it now!

3. BLOGGING ABOUT EXISTENTIAL READINGS. I mentioned casually that I want you to post your first comments about the readings you chose last week by the end of this week. Now, more officially, I'll remind you to blog by pumpkin time on Monday, March 23. By the way, those who have written already have done wonderfully, provocatively, chillingly well. I feel lucky to have you all as students.

4. READING KING LEAR THROUGH ACT THREE & BLOGGING ABOUT IT. On Friday (March 20, Happy Spring! Vernal Equinox!) we'll finish reading act three in F-block. So if you're not here on Friday (Good luck MUNners!) then catch up over the weekend. I'll open blogging on acts two and three on Monday and the blogging period will close Wednesday night, March 25 at pumpkin time.

5. MORE BLOGGING ABOUT EXISTENTIAL READINGS. As mentioned above next week I'll hand out poems and such related to the existential readings you've already completed. Blog about these (especially in relation to the stories I gave you last week and/or As I Lay Dying and/or King Lear). I'll open blogging on these other readings at the beginning of the week and the blogging will close on Friday night, March 27 at pumpkin time.

6. READING KING LEAR THROUGH THE END & BLOGGING ABOUT IT. Next week we'll finish reading King Lear. Blogging about the last two acts of the play will close on Monday, March 30 at pumpkin time.

So to summarize the due dates (all deadlines are pumpkin time):

King Lear act one NOW! if you haven't done it already.
Literature Essay (if you used a letter) due Monday, March 23.
Existential story blogging due Monday, March 23.
King Lear acts two and three blogging due Wednesday, March 25.
Existential poems, etc. blogging due Friday, March 27.
King Lear acts four and five blogging due Monday, March 30.

King Lear (All Posts)

I've changed my mind.
I thought I was going to have you post your comments over here at last year's blog so you could interact with their comments. Though I still invite you to take a look at the act one comments, I just noticed that I hadn't fine-tuned a motif-based approach until act two. So we'll stick to posting comments on this blog for now -- at least for act one. In fact, accepting a request from some of you, we'll do all the King Lear blogging here. Above you'll find links to last years act 1 and acts 2 and 3 comments. Here's a link to comments on acts 4 and 5 from last year's class.

So here are the directions and notes:

1. Consider (& take notes on) the motifs (some are images & some are concepts) below...
* what is said and what is true;
* sight (eyes, blindness) and other senses (touch, smell {noses}) [especially as related to truth and understanding];
* fools, madness, and wisdom; duty and betrayal;
* naturalness and unnaturalness (this motif is especially slippery, flickering, and otherwise ambiguous in King Lear);
* animals and humans;
* storms and calms;
* age and youth;
* parents and children;
* rank and status;
* nothingness, loss, nakedness...& self...

[* New for '09 eating, appetites, consuming. Eating is, after all, a way of filling the nothing within.
* Also new for '09: fates, planets, stars.
* & sexuality, lust, etc.
* Oh, & as ever in tragedies, blood; the blood that means related and the blood that is violence.]

All of the aforementioned motifs interact, weaving in and out of each other to form a matrix of association. So when Lear denies Cordelia her inheritance, he doesn't say "get away from me; you're no longer my daughter" (in Elizabethan English and iambic pentameter). He evokes several motifs and images: "Thy truth, then, be thy dower" "For by the sacred radiance of the sun... by all the operation of the orbs" "paternal care" "property of blood" "gorge his appetite" "avoid my sight" (1.1.120-139).

Also be on the look out for inversions: the natural becoming unnatural, the truth that is false, the sight that is a lie, the fool that is wise, etc. & look out for parallels. ("Monster" is tagged on Cordelia and Edgar in Act One.) Look out for motif-words with ambiguous multiple or shifting meanings (especially "nature"). Listen for playfulness and for echoes. Figurative associations often haunt the literal meanings. And repetitions often reveal the play's obsessions.

2. Comment on at least two interrelated motifs. Your comments should refer to at least two specific passages (at least one passage for each motif). Demonstrate your understanding of the play so far by linking the motifs and the passages to each other and to the overall events and themes. Again, we're using close attention to small particulars to illuminate the whole. At the beginning of your post include your name, name the motifs, and quote the passages (include act.scene.line). Your insightful well-supported commentary comes next.

Comments on act one are due by pumpkin time on Tuesday, March 17, 2009. (Sláinte!)
Comments on acts two and three are due by pumpkin time on Wednesday, March 25, 2009.
Comments on acts four and five are due by pumpkin time on Monday, March 30, 2009.

"Darkness" (2007) by Andrew Sean Greer

You might think about the questions: how do external changes affect our relationships with each other? What happens when authors use fantastical-allegorical elements alongside realistic elements in a story? How does the catechistic (question-answer) form of the story influence the effect the story has on the reader?

You might respond analytically by showing the relationship between how it's written and what it means. You might evaluate the story: does it succeed in what it seems to try to do? Do you like it? Respond to the short story personally: can you relate? How? Compare the story to others you've read. You might think about As I Lay Dying and King Lear (or other literary works or films). Respond by extending the story in someway: a sequel and prequel. Write a letter or poem or script in response.

Show that you have read the story, have thought about it, and have understood something about it (or even have made of use of it in some way).

"The Book of the Grotesque" from *Winesburg, Ohio* (1919) by Sherwood Anderson

You might think about the questions: How complex a thing is a self? What, in Anderson's work, is a "grotesque"? How does empathy work? Do we carry others around inside us, so to speak? What is the relationship between how we look to others and how we feel and what we think and what we carry around within?

You might respond analytically by showing the relationship between how it's written and what it means. You might evaluate the story: does it succeed in what it seems to try to do? Do you like it? Respond to the short story personally: can you relate? How? Compare the story to others you've read. You might think about As I Lay Dying and King Lear (or other literary works or films). Respond by extending the story in someway: a sequel and prequel. Write a letter or poem or script in response.

Show that you have read the story, have thought about it, and have understood something about it (or even have made of use of it in some way).

"Love" (1960) by Clarice Lispector

You might think about the questions: How do the particular small things Laura witnesses trigger an existential crisis? What is the nature of her existential crisis? Can you explain it? Can you relate to it? What new understanding accompanies the crisis? Do you share that understanding? How do the many paradoxes and oxymorons used by Lispector effectively convey the crisis? What about the end? What happens to the crisis? Why? Can you explain what happens within Laura from the time she gets home to the time she goes to bed? Were you disappointed? Pleased?

You might respond analytically by showing the relationship between how it's written and what it means. You might evaluate the story: does it succeed in what it seems to try to do? Do you like it? Respond to the short story personally: can you relate? How? Compare the story to others you've read. You might think about As I Lay Dying and King Lear (or other literary works or films). Respond by extending the story in someway: a sequel and prequel. Write a letter or poem or script in response.

Show that you have read the story, have thought about it, and have understood something about it (or even have made of use of it in some way).

"How They Took My Body Apart and Made Another Me" (2003) by Robert Kelly

You might think about the questions: What questions about the self and about identity are raised by this story? What does the story suggest about the relationship between language and self? How might the story be understood as expressing a person's alienation from himself? How does might the strange imagery be seen as metaphorical, symbolic, and/or suggestive? (Be particular. I'm really curious as to what you think.) How does the piece both make use of and subvert sci-fi conventions? Why do you think Kelly has written in this manner? Close read a passage what is suggested? As a whole what is suggested? And, perhaps more importantly, what was the piece's affect on you? Can you explain how it had that effect?

You might respond analytically by showing the relationship between how it's written and what it means. You might evaluate the story: does it succeed in what it seems to try to do? Do you like it? Respond to the short story personally: can you relate? How? Compare the story to others you've read. You might think about As I Lay Dying and King Lear (or other literary works or films). Respond by extending the story in someway: a sequel and prequel. Write a letter or poem or script in response.

Show that you have read the story, have thought about it, and have understood something about it (or even have made of use of it in some way).

Searching for Zion (2007) by Emily Raboteau

You might think about the questions: Is this a work of literature even though it is non-fiction? Does the truth of this story depend on its literal truth or does it convey a thematic truth too? What questions about identity and friendship and home and journeys and "promised lands" are raised by this story? Did you relate to certain people in the story more than to others, especially relative to their struggles with identity, home, and quests? Explain.

You might respond analytically by showing the relationship between how it's written and what it means. You might evaluate the story: does it succeed in what it seems to try to do? Do you like it? Respond to the short story personally: can you relate? How? Compare the story to others you've read. You might think about As I Lay Dying and King Lear (or other literary works or films). Respond by extending the story in someway: a sequel and prequel. Write a letter or poem or script in response.

Show that you have read the story, have thought about it, and have understood something about it (or even have made of use of it in some way).

The Dreamer Did Not Exist (2007) by David Gessner

You might think about the questions: What are you thoughts about Gessner's childhood crisis? What do you think about Gessner's ideas about the compulsion to write? What is the relationship between eating and being (and writing) (and (a)theism) (and...) in the essay (in your own thoughts and your own life)? How does narrative function in this essay relative to the explication and analysis? What do you think about the tone? Asking questions about this piece beguiles me more than any of the others. Those who have written already have done extremely well so if my questions don't move you respond to them. (Side note: is this literature even though it's a personal essay?)

You might respond analytically by showing the relationship between how it's written and what it means. You might evaluate the story: does it succeed in what it seems to try to do? Do you like it? Respond to the short story personally: can you relate? How? Compare the story to others you've read. You might think about As I Lay Dying and King Lear (or other literary works or films). Respond by extending the story in someway: a sequel and prequel. Write a letter or poem or script in response.

Show that you have read the story, have thought about it, and have understood something about it (or even have made of use of it in some way).

Passages in *As I Lay Dying*

Speaker
Page #
by class time tomorrow.