hey everyone!

So I was reading the poem "Dream Variations" by Langston Hughes and I thought it was really interesting that it seems like the tone between the two stanzas is different. The first seems to before the dream whereas the second verse seems to be after the fact... Like the dream has already come true in a sense. Does anyone else get the same feeling? Or is it just me?

Laney

Jimi Hendrix songs for Tuesday

Hey everybody,

Here's the music we'll be talking about on Tuesday.  It's two performances by Jimi Hendrix, "Are You Experienced?" and his version of the Star Spangled Banner.  As usual, you want to be thinking about how these songs work, what they're doing, what sort of arguments they might be making, how they read America, etc.

To prep for the discussion, I'd highly recommend that you read something about the blues.  Wikipedia is fine: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blues

If you want to download the tunes to your computer, you can click here.

Jimi Hendrix - "Are You Experienced?"


Jimi Hendrix - Star Spangled Banner (from Woodstock)


Enjoy!

-Ben

Paper Topics

Ok, so I said I'd get these on the blog on Friday ... I'm late by 48 minutes.  Apologies.  Anyway, here they are:

Rhetoric 1A, first essay prompts

Essays are due at 3pm on Monday, October 4 in the box in front of 7408 Dwinelle. Your essay should be 4-5 pages long (minimum 4, maximum 5), and should employ standard formatting (double-spaced, 12pt Times New Roman or equivalent, standard margins, etc).

Choose one of the topics below, or feel free to make up your own.  If you choose to write on a topic of your own creation, you must get your topic approved by either Amanda or Ben.  ONE CAVEAT: you are not allowed to write about the Frost poem “The Road Not Taken.”

1)  In the first few weeks of class, we’ve seen many of the writers we’ve read engage with the concept of "identity."  Whitman is the most obvious candidate here – his poems, we’ll remember, work most explicitly to figure America (and perhaps the individual American body) as the paradoxical assemblage of unlike, perhaps even conflicting modes of being – but Nietzsche and Hughes too, certainly contribute to this discussion, Nietzsche by posing identity proper as merely a story we tell ourselves to stave of fears of meaninglessness, and Hughes by singing America with a voice whose sincerity is always under question. 

In your paper, take either Nietzsche or Hughes and read their work as a potential response to the version of identity we get in Whitman’s poems.  That is, you want to start by explaining what you take to be Whitman’s reading of identity (this can be either individual or national identity), then go on to show how Nietzsche or Hughes either complicates, confirms, elucidates, problematizes or recasts what you’ve said about Whitman.  What you should be shooting for is not a simple compare and contrast paper, but one that shows why the pairing you’ve chosen is significant and what it lets us see that we couldn’t see by reading Whitman on his own.

(After writing this, I realized that Frost’s “Mending Wall” might also be a good poem to pair with Whitman along this dimension.  So if you’re feeling super ambitious, feel free to substitute “Mending Wall” for “Nietzsche or Hughes” in all the above.)

2) One of the key elements animating Nietzsche’s work is the concept of metaphor.  This happens for Nietzsche on at least two levels: on one level, his essay describes how he thinks metaphor helps fundamentally constitute both language, and by extension, truth; on the other, his essay uses metaphor after metaphor, many of them quite striking, to make this point.

In your paper, take a particular metaphor from any of the works we’ve read (this includes the many poems we didn’t have a chance to get to) and show how that metaphor works both in relation to the work of which it is a part and as a potential truth-making moment of the sort Nietzsche describes.  You have a bit of free rein here as to the importance Nietzsche himself will play in your analysis.  That is, your paper can spend a lot of time on Nietzsche, with the metaphor you’ve chosen from a different authoe merely helping to explain Nietzsche’s argument, or can use Nietzsche to frame your more specific reading of another author.  Or, if the metaphor you’re struck by comes from Nietzsche’s work itself, you’ll probably want to use some combination of the two approaches.

3) Perform a close reading of one of the poems in the packet (whether we discussed it in class or not) with an eye towards what that poem has to do with the idea of vernacular as we’ve started to understand it.  As a good close reading, your analysis of the poem should attend to one or more of the poem’s formal elements - syntax (word order), diction (choice of words), rhythm, meter, enjambment (line breaks), structure or punctuation, among many others.  Whether you use those formal names or not isn’t important (i.e. we don’t care if you call what you describe “syntax” or not); what is important is that you show how the elements you’ve selected help us understand how the poem works, what it communicates, and how these elements, when put together, describe a particular vision of what “vernacular” either means or could mean.

How to Scan Poetry

Hey there,

It seems that some people were interested in learning more about poetic meter and how it works.  In case you happen to be one of those people, here's a good place to start: it's a short introduction to scansion written by Robert Hass, who's a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, was Poet Laureate of the US in the 1990's, and, luckily, teaches in the English Department at Berkeley.  Should set you on the right track:

How to Scan Poetry 

-Ben

(btw, I highly recommend taking Hass' classes, if you ever get the opportunity.  He'll remind you of the uncle you'd always wished you'd had.)

Exercise 4.2 #1-5

1. a. Houses are being built further apart making it harder to walk places.

b. Sidewalks are now only needed in areas with a lot of foot traffic.

c. Society relies so heavily on cars that sidewalks are no longer needed.

2. a. House designs have tried to become more open.

b. Many new homes are being built.

c. The family room is more for bringing the family together because it is connected with the kitchen.

3. a. People feel more comfortable when there are boundaries in place.

b. Neighbors like to have the option to have their privacy.

c. Good fences make things feel secure.

4. a. Women speak about their emotions more.

b. Men may feel the same emotions but keep them to themselves.

c. Men are able to speak more rationally because their emotions do not get in the way as much.

5. a. Juveniles are committing much worse crimes now than before.

b. The judicial system is trying to make a statement that crime will not be tolerated no matter what the age.

c. The judicial system has given up on trying to let the youth change in prison.

p.55 Exercise 4.2

1. Towns have been changing their requirements lately, many new housing developments have been built recently, many people are moving to towns now and requiring more houses to be built.

2. People tend to eat in the family room, people like to hang out near their food, houses are being built with fewer rooms, people don't like to be separated by walls in their homes, families are becoming closer to each other socially, people don't use their living rooms very often.

3. Fences in between houses are beneficial, people feel more comfortable with a fence next to their homes, neighbors are more friendly with a fence in between them, bad fences make bad neighbors.

4. Males are less emotional and speak less than females, males are worse than females at activities that require spatial reasoning (like geometry), females have better social skills than males, males tend to not tell people how they are feeling.

5. Judges and juries are becoming stricter with their punishments, juveniles are committing more crimes, the prisons are becoming fuller, the laws are changing.

Exercises 4.2 #1-5

1.

• · City councils are setting fewer restrictions on real estate developers.
• · Old American residential neighborhoods are being bought up and remodeled.
• · The price of creating sidewalks has increased dramatically.

2.

• · More families are buying new homes.
• · People are spending less time in their kitchens and do not feel it needs to be separate from the rest of the house.
• · Living rooms have become a more formal area than they used to be and it is no longer appropriate to use them for leisure activities.

3.

• · Suburban neighborhoods with fences surrounding the houses are nicer than city dwellings.
• · People are happier when they avoid others and keep to themselves.
• · Physical barriers must be erected in order to prevent the neighbor’s pets from digging up people’s yards.

4.

• · Females are more likely to verbalize their emotions than males.
• · Men tend to think rationally before they speak.
• · Women’s Corpus Callosums have more neural fibers connecting the hemispheres of the brain than men

5.

• · The American legal system has lost faith in its juvenile reformation system, and no longer believes teenage criminals can be changed.
• · There are not enough juvenile courts to try all teenage offenders and therefore regular federal courts are being asked to help out.
• · Teenagers are committing more and more crimes in the United States.

Exercise 4.2 #1-5

1.

a) America has become more reliant on cars and other forms of transportation, so sidewalks have become obsolete.

b) It is the cities job to save the “old town” feel associated with sidewalks.

c) Developers will do anything to cut costs and time.

d) Walkers need to become more proactive in saving sidewalks, which keep them safe from traffic.

2.

a) Food has become increasingly important to families, who spend more time near the kitchen.

b) Families have decreased formalities and spend more time in the family room near the kitchen.

c) America has become more frivolous with more rooms in their houses that aren’t needed or used.

3.

a) Fences are needed to be on positive terms with neighbors and keep privacy within the home.

b) Fences keep peaking toms away.

c) The best neighbors are fences because they are silent, protective, and not judgmental.

4.

a) Females can verbally express their emotions more easily than men.

b) Females are better at multi-tasking than men.

c) Men are able to express their harsh feelings with their words without feeling the emotions associated with their words.

5.

a) Prisons will be occupied with more inmates that committed their crime when they were still in their teens.

b) The US taxpayers will spend more money on juveniles convicted as adults than they would if they were convicted as minors.

c) The U.S. public has become increasingly intolerant with the mistakes of teenagers.

Excersize 4.2 #1-5

1) -Most people own their own cars.

- Pedestrian traffic is not prominent.

- Cities do not want to fund the construction of sidewalks.

2) -House designs promote family togetherness.

-Recent designs make the kitchen into more of a common room, similar to the living room and family room.

-The family room is associated with the kitchen, maybe as a place for eating.

-The family room is more private than the living room.

3) -People live in proximity to each other more comfortably if their are some barriers.

-Good neighbors don't let their cows wander onto each other's property.

-If a fence is good then neighbors don't need to argue over repairing it.

-People should mind their own business.

4) -Women talk more than men.

-Women express their feelings verbally more than men.

-Man can not voice their feelings.

5) -Minors are committing more violent crimes.

-The justice system is cracking down on juvenile offenders.

-Many of the adults in jail have been there since their teens.

Poems for the next few weeks

Hey everyone,

The poetry packet containing the poems we'll be reading over the next few weeks (including the Whitman poems we'll be looking at on Tuesday) can be downloaded here:

POETRY PACKET

Dig it.

-Ben

Exercise 3.6 Evens

2. The president's aides attempted to assert his immunity from a congressional subpoena.

4. Any data that supported your criticism of my findings were omitted when you analyzed my report.

6. A papal appeal was made to the world's rich nations to assist those facing the threat of African starvation.

8. The class agreed on the reading list based on the assumption that there would be tests on only certain selections.

10. The fraternities recognized the need to control over drinking on campus.

12. The coaching staff is responsible for the team's physical condition.

14. We were disappointed but not surprised because we expected the Dean to decide to reject our proposal.

3.6 EVENS

2. The president’s aides attempted to assert his immunity from a congressional subpoena.
4. When you analyzed my report you omitted any data that supported your criticism of my findings.
6. Those threatened by African starvation made a papal appeal to the world’ rich nations for assistance.
8. The class agreed on the reading list because they assumed that there would be only tests on certain sections.
10. Fraternities recognized the need for controls over drinking on campus.
12. The coaching staff was responsible for physically conditioning the team.
14. We were disappointed when the Dean rejected our proposal because we had already expected that the decision had been made.

Nietzsche: A Terrible Writer?

During the last discussion, there were some people who believed Nietzsche to be a terrible writer, simply due to the fact that his arguments were less than completely clear and concise— or, in other words, idiot-proof. However, I believe this notion regarding Nietzsche's writing prowess to be less than valid. Nietzsche writes like this, in my opinion, because he doesn't care whether or not most people understand him. He believes most of the world to be stupid, and it is unimportant that that demographic— the one composed of the mentally indisposed to the normal barbarian— understands his paper at all. His relatively complicated and convoluted way of explaining his argument is his way of subtly insulting those who do not and cannot understand him, and— at the same time— this is his tool to weed out those from whom he would not derive appropriate reactions from, anyways. Those who understand his way of writing, or the "intelligent" people, are the individuals closest to the "truth", or what we regard to be the truth. When these people begin to question "truth", a concept they all believe themselves to be well-versed in, due to their own supposed intelligence, it's quite a spectacle to an amused Nietzsche.

My two cents. I might as well kick off this discussion.

Style 3.6 Evens

2. The president’s aides attempted to assert that the president was immune from a congressional subpoena.

4. When you analyzed my report, you omitted any data supporting your criticism of what I found.

6. The show made a papal appeal to the world’s rich nations to assist Africans in threat of starving.

8. The class agreed on the reading list because they assumed that there would be tests on select things.

10. The fraternities recognized the need for controlling drinking on campus.

12. The coaching staff is responsible for the physical condition of the team.

14. We were disappointed when the Dean rejected our proposal, but we weren’t surprised because we expected him to have already decided.

Exercise 3.6 Evens

2. The President's aid attempted to assert that he was immune from a congressional subpoena.

4. When you analyze the findings in my report your critique omits any supporting data.

6. The papal made an appeal so that the world's rich nations could assist those starving in Africa.

8. The class agreed on the reading list assuming that they would be tested only on certain selections.

10. Fraternities recognized the need for drinking controls over campus.

12. The coaching staff is responsible to condition the team.

14. When the Dean rejected our proposal it was disappointing but not surprising because we expected the decision.

"Style" Section 3.6 (evens)

2. The president's aides attempted to assert the president's immunity from a congressional subpoena.

4. When you analyzed my report, you omitted any data that supported your criticism of my findings.

6. Africans who were facing the threat of starvation made a papal appeal to the world's richest nations for assistance.

8. The class agreed on the reading list because they assumed they would only be tested on certain sections.

10. Fraternities recognized the need to control drinking on campus.

12. The coaching staff is responsible for physically conditioning the team.

14. Even though we were disappointed that the Dean rejected our proposal, we were not surprised because we expected that he had already made his decision.

Style- 3.6 even

Style – 3.6

2. The president’s aides attempted to assert his immunity from a congressional subpoena.

4. When you analyzed my report, you omitted any data that supported your criticism of my findings.

6. Those threatened by African starvation made a papal appeal to the world’s rich nations for assistance.

8. The class agreed on the reading list because they assumed that there would only be tests on certain sections.

10. Fraternities recognized the need for controls over drinking on campus.

12. The coaching staff was responsible for physically conditioning the team.

14. We were disappointed, not surprised, when the Dean rejected our proposal, because we had already expected that the decision had been made.