Roaring Twenties Reinvented.

Watch this:


Then this:

Gatsby board notes, Monday 5.12.

Click images to enlarge.

Miscellaneous need-to-know info.

1. For Wednesday, read chapter 7 up until the break after "So we rode on toward death through the cooling twilight."
   
2. Wednesday's multiple choice quiz will cover chapters 1-6. Specifically, it will cover:
• Characters: Nick, Gatsby, Daisy, Tom, Jordan, the Wilsons, Owl Eyes, Wolfsheim, Dan Cody.
• Themes & Symbols: green light at the end of the dock, T.J. Eckelberg and the valley of ashes, time, colors, light and darkness, and possessions (cars, houses, lawns, etc.).
• Vocab: supercilious, fractiousness, incredulously, vacuous, jaunty, haughty, punctilious, exultation, ineffable, Platonic.
3. If you requested a copy of the supplemental extras from my "Authorized Text" edition of Gatsby, please stop by my office to pick it up.
4. Get in on the last bonus opp of the year here: Character Sketch.
   

Gatsby & the American Dream.

• A recent New York Times article: "Gatsby's Green Light Beckons a New Set of Strivers."
• An interactive Minnesota Public Radio feature: "Preserving the American Dream."
• A Symbol of the American Dream: Buy the One Million Dollar Bill for only $9.50!

Gatsby on Google Maps.

Click photos to enlarge.


Long Island.


Great Neck (West Egg) & Port Washington (East Egg).


The "eggs" up close.


Gatsby Lane. (No joke.)


The green light at the end of the dock?

Homework for Monday, 5.5.

Character Sketch pre-writing.

Say it with me . . .

P - A - G - I - N - A - T - I - O - N

Hurston Plays at the Library of Congress.

The Zora Neale Hurston Plays at the Library of Congress present a selection of ten plays written by Hurston (1891-1960), author, anthropologist, and folklorist. Deposited as typescripts in the United States Copyright Office between 1925 and 1944, most of the plays remained unpublished and unproduced until they were rediscovered in the Copyright Deposit Drama Collection in 1997. The plays reflect Hurston's life experience, travels, and research, especially her study of folklore in the African-American South. Totaling 1,068 images, the scripts are housed in the Library's Manuscript, Music, and Rare Book and Special Collections divisions.

Found after class . . .

Busted.

But for what, I'm not exactly sure; I suppose technically this isn't a note. On principle, though, I think I've got something on you two . . .

"Their Eyes" Bonus Opp.

Option 1: Compose a soundtrack for Janie’s journey. Choose 4-5 songs that illustrate different aspects of Janie’s life. Create a CD with these songs, organized in an intentional sequence. Then, write a liner notes for each song. The liner notes must include:

• a synopsis of the song.
• an explanation of how the song relates to Janie and her experience.
• one quote from the song and one quote from the book, integrated and cited correctly.

Option 2: Capture 4-5 images that illustrate your own unique interpretation of different aspects of Janie’s life. Submit the photographs (in an artistic, aesthetically organized manner) along with a didactic statement for each. The didactic statements must include:

• the location of the photo, camera and equipment used.
• an explanation of how the photo relates to Janie and her experience.
• one quote from the book that speaks to a particular aspect of the photo.

I’m also open to your own ideas. See me if you have suggestions for how you might depict Janie’s life and development as a character in an artistic medium other than those listed above. Also, please see me if you'd like to focus on a different character, such as Tea Cake or Joe.

Due Monday, May 12.

Remind you of anything?

War Games
by Vince Aletti

The grainy haze that settles over the soldiers in David Levinthal’s photographs isn’t the fog of war, it’s the impressionistic murk that results from setting his camera lens for an extremely shallow depth of field. The artistic effect is necessary to prevent—or at least delay—the recognition that the soldiers are all model toys. The pictures, published in 1977 in the book “Hitler Moves East,” a collaboration with Levinthal’s fellow Yale School of Art grad student Garry Trudeau, are having a timely revival at John McWhinnie @ Glenn Horowitz Bookseller. Levinthal has made a career of turning scale-model figures into soft-focus icons, but this series remains a crucial turning point. As Trudeau notes in the book, the images “set up an exquisite tension . . . between the innocence of the facsimile and the insidiousness of the original.” Displayed alongside Nazi source material and the tiny toys themselves, the sepia-toned photographs have a peculiar power. We know they’re far from real, but, when it comes to war, deception and confusion still rule.

From The New Yorker, April 21, 2008.

"Computer talk."

Fittingly, I received this email last night:

hey patrick. unfortunately I wont be abl 2 help setup this year... I have 2 be @ my internship (@ the pillsbury house) around the same time 2mrw...sry bout this. hopefully u have enuf people!

Homework summary, 4.23.

• Finish the book (chapters 19 & 20, pp. 168-193 [26]).
• Post a final discussion question for Their Eyes. (Post to this entry, as a comment below.) Question must be cumulative in nature and must address the resolution of a particular aspect of the novel (for example, with respect to character, theme, symbol, extended metaphor, etc.). Be sure that your question is relevant, open-ended, and can be supported with textual evidence.
• Review the 140s for issues of racism and inter-racism, as well as God and authority.
• Two Bonus opps.
  
• To anyone who at the beginning of class tomorrow can demonstrate the difference between symbol, metaphor, and extended metaphor using examples from Their Eyes.
  
• Lucille Clifton poetry reading bonus opp. See post below for complete details.
  

Bonus Opp: Lucille Clifton.

Lucille Clifton, author of "Homage to My Hips," the poem that we looked at in class a few weeks ago, will be featured at the University of Minnesota's NOMMO African American Authors Series this next Thursday, April 24 from 7:30-9:30pm at the Cowles Auditorium in the Hubert H. Humphrey Center. Cost is $10. Complimentary tickets available for U of M students and members of the Friends of the University of Minnesota Libraries. Order tickets through Northrop Ticket Office at www.tickets.umn.edu, by phone at 612.624.2345, or in person Monday-Friday, 10am-5pm at 105 Northrop Auditorium, 84 Church Street S.E., Mpls, 55455.

Bonus opp.
Write a two page critique of a particular aspect of the event. Write the piece as if it will be submitted for publication in a local newspaper or magazine. For example, you can write about impact of poetry as performance, the physical environment and space, etc. See the documents below for examples of event critiques.

• Yusef Komunyakka in the Face of Adversity.
• Three Female Perspectives in Poetry.
• The Loft’s Equilibrium: Luke Warm Water and “The Expected.”
  

Beef up your vocab with sweet (and totally unpretentious) words like . . .

Litotes: n. an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of the contrary, as in “not a bad singer” or “not unhappy.”

Congrats. You now know a lit term that your teacher doesn't even know how to pronounce. Click the definition above to receive your surprise prize.

Bonus Opp.
What are now and know are examples of? A bonus point has been awarded to Erik, who was the first to submit the correct response: homophone. A homophone is a word pronounced the same as another but differing in meaning, whether spelled the same way or not, as in “heir” and “air,” or “read” and “red,” or “whine” and “wine.”

Details on Friday, 4.18.

Thursday's Homework.

• Read & annotate chapter 10-12, pp. 94-115 (22).
• Please bring your "Authentic Dialogue" warm up exercise and field work to class tomorrow so you receive credit for them.

Friday's In-Class Essay.
You may use your book and annotations in order to make connections to elsewhere in the text. Regardless of which one of the three options you choose (options are good, so I added a third; see details below), you must:

• Respond in three to four solid paragraph. (By solid I mean substantial. Every sentence and word ought to be carefully considered and skillfully articulated.)
  
• Include two substantial citations. They must be different page numbers than the one listed in the option you chose.

Waste no time; waste no ink. Ultimately, shoot for “Yahtzee!” We solid? Solid.

Your three options will be as follows:

1. the mule stories.
2. the head rag.
3. the horizon.
   

Read each specific question here: 4.18 In-Class Essay.

Quiz: chapters 1-9.

To reiterate, the quiz will be multiple choice and will cover chapters 1-9. It will be heavily focused on prominent characters (especially Janie, Nanny, Johnny Taylor, Logan, Joe, etc.), symbols and themes, and some vocab. Here's the study guide.

Bonus Opp.

Catcher/Graduate Snapshot.

Friday, 4.11 homework.

1. Reread Their Eyes chapter 6, pp. 51-75 (25). Complete handout.
2. Complete the Field Work part of the Authentic Dialogue assignment. Now that you are warmed up (from the Warm Up Exercise), go in search of dialogue. If you're in school, listen in the lounges, library, hallways, and at classroom doors. Outside of school, listen . . . well, anywhere. You must do this assignment alone. No two people should be together—hunt down an isolated conversation. Record about 7-10 minutes of actual dialogue, including expressions, body language, etc.
   

Thursday, 4.10 homework.

1. Reread Their Eyes, chapters 4 & 5, pp. 26-50 (25). Complete handout.
2. Complete the Warm Up Exercise part of the Authentic Dialogue assignment. Recall one conversation over Spring Break or today with friends or family members you are comfortable with. In ten minutes write this conversation verbatim (or as close to it as possible). Try to capture the actual language of the people involved. (For instance, runnin’ instead of running, cuz instead of because, whassup instead of what’s up, etc.) Insert facial expressions, body language, and other actions or interruptions as they occur.