Remember: No Class Tomorrow

We've finished with the instruction part of the course, so there's no need to meet on Tuesday.  However, I will be here until around 1:00, so stop by at my office during class time (or after) if you have questions about revision, the Paper #4 assignment, or your current grade.  Otherwise, work on your satire paper (Paper #4) for next Tuesday's class.  Enjoy the break!  

For Thursday: Schlosser, Why McDonald's Fries Taste So Good (pp.558-568)

No questions this time: I want to do some in-class writing and satire practice based on this essay.  So be sure to read it for Thursday's class!  This is our last essay for class, so try to end on a good note and get credit for this last assignment.  

Remember the satire assignment is a few posts down, so make sure you're thinking about finding an article to respond to.  You can even respond to this essay if you like (and our class tomorrow will give you some ideas about it).  

For Tuesday: Carr, Is Google Making Us Stupid? (633-641)

Reading/Discussion Questions for

Carr’s Is Google Making Us Stupid (633-641)

Answer TWO of the following…

1. Why does Carr begin and end his essay with the science-fiction film, 2001: A Space Odyssey?  How does this film become a kind of metaphor for the ideas in his essay? 

2. What does Carr mean when he writes, “as we use what the sociologist Daniel Bell has called our “intellectual technologies”…we inevitably begin to take on the qualities of those technologies” (637)?  How have our ways of thinking, and indeed, even our metaphors, changed as a result of these technologies?  Consider also how previous technologies have changed our thinking, according to the essay. 

3. This is also an essay about ethics, and Carr claims that “The Net’s intellectual ethic remains obscure” (638).  If the internet is a philosophy or a religion—and Google is its “high church”—what is the doctrine or creed of this religion/philosophy?  Is it one that is ethically sound?  Is it one that we—or you—should believe in? 

4. Write a short, one-paragraph satire developing the same idea as Carr's essay.  How can you make us see his general concern/thesis through humor and irony?  What is it he's really worried about?  

Paper #4 Assignment: Satirically Speaking

For your final paper assignment, I want you to write your own satire on some real-world issue straight from the headlines.  To help you do this, I want you to actually find an article from a newspaper, magazine, or on-line to read and respond to satirically.  You can use anything from ECU’s The Journal, an essay from The Writer’s Presence, or even  an article from your Facebook feed.  However, you must include the article with your assignment so I can see your original inspiration Try to find something you actually care about, since this will inspire you to poke fun at it and make the reader see the real issue behind it. 

Your satire can take many forms, since there’s no single way to write satire.  However, here are a few ways that work particularly well:

·         An Onion-style newspaper article or editorial (as we read in class)

·         A short skit between 2 or more people

·         A television commercial (written out, of course)

·         A satirical movie review (it can be funny to treat some actual issues as if they’re a movie—like writing a satirical movie review of a college class, etc.)

ALSO: I want everyone to share their satire in class so we can try to guess what you’re really trying to say.  That means you have to (gasp) read your satire to the class.  If you really, really faint at the prospect of reading aloud, I can read it for you, or in extreme cases I can have you read it to me in my office.  However, this is part of the assignment and you cannot get full credit if you skip class this day.  There will be a prize for best satirical paper in each class (prize to be announced in class—and it’s better than extra credit). 

REQUIREMENTS

·         At least 2-3 pages, double spaced

·         Must include the original article that inspired it

·         Should follow the rules and structure of satire that we discussed in class (though you can interpret this fairly loosely)

·         Must come to class to read your satire to the class to get full credit

·         DUE IN-CLASS ON TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2^nd (no late papers accepted)

No Class on Thursday and Links to VIdeos

REMEMBER, no class on Thursday since the Oklahoma Literary Arts Festival will be taking place on the 3rd floor for most of the day, and they will be borrowing our room for the day as well.  

ALSO, if you missed class, or if you simply want to re-watch part of the video for research purposes, I've posted the two videos I showed both Comp class today (the 9:30 class watched "The Independent Woman," and the 12:30 class watched "The Man of the House"--both are linked below). Each is about 50 minutes long.  

The Independent Woman: http://video.pbs.org/video/2160358437/
The Man of the House: http://video.pbs.org/video/2163770656/

Remember Paper #3 is due next Thursday (not this Thursday).  Review the post beneath this one for details. Otherwise, see you net Tuesday!  

Paper #3: Gender 101 (due Thursday, November 13th by 5pm)

Paper #3: Gender 101

For this paper, I want you to research the hidden curriculum of “Gender 101” in your society.  How do we learn to be boys and girls—and men and women—by watching movies, playing with toys, participating in sports, and engaging in other social rituals/activities?  Remember that these rules are rarely stated outright, but must be learned to play the “game” correctly.  Even children quickly become aware of the rules, and learn to mimic their cultural role models.  Those who don’t are often ostracized or made to feel abnormal in some fashion. 

Our essays from the past two weeks have helped us see how gender influences behavior (smiling), clothing (corsets), toys (Barbie) and sports (throwing like a boy/girl).  Now I want you to add to this conversation and help us see the “Gender 101” rules in some activity/aspect of your society.  Remember, these don’t have to be negative: you can find something that challenges traditional stereotypes as well.  However, the rules are typically of a “follow this, not that” variety.  See what you can find! 

Choose ONE of the following categories to investigate:

• Entertainment: any film, TV show, book, or video game that showcases gender in a positive/negative way. 
• Sports: any sport that seems to define how men/women should act, or a sport that is designed to exclude a specific sex.
• Careers: similar to sports, any career that guides male/female behavior or excludes a specific sex.
• Toys: any toy that seems to have certain gender ideas either built into the product itself, OR in the way that it is marketed to children (for ex: Legos aren’t exclusively male or female—they’re just bricks—but they are marketed very differently to boys and girls). 

RESEARCH (4 sources required for a 2^nd draft paper)

• You must use at least 2 essays from class as part of your conversation
• You should use at least 1 outside academic article accessed through EBSCO or found elsewhere, but it must have an author or be from an authoritative organization (National Geographic, etc.) 
• You can use at least 1 film, show, or commercial in your paper, as long as you quote and discuss it as a significant part of your paper.  Don’t simply say, “there’s a commercial that shows girls playing with pink Legos.”  Analyze the commercial and bring it into your conversation—what does it say, show, and explain to its audience? 
• All sources must be quoted in some fashion (as part of your conversation) and documented according to MLA guidelines with a Works Cited page.

DUE Thursday, November 13^th by 5pm 

For Thursday: Pollitt and Fallows' essays

Reading/Discussion Questions for

Pollitt’s Why Boys Don’t Play With Dolls (555-557) and

Fallows’ “Throwing Like a Girl” (400-406)

Answer TWO of the following...

1.         At the end of the essay, Pollitt writes, “Feminsits are often accused of imposing their “agenda” on children.  Isn’t that what adults always do, consciously or unconsciously?” (524).  What does she mean by this?  How is she defending the role of ‘feminism’ in the education of children? 

2.         Why do you think people are concerned about the gender (as opposed to the biological sex) of a child?  What does gender say about boys and girls (and men and women) that is so important to the “status quo”?  Why do we get uncomfortable when the rules are broken (or blurred)? 

3.         How does Fallows introduce a ‘naysayer’ into his argument, and where might he act like a naysayer in the essay himself?  Why is this effective in both instances? 

4.         Why is throwing a baseball “a perfectly natural action…but not at all innate” (403)?  How does this relate to performances of gender itself, and why might “throwing like a girl” be related to gender, even if either sex can do it? 

For Tuesday: Reading Genders response

For Tuesday: Reading Genders

Instead of doing a reading this weekend, I want you to ‘read’ something you might otherwise just watch.  In other words, I want you to carefully watch either an episode of a favorite TV show or a favorite movie.  However, while doing so, I want you to examine ONE character in the show, male or female.  Consider how this character represents the “idea” of gender—that is, of being male or female.  How does he/she act, dress, behave, talk, etc?  What norms or rules do they seem to be following?  How do others in the show/film react to them?  Likewise, how are we supposed to respond to them?   Or consider it this way: if we were from another planet, and this character was our true introduction to being male or female, what would we know about it?  What rules would we try to follow?  What ideas might we not see or understand based on his/her performance? 

Some ideas:

• In a movie like Transformers, there are all these guys and robots (all of whom seem to be male), and there’s always one token woman.  What kind of woman is she?  What’s her role in the film?
• How do action heroes represent an ideal/idea of being male?  From Rambo to The Rock, who are these guys, and what idea are they trying to sell us?
• Who are the women in superhero movies?  Every superhero movie has  one or two (but usually only one or two); are they following the same ‘script’ as the male superheroes?  Does being superhuman change the rules of gender—or reinforce them even more? 
• How do men and women act in period dramas such as Downton Abbey, Pride and Prejudice, etc.?  What is our idea of the way men and women used to present themselves? 
• Does a show like The Big Bang Theory¸about various ‘nerds’, really change our perceptions/ideas about gender?  Are the men showing us different ideas or possibilities about being male?  The women? 

REMEMBER, this is just an informal assignment, so treat it like an in-class writing prompt.  Watch the show or movie, and then write for 6-7 minutes, analyzing what you’ve seen.  This may help you on Paper #3, so put a little thought into it. 

For Thursday: Eight Days In a Corset (sorry for the delay--the post got erased!)

For Thursday: Hustvedt, “Eight Days in a Corset” (445-450)

Answer TWO of the following...

1.  How can clothes be considered an art form rather than a way to simply cover things up and keep warm?  In other words, how can clothing (such as a corset) be both an idea and an object? 

2. How did the 19^th century sell the corset to women?  What did this say about the 19^th century idea of being a woman?  Related to this, why could only some women wear a corset—what did it say about that woman’s social class? 

3. What does Hustvedt mean when she writes, “wearing clothes is an act of the imagination, an invention of self, a fiction?” (450).  How can clothes change your identity, or how you—and others—see you?   

4. Even though a corset re-enforces outdated and possibly sexist ideas about women, why does Hustvedt enjoy wearing a corset as a movie extra?  Why does she admit that “the whalebone corset I wore for eight days catapulted me into another time and another aesthetic, and I liked it” (446)?  

For Tuesday: Cunningham's "Why Women Smile" (pp.347-353)

For Tuesday: Cunningham's "Why Women Smile" (pp.347-353)

Answer TWO of the following…

1. Why are women under more pressure to smile than men, according to the essay?  Why isn’t this inherently “female” but socially constructed (a product of gender)? 

2. Based on the ideas in the essay, what kind of smile is Mona Lisa’s smile?  Is it a “Duchenne Smile”?  A social smile?  What “reading” can we take from her smile—and how much of a smile is it? 

3. Is smiling an American cultural value?  Consider this passage: “When McDonald’s opened in Moscow not long ago and when EuroDisney debuted in France last year [1992], the Americans involved in both business ventures complained that they couldn’t get the natives they’d employed to smile worth a damn” (352).  What does this mean?  Why couldn’t—or wouldn’t—Europeans smile? 

4. Why might Cunningham be writing this essay to women as a kind of warning?  Consider the passage, “We’d do well to realize just how much our smiles misrepresent us, and swear off for good the self-depreciating grins and ritual displays of deference” (353). 

Paper #2 Conference Times

REMEMBER: These conferences are instead of class, so missing your conferences is the same as missing an entire week of class.  The times are below in case you forget what time you signed up for.  If you need to reschedule, no problem, just let me know as soon as possible.  We will also discuss the final Portfolio and your current grade during your conference, so be sure to come!  

TUESDAY
9:30 Jenna
9:40 Shelby
9:50 Josiah

10:00 Hayden
10:10 Courtney
10:20 Summer
10:30 Andrew N.
10:40 Adria

11:00 Anna
11:10 Macy
11:20 Andrew D.
11:30 Colby

1:00 Caylin
1:20 Amber
1:30 Walter

2:00 Ariel
2:20 Dillon
2:50 Treasury

THURSDAY
9:30 Chase
9:50 Roland

10:00 Bryson
10:10 Karina
10:20 Catrina
10:30 Kaitlyn
10:40 Tristen
10:50 Savannah

11:00 Tyler C.
11:10 Cierra
10:20 Tanner
10:30 Clay
11:50 Amelia

1:00 Jessica
1:10 Amber
1:20 Terra
1:30 Ryan
1:40 Carlye
1:50 Ashish

2:00 Bibek
2:10 Rachel
2:20 Hayden

FRIDAY
1:00 Jamison

Finding Sources for Paper #2

The goal for conducting research is to become more aware of the conversation surrounding your topic.  If you’re doing a ‘guide’ to some activity, you want to read other sources’ ideas first, so you can understand where you fit into the conversation (and find the naysayers).  Additionally, if you’re doing the definition essay, and you say, “I consider myself an X,” you want to know how other people discuss being an “X,” and if you agree with them. 

EX: I want to write a guide about how to self-publish your own novel.  What are other writers saying about this?  What is their advice?  Is it the same as mine?  Who would the naysayers be to my approach/ideas?

Step #1: Go to the Linschied Library’s webpage (found at the top of the ECU website); in the “EBSCO Discovery Service” search, type in your search term (you might need to play around with this to get the right result).  I would try “self publishing novels.”

Step #2: I found 215 results, from a variety of articles and books (you can choose to search just articles or just books from the beginning).  Skimming the first page, I found 3 that look interesting: “A Book Industry Couple Tries Self-Publishing, “Colliding With Readers,” and “Of Decisions and Dream Chasing.”  I decide to click on “Of Decisions and Dream Chasing.”

Step #3: The link brings me to a summary of the article complete with an abstract: “The author discusses his experience self-publishing his novel "The Breeders." Topics include the benefits and drawbacks in his experience of attempting to publish a book in eight months, the risks of ruining his reputation through not using a traditional literary agent and publisher, and the lessons he learned by self-publishing his book.”  From this, I can click on the PDF Full Text link (to the left) to read the entire article.

Step #4: After reading the article, I find ideas to respond to as well as a slight ‘naysayer’ response to my own ideas.  On the right hand side, there is a “Cite” link that gives you the MLA citation for your Works Cited page (so you can cut and paste).  When you quote this in your paper, cite the author and page number (Beier, 68)—since this is a magazine article, it has a page number. 

Step #5: Repeat for other sources or to find a more applicable source.  If you don’t find anything worthwhile, vary your search terms.  Also, don’t forget to search for books in the library.  Remember, you don’t have to read an entire book to use it as a source: read selectively, look through the table of contents and the index at the back for useful pages. 

REMEMBER, you can’t write a paper until you know the conversation.  Even if you know a lot about your subject, you need people to respond to.  Sources are the conversation.  The more you read, the easier this paper will be to write!  

Paper #2: Self-Help or Semantics (due Thursday by 5pm)

For your second paper, I want you to consider the conversation we’ve been having in class over the past 3 essays (and the one to come): writing guides to a specialized activity/event or to a specific identity.  Each of these authors is trying to initiate you into a complex experience that has its own rules, customs, beliefs, pitfalls, and language.  Now I want you to enter this conversation by writing an essay over one of the following:

·         A “how-to” guide to some activity you have experienced or are knowledgeable about

·         A “definition” essay where you define yourself as the member of a specific group or identity

Consider how the previous essays have addressed this: Koeppel compiled the advice of experts on how to survive a 35,000 foot fall; Eighner discussed the complex rules of dumpster diving; Mairs defined her identity as a “cripple,” and in our fourth essay, Tan will explore the difficulties of being Chinese-American and speaking what many consider “broken English.”  Your essay should be modeled on one or more of these, as you attempt to help us see a world we haven’t experienced and might never experience.  The goal of writing is to respond to a conversation, so your paper is a response to on-going conversation about this topic, how you fit into it, and what others can learn from it.

The Role of the Naysayer: You must introduce a naysayer(s) into your paper that offers other ways of looking at your activity or your identity.  For example, Koeppel offers conflicting theories of how to survive a terrible free-fall, whereas Mairs offers more polite names for her disease—“handicapped,” “differently abled”—which she rejects.  In your essay, I want you to consider how other people’s opinions and advice might argue with yours, and how you can respond to this in helping people see your point of view.  You need at least 2 outside sources on your subject/identity that can be used to offer other perspectives than yours, that you can either use to suggest alternatives or disagree with. 

Some ideas for this paper could include, but are not limited to: a guide to surviving high school, being a specific ethnic group, being a specific regional group (Redneck, etc.), playing a specific sport, learning a musical instrument, being a mother/father, surviving an addiction, being in a relationship/ marriage, doing a specific job (from working at Braum’s to something more specialized, like being a vet’s assistant),being a gamer (or some other sub-group), or having a difficult family relationship (divorce, a parent/sibling in prison, a death in the family), etc.  In each of these, consider how other people might view you or the activity in question; how might they disagree with your ideas and advice, and how can your response to this form the basis of your essay? 

REQUIREMENTS: at least 4 pages, double spaced; 2 outside sources (quoted/cited following MLA format); due on Thursday, Oct.2^nd by 5pm.  Late papers lose 10 points a day until Sunday at 5pm; after that you get a zero and cannot use this paper in your portfolio.  

For Thursday: Tan's Mother Tongue (pp.232-237)

For Thursday: Tan's "Mother Tongue" (pp.232-237)

Answer TWO of the following...

1. What does Tan mean by the statement, made at the very end of the essay, that “I began to write stories using all the Englishes I grew up with”?  What are “Englishes” and how might this relate to your own culture/language?

 2. What larger argument is Tan making about culture and language in this essay?  How do factors like the SAT’s play a role in supporting her argument?  Consider her statement: “Math is precise; there is only one correct answer.  Whereas, for me, at least, the answers on English tests were always a judgment call, a matter of opinion and personal experience.”

 3. Why do we call Tan’s mother’s English “broken” or “fractured”?  Re-read the passage where she is narrating the story of her neighborhood.  Why would Tan claim that this language is not “broken” but culturally inflected speech?  Why, for example, might it sound “normal” to Tan?

 4. What does she mean when she writes, "that was the language that helped shape the way I saw things, expressed things, made sense of the world"?  How can a language change the way you see things ? Aren't things the same no matter what language you use?  How can a language change your experience with life itself?  

For Tuesday: Mairs, On Being a Cripple (pp.142-151)

Nancy Mairs, circa 1988

For Tuesday: Mairs’ On Being a Cripple (142-151)

A few words I might look up if I were back in college... (optional)

1. semantics (157)

2. slovenliness (158)

3. predelictions (160)

4. concomitant (161)

5. vichyssoise (163)

Bonus: in extremis (note: it’s Latin)

Answer TWO of the following

1. Why does Mairs want to be called a “cripple” instead of being called “handicapped” or “disabled”?  Related to this, why wouldn’t she call anyone else a cripple? 

2. What does Mairs mean when she writes that “These two elements, the plenty and the privation, are never pure, nor are the delight and wretchedness that accompany them” (146)?  How does this give us a unique insight into the reality of having MS? 

3. Why does Mairs suggests that MS is even more difficult for women, since they are (according to her) confined “in their bodies as objects of desire”?  What unique challenges does the female MS sufferer have to endure that might not even enter the picture for men? 

4. On page 149, Mairs makes it very clear to her reader that “I am not a disease.”  What does she mean by this statement, and how does it relate to her greatest fears and her struggle to balance her life with the demands of MS?  

For Tuesday: Eighner, On Dumpster Diving (sorry--didn't post the first time!)

For Tuesday: Eighner, "On Dumpster Diving" (pp.377-387)

Answer TWO of the following:

1. How does Eighner distinguish between the different kinds of scavenging and the types of people who do it?  What does it mean to have a “scavenger ethics”?  Can someone who rummages through thrash really have a professional/moral code of ethics?

2. What does dumpster diving reveal about our culture and society?  What lessons does it teach him about living in the Western world, and about having a “healthy state of mind” regarding material possessions? 

3. If you were forced to scavenge to survive, what is the most practical advice that Eighner offers in his essay?  While some of this advice in common sense, what advice comes simply from day-to-day experience and scavenger wisdom? 

4. Why is there such a stigma against dumpster diving in our society?  How is it materially different from going to garage sales, flea markets, or even finding something abandoned in a parking lot?  Is it just for health reasons that most people avoid it, or is there an aspect of hypocrisy in refusing to do it?  Do we all “dumpster dive” on some level? 

For Thursday: How To Fall 35,000 Feet and Survive (pp.470-474)

For Thursday: Skoeppel’s “How To Fall 35,000 Feet and Survive” (pp.470-474)

Definitions: look up any words you’re not sure of…I might test you in class on Thursday!  J

Answer TWO of the following…

1. Why do you think Koeppel is writing this article, especially since, as he explains, “the odds of any kind of accident on a commercial flight are slimmer than slim and…you will likely never have to use this information” (474-475)? Does it have a purpose beyond humor or morbid fascination?

2. Surviving a free fall at 35,000 feet is a very tricky situation, and no one totally agrees on how to do it successfully.  How does Koeppel use Naysayers in his conversation to highlight the different theories of surviving? 

3. Koeppel does something very unusual in this essay by employing second person narration: “You’re 6 miles up.  You’re alone.  You’re falling” (471).  Why does he do this, and how might it be important for his essay?  Why, on the other hand, do you think second person is so seldom used? 

4. Having read the essay, do you feel that survival is more a matter of skill or luck?  What do you think Koeppel thinks, despite the wealth of evidence he offers on both sides?  Does he think he can empower us to survive—or is this essay simply a way of understanding the odds against us?

Paper #1 due IN-CLASS on Tuesday and MLA references

Remember that Paper #1 is due in-class on Tuesday (not at 5pm, which I also stated on the handout for some reason).  Below are the MLA/Quotation handouts for your reference. Please remember to cite properly when introducing other voices into your conversation. Good luck! 

Using Quotes in your paper:

“A photograph such as this one, where time has stopped on an ordinary scene full of innuendoes, partakes of the infinite.”

The Quotation Sandwich: Introduction + Quotation + Response

As Simic writes, “A photograph such as this one, where time has stopped on an ordinary scene full of innuendoes, partakes of the infinite” (578).

OR

In “The Life of Images,” Simic notes that “A photograph such as this one, where time has stopped on an ordinary scene full of innuendoes, partakes of the infinite” (578).

Then, Respond...

In other words, when we look at a photograph without context, there’s no limit to what it could be, or not be.  Only our imagination limits its possibilities as we try to piece together the clues and innuendoes.  Thus, even the most obvious picture becomes infinite, not only in its possible meanings, but in its ability to exist forever outside of the original event.  It is now literally eternal, and each new viewer can decide for him or herself what it means or expresses.

The Works Cited Page

On a separate piece of paper (the last page of your essay) list all the essays you referenced in your article like so:

Morris, Errol.  “Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire.” The Writer’s Presence.  Ed. McQuade,

            Atwan.  Boston: Bedford St. Martin’s, 2012.  pp. 753-758.

Simic, Charles.  “The Life of Images.”  The Writer’s Presence.  Ed. McQuade, Atwan. 

            Boston: Bedford St. Martin’s, 2012.  pp. 575-580.  

For Tuesday: Ephron, The Boston Photographs

Close Reading Questions for

Ephron’s “The Boston Photographs” (655-660)

PART I: Definitions

1. Morbid 

2. Voyeurs 

3. Ombudsman 

4. Righteous indignation 

5. Puritanism/Puritanical 

PART II: Answer TWO of the following as usual...

 1. In Ephron’s essay, she opens not with a description of the image, but with three paragraphs of context.  How does this influence how we read the images (which we don’t see until we turn the page) and do we need to know this to appreciate them? 

2. Why was the response to these photos so negative throughout the country?  Are these photos “sensational” and “voyeuristic”?  Or do you agree with Ephron herself, who writes, “That they disturb readers is exactly as it should be: that’s why photojournalism is often more powerful than written journalism” (660).

 3. Much of this essay is actually a critique of newspaper editors and their “puritanical” audience.  What is her essential argument, and what does she worry these people might “miss” if the censure pictures such as the Boston Photographs? 

4. Why does she argue that photos are not "news" and by using them as news, they are made false? Would Morris agree with her about this use of context?  Why or why not?  

Photos for Paper #1 and Assignment

Here are the photos for Paper #1: the paper assignment is beneath them (click on "read more" to see it)

For Thursday: Simic, The Life of Images (pp.576-580)

Close Reading Questions for

Simic’s The Life of Images (576-580)

PART I: Define the following words as they are used in the essay (in other words, make sure the definition matches its use in the sentence).

1. “Innuendoes” 

2. “Nostalgia” 

3. “Tonsorial” 

4. “Poignant” 

5. “Ephemeral” 

PART II: Answer TWO of the following in a short response (more than a single sentence, and enough detail to see you “thinking”). Remember, don't assume the answer is obvious, and consider why you think this is the answer--what are the implications of this response?  Have fun with your answer and remember that anything you write now might help you down the road on Paper #1.  

1. What does Simic mean by his statement that “the attentive eye makes the world mysterious”?  How does this relate to how we see and read the world?

2. Read Simic’s description on pages 576-577 of the photo on page 577.  Do you “see” the same photograph he does?  What descriptions and conclusions do you agree with—and which do you dispute?  In other words, what in the photo is really there, and what is simply what he sees? 

3. What do you think Simic means by the statement, “The enigma of the ordinary—that’s what makes old photographs so poignant."  What is the “enigma of the ordinary” and how does it relate to one of the photographs in the essay? 

4. Would Simic agree with Morris (author of Liar, Liar Pants on Fire) that pictures cannot be true or false?  Do you think he feels they need context to “see” them? 

For Tuesday: Morris' Liar, Liar Pants on Fire (p.753)

Reading/Discussion Questions for Morris' Liar, Liar Pants on Fire (753)

PART I: Define the following words as they are used in the essay (in other words, make sure the definition matches its use in the sentence).  

1. inherently

2. preternaturally

3. context

4. inadvertently

5. objective

PART II: Answer TWO of following questions in a short paragraph (at least a few sentences).  Do not simply respond with a "yes" or "no" response.  I am less interested in what you think than why you think it.  Try to use support from the essay--show us where your ideas about the essay come from.  In other words, why is this your answer? 

1. Why, according to Morris, can you never apply the words “true” or “false” to an image?  Explain this using one of the images in the essay.  

2. Morris writes in this essay that “there is nothing so obvious that it’s obvious.”  What does he mean by this?  What isn’t “obvious” in a picture—and why don’t we see it (or worse, think we see it)?  

3. What role does historical context play in what we see and how we understand it?  Can we see anything without context according to Morris?  

4. Explain how the three images on page 757-759 relate to one another, even though they seem to have nothing in common.  Why would this relationship be obvious to a reader of 1915?  

Welcome to the Course

Welcome to blog for Dr. Grasso's two sections of Freshman Composition I, at 9:30 and 12:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  This blog is your resource for assignments, handouts, and announcements, and should keep you connected to class so you never have to ask the dreaded question, "did we do anything last class?"  

So what is Freshman Composition all about?  This is a class where we not only write, but discuss how to read the various texts of our culture, whether these are photographs, advertisements, gender roles, fashion, food, or television.  The goal of this class is to make you realize that nothing is simple or obvious; everything can be read on a deeper (or perhaps, more engaged) level, which changes what we see and how we respond to it.  As a writer, I want you to realize that everything you write has a built-in audience, so that any piece of writing contributes to an on-going conversation, many of them hundreds of years old.  Ideally, you will leave this class with an increased ability to enter into these conversations, and be able to see the hidden 'texts' that inform everything we see and do--particularly those things that make up the abstract concept known as culture.  

Be sure to buy our one book for class, The Writer's Presence, which is available at the ECU Bookstore. We'll start using it next week.  Otherwise, consult the syllabus for questions about the class and other information.  Feel free to e-mail me at jgrasso@ecok.edu as well.  I look forward to teaching you this semester!