Monday, January 17, 2011

On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day



Here's a link to a recently compiled list of the 25 most influential Black American leaders of all time.

Langston Hughes, W.E.B. DuBois, and other literary figures make the list, suggesting once again just how significant we consider literature to be in relation to our social world.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Blog writing due January 12




Once you've read Richard Brautigan's poem "All Watched over by Machines of Loving Grace" multiple times and really attentively, please write a 350-400 word blog on it.

First, write 1-2 paragraphs assembling evidence to argue that this poem has an anti-technology tone and message.

Second, write 1-2 paragraphs assembling evidence to argue that this poem has a pro-technology tone and message.

Finally, write 1-2 paragraphs explaining which reading you think is more convincing and explain WHY.

Please post the blog before class.

Ted Hughes "Crow's Theology"



"Crow's Theology"


Crow realized God loved him-

Otherwise, he would have dropped dead.

So that was proved.

Crow reclined, marvelling, on his heart-beat.


And he realized that God spoke Crow-

Just existing was His revelation.


But what Loved the stones and spoke stone?

They seemed to exist too.

And what spoke that strange silence

After his clamour of caws faded?



And what loved the shot-pellets

That dribbled from those strung-up mummifying crows?

What spoke the silence of lead?


Crow realized there were two Gods-


One of them much bigger than the other

Loving his enemies

And having all the weapons.

A less creepy love poem by Pablo Neruda

Love Sonnet XVII by Pablo Neruda
(Original in Spanish)
No te amo como si fueras rosa de sal, topacio
o flecha de chaveles que propagan el fuego:
te amo como se aman ciertas cosas oscuras,
secretamente, entre la sombra y el alma.

Te amo como la planta que no florece y lleva
dentro de si, escondida, la luz de aquellas flores,
y gracias a tu amor vive oscuro en mi cuerpo
el apretado aroma que acendio de la tierra.

Te amo sin saber como, ni cuando, ni de donde,
te amo directamente sin problemas ni orgullo:
asi te amo porque no se amar de otra manera,

sino asi de este modo en que no soy ni eres,
tan cerca que tu mano sobre mi pecho es mia,
tan cerca que se cierran tus ojos con mi sueno.
(English Translation)
I do not love you as if you were a salt rose, or topaz
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
So I love you because I know no other way

than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

In honor of Alan Watts' birthday today, here is a little video the South Park guys made to accompany an audio recording.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

"Sanitized" Huckleberry Finn: Thoughts??




Follow this link to a story about an English professor who has proposed a "sanitized" version of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn as a way of overcoming the traditional banning of this book, thereby making it more accessible to more readers.

On the one hand, this would get the book in more people's hands. On the other hand, some might say that this "whitewashes" the history of racial tension in U.S. history.

What do you think??

Blog Writing Assignment Due Monday, January 10th

Hi LitBloggers!

Read all of the poems, multiple times. Now, select one poem and take notice of all the imagery in it. Pay attention to the dominant images as well as those more subtly worked into it. Are there any patterns relating to an image or set of images? If so, are there any breaks or divergences in these patterns? Now get ready to write:

Step 1: Make a comprehensive list of the images in this poem. This can just be a list without complete sentences. The purpose is to create an inventory so you can then decide what to focus on in your writing. This does not count toward the 350-400 words, sorry.
Step 2: Now, select one type of image or a few images you think are somehow connected and/or work together in that poem and write a 350-400 word speculation about how this image offers an interpretation of the poem.

For example, if this assignment was today you might have written a comparative argument about the three images in Shakespeare's quatrains. You might have compared the people and their settings in Wordsworth, whether incorporating the bees or not.

The poems for Monday are rich in imagery, so this should be an inviting assignment. Please have it posted on your blog before we meet Monday morning.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Monday, January 3, 2011



Gwendolyn Brooks's "First Fight. Then Fiddle."
(1949)


First fight. Then fiddle. Ply the slipping string
With feathery sorcery; muzzle the note
With hurting love; the music that they wrote
Bewitch, bewilder. Qualify to sing
Threadwise. Devise no salt, no hempen thing
For the dear instrument to bear. Devote
The bow to silks and honey. Be remote
A while from malice and from murdering,
But first to arms, to armor. Carry hate
In front of you and harmony behind.
Be deaf to music and to beauty blind.
Win war. Rise bloody, maybe not too late
For having first to civilize a space
Wherein to play your violin with grace.