APELC Class Notes
APELCers, yesterday and today we talked over the Douglass text, more in fourth period on Tuesday than in third and fifth on Wednesday because of our wacky schedule. We met in the liberry for the last two thirds of class on Tuesday and for the entire period on Wednesday where students drafted their narrative arguments and I conferred with others over their free-response revisions. You do have a reading for homework; please attend the details on your class page.
I decided after fifth period on Monday to post the “damn” words I proscribed from student papers here on out. This should help those that find them too numerous to remember. The words are
- Aspect
- Factor
- Efficient
- Kids (this was the word I couldn’t read)
- Hooks
- Uses
- Vivid
- Paints
- Choppy
This list will continue to grow, and, of course, there’re other phrases I’ve mentioned in class that remain forever banned from your papers, and I’ll remind you as needed.
If you’re not following the news about WikiLeaks, you really should do what you can to educate yourself about this most important development in foreign relations. You can start with these:
- “State’s Secrets” at the New York Times (see also “The War Logs” about the organization’s first major document dump to attract worldwide attention)
- “WikiLeaks: A Reminder Of The Pentagon Papers” from Morning Edition
- “The Inner Workings Of WikiLeaks” from All Things Considered
Also, as Hanukkah begins tonight, here’re two more fun pieces from NPR:
- “Tracing Hanukkah’s U.S. Roots … To Cincinnati?” from Morning Edition
- “No Gelt, No Glory: A Dreidel Champion Is Crowned” from All Things Considered
We’ll see each other next class, boys and girls.
September 11
APELCers, while we processed the text of President Bush’s September 20 address on Thursday and Friday, I alluded to conspiracy theories that were engendered by the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon nine years ago on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. Personally I don’t believe them: The ostensible facts upon which the theories are built have been addressed and refuted by experts in many fields. Still, it’s worth taking time examine the claims, evidence, and warrants of both the conspiracy theorists and their critics. It may be helpful in revealing the motivations and fears of the former and in highlighting the goals and methods of achieving objective understanding by the latter.
You’ll find a detailed list of 9/11 conspiracy theories at Wikipedia. As with any reading of this reference material, it’s important to follow links to external sources for clarification; Wikipedia’s a great site to begin research, but should never be an end. Snopes, one of my favorite sites on the web, also has an index of rumors which enumerates some of the very bizarre ideas regarding the events of that Tuesday morning.
Popular Mechanics famously countered many of the structural and engineering myths surrounding the day in its pages, and the magazine has compiled its research online at: Debunking the 9/11 Myths: Special Report. The History Channel produced a documentary from Popular Mechanics’ research titled The 9/11 Conspiracies: Fact or Fiction which is a good summary.
Tonight at 9:00, History is airing 102 Minutes That Changed America, a documentary put together from private video from witnesses on the ground that day in New York. It’s really an incredible, terrifying, and moving narrative, that I recommend viewing with family if you’re home.
We’ll talk soon.
Finally, an Explanation
I came across this graphic recently. Makes sense to me.
Thanks again to Andrew Strumpf for bringing “Miracles”, ICP’s excellent and thought-provoking meditation on the nature to the world, to my attention in the spring. The sheer inanity of the song and its video garnered serious attention even from the New York Times and New York Magazine, respectively: “Kidding the Clowns Online, but Who Will Laugh Last?” and “Violent J of Insane Clown Posse Explains the Remarkable Song ‘Miracles’”.
I hope everyone’s enjoying their summer.
My Movie List
Here’s the long-promised movie list I kept on the board from class that I said I’d reproduce in a post. It all started with Moon back in February because of the existential questions it engendered, and as other movies came to mind I added them to the board. Some selections were purposeful and provoked me to think of more along similar lines, while several were the result of haphazard ruminations, and some are essential to cultural literacy, while others are just silly, but I think they all have their merits.
A quick note to cover myself: Many of these films contain language and situations that some will find objectionable and are rated accordingly. So if you feel like checking any of these out be mindful and maybe surf over to the Wikipedia page for each where you can at least get some ideas about what to expect.
Here’s my list:
The Last Starfighter, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, Flash Gordon, and Conan the Barbarian are awesome adventure/sci-fi flicks I enjoyed in my youth in the early the 80s.
An American Werewolf in London and Tremors are a great mix of horror and humor. (Do not waste your time with the sequels of these movies.)
National Lampoon’s Vacation, Fletch, Spies Like Us, and Caddyshack reflect a time when Chevy Chase was actually funny and are worth plenty of laughs. Another hilarious golf movie is Happy Gilmore.
Witness, The Fugitive, and Blade Runner (The Final Cut) are three excellent Harrison Ford movies, the first dealing with questions of place, the second questions of justice, and the third questions of identity.
Joe vs. the Volcano is a highly underrated Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan absurd comedy. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, with Gary Oldman and Tim Roth in the leads, is an absurd tragicomedy. And Moon is an absurd tragedy with Sam Rockwell. All deal with issues of purpose and identity.
The Silence of the Lambs is a graphic psychological crime-thriller with Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster. Reservoir Dogs, written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, and True Romance written but not directed by Quentin Tarantino are excellent seriocomic crime films, the former more serious and the latter more comic, and both are pretty brutal.
Kids and Requiem for a Dream, both notable for their graphic content, are depressing existential explorations of the consequences of morally unrestrained youth culture. American Me and The Wrestler, with Edward James Olmos and Mickey Rourke, respectively, both deal with lives of shattered adults who’re desperate for meaning in their lives but who at the same time are unwilling or unable to grow beyond their circumstances and themselves. The Hours is another depressing meditation on meaning and growth, but not savage as the others.
The Commitments is a comedy that follows an Irish soul band trying to establish their identity in Dublin; A Man Called Horse is a forerunner to Dances with Wolves; and The Big Blue is a fictionalized account of the competition between two free-divers. None of these movies have anything in common with each other.
I saved the greatest movie of all time, which deals with sacrifice, duty, patriotism, and love, for last: Casablanca. See it yesterday.
That’s it for now. Remember, check these films before you rent them or add them to your queue, and while you’re watching them consider speaker, context, audience, and text, examine and analyze how they’re organized and to what ethical and pathetic ends, and discover and evaluate the concepts they’re tackling and the questions they’re asking and attempting to answer.
Happy viewing.