Seniors: Archetype v. Cliche

In class today, we listened and lectioed to "Vincent Black Lighting 1952". They say the way to really learn about something is to teach it, and I learned something new today.

I said that the song worked so well (at least it does for me) because it relies on archetypes -- both of character and plot. These are well known and traditional literary figures, which means they can be introduced and come to life in the brief space of a song. We already know James, we already know Red Molly.

What saves these from being cliches is that a cliche is stale, trite and expected. The archetype takes a new and interesting character, and plugs it into a new stories. (Or "presses that button", as I put it in class.)

Anyway, here's a page on archetypes.

Juniors: "Starry Night"

A key image in "Seeing Through Walls" is Vincent van Gogh's painting"The Starry Night". Fin

(For a bigger image, go here.)

The painting was the introductory image to the program on the chip in Gabriel's head (kind of like the Windows banner that comes on when you turn on your computer). When he asks Teresa why she chose that image, she says "she saw it in a museum" when she was small. Now, that's as far as the movie goes, but I think it's reasonable to assume that this is what started her on path of learning, eventually leading her to become a doctor. And that is exactly the path that she wants to open up for others.was the introductory image to the program on the chip in Gabriel's head (kind of like the Windows banner that comes on when you turn

Everyone: Jack Bauer v. George Orwell

Are any of you 24 fans? I've watched a couple episodes, and then last year I started to watch it. But it was just too fast paced for me. And then I knew I'd miss an episode here and there, so I stopped.

Here's an essay that I just stumbled across (via Digg.com). It's written by a student at Colorado State University, who is also affiliated with something called the Ludwig von Mises Institute, a "sanctuary for Austro-libertarian scholars." (It's always a good idea to find out where things you find on the net are really coming from.)

Matt McCaffrey is concerned with the way that Jack Bauer, in the course of doing his job saving America from terrorist threats, tramples on civil liberties (not to mention kills a lot of people).

He decides that:

"As enjoyable as 24 is on the surface, a more than cursory glance makes it obvious that the show is attempting to justify and even celebrate an ever-expanding Orwellian state. It almost makes me want to root for the bad guys."

Seniors: "Do Not Go Gentle"

"The truth is, I don't want to go."

Here's something that I stumbled across the other day, and I immediately thought of "Do Not Go Gentle." Donald Crowdis is 93 years old.  He's apparently lived a full life.  But "it bothers me that I have to go."  As Thomas Gray will ask us later this semester

For who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey,
This pleasing anxious being e'er resign'd,
Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day,
Nor cast one longing lingering look behind?

Legend has it that Dylan Thomas literally drank himself to death ("18 straight whiskies; I think it's a record"). Like many great stories, it ought to be true -- Thomas was did everything in a big way -- but it's most likely apocryphal.  It may have been bad doctors rather than drink that did the Welsh poet in.

P.S. "Do Not Go Gentle" is a villanelle.  What's a villanelle?

Seniors: "The Mortality Paradox"

In short, the mortality paradox states that because things are mortal, we will love them better. If we all lived forever, if nothing ever changed or died away, no one thing would mean more than another.

"This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long."

In Shakespeare's sonnet, we are the ones about to leave something or someone behind -- our family, our friends, our school, our homes. Separation causes pain. And when you must leave things forever, that hurts the most.

But, as Joy tells Jack in Shadowlands "the pain then is part of the happiness now." The happier we are in life, the more we love people or things, the more it hurts to lose them. That's the mortality paradox.

Hello, Seniors!

We're starting out this semester with a blending of the old and the new: ""Vincent Black Lightning 1952", by Richard Thompson.

Thompson started off musically back in the 1960's with a "folk-rock" band called Fairport Convention, which blended traditional English folk songs with modern instrumentation.

"Vincent Black Lightning", although decided modern, with motorcycles and whatnot, has a lot of the earmarks of a traditonal ballad, as we saw in class.

Here you can listen again to the song, as performed by Thompson himself. (We listened to a version by Iowa folksinger Greg Brown, which a personally prefer, but. . .) Or watch him, on YouTube.

Hello Juniors!

The first story that we'll do this semester is "Seeing Through Walls" a video written and directed by Carlos Avila, part of a series called Fotonovelas.

It's about a jailed felon who undergoes an experimental operation which implants all sorts of new knowledge in his head. Once he begins to access this knowledge, a whole new world opens up to him (even though he's locked in a prison cell). Things that he hardly even saw before suddenly fascinate him.

That's the key message that I want to get across. "The more you learn, the more you know; and the more you know, the more you will learn." Learn as much as you can -- during the rest of this semester, and next year, and for the rest of your life. (Knowledge is good.)

Unfortunately for Gabriel, the chip has to be removed from his head, and he loses most of his new-found knowledge. BUt as another character tells him: "All that knowledge in your head. It's all out there."