Jared Luce

In Block 2, we've been reading "The War Poets" -- particulary Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sasson, two British poets of World War I. We're now moving on to Doug Anderson, a poet and Vietnam veteran who is now teaching at UConn (as far as I can tell).



One of Owen's poems is called "Disabled" about a soldier who loses both legs (and at least one arm). One of my former students, Jared Luce, is an Iraq war veteran who lost both of his legs (from the knees down). Fortunately, his story seems to be turning out much better than the young man in Owen'd poem. Still, it's a high price to pay.

What Do You Mean "What Do I Mean 'What's a Meme?'?'?

In Block 2 (I think it was Block 2) the other day, I brought up the word "meme". It's a fairly recent concept, but one that makes a lot of sense. Let me give you a couple of links to it.

First, a general definition from Wikipedia.

The term "meme" (IPA: /miːm/, rhyming with "theme"; commonly pronounced in the US as /mɛm/, rhyming with "gem"), coined/popularized in 1976[1] by the biologist Richard Dawkins, refers to a "unit of cultural information" which can propagate from one mind to another in a manner analogous to genes (i.e., the units of genetic information).
Dawkins gave as examples of memes: tunes, catch-phrases, beliefs, clothes fashions, ways of making pots, or of building arches. A meme, he said, propagates itself as a unit of cultural
evolution and diffusion — analogous in many ways to the behavior of the gene.

Some examples, also from Wikipedia.

Proverbs and aphorisms: for example: "You can't keep a good man down".
Nursery rhymes: propagated from parent to child over many generations (thus keeping otherwise obsolete words such as "tuffet" "pail" and "chamber" in use), sometimes with associated actions and movements.
Children's culture: games, activities and chants (such as taunts) typical for different age-groups.
Conspiracy theories.
Fashions.
Medical and safety advice: "Don't swim for an hour after eating" or "Steer in the direction of a skid".
The material of video technology: very memetic given its mass replication — people tend to imitate scenes or repeat popular catch phrases such as "You can't handle the truth!" from A Few Good Men or "Alllllllrighty then!" from Ace Ventura, even if they have not seen a film or a television broadcast themselves.
Popular concepts: these include Freedom, Justice, Ownership, Open Source, Egoism, or Altruism.
Group-based biases: everything from anti-semitism and racism to cargo cults.

For more information (again, thanks Wikipedia).

Interclass Smackdown -- Round 2!

Q1: What overalls are named for Dungri, a suburb of Bombay (Mumbai)?

A: Dungarees. While we (Americans) thing of them as synonymous with blue jeans, in England they apparently refer to overalls. (George Bernard Shaw characterized the English and Americans as "two peoples separated by a common language".)
[Both classes got this one right.]

Q2. What actor was stung in The Sting?

A: Robert Shaw. Maybe you remember him as "Quint" in the Steven Spielberg classic Jaws.
[Neither class was able to get this one. Block II thought "Henry Fonda"; Block IV, "Robert Redford (who at least was in The Sting.) Actually, Kristin LeBel came up with the name Shaw, but nobody paid her any heed).]

Q3. What did Peter Minuit buy for the equivalent of $24?

A: Manhattan Island. I was surprised that Block II was stumped by this. (They ended up going with "Sri Lanka".) When I was in school, this was one of those bits of Americana that everyone learned by 5th grade. Back in the day, we were all pretty proud of Mr. Minuit for making such a shrewd deal. Nowadays, I guess it's not something that we brag about.
[Advantage: Block IV]

Q4. What’s the name of Dr. Seuss’s egg-hatching elephant?

A: Horton!
[Both classes knew this.]

Q5. What’s a row of crows called?

A: A murder. (If you think that's fun. . .)
[Both classes knew this.]

Q6. Who was world heavyweight boxing champion from 1937 to 1949?

A: Joe Louis. They called him "The Brown Bomber." (It was a simpler, more racist, time.) Nevertheless, Americans of all colors were proud when, on the eve of World War II, Louis defeated the German Max Schmeling, avenging an earlier loss. (Louis originally had taken the world title from James J. Braddock. )
[Advantage: Block IV.]

Q7. What Robert McCloskey favorite is honored by nine bronze ducks in Boston’s Public Gardens?

A: Make Way for Ducklings.
[Both classes knew this.]

Q8. What 1866 novel, written in only three days, was based on the author’s recurring nightmares of a double life?

A: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Both classes got this one, but I have to admit that I thought you both got it wrong. I was thinking of Fyodor Dostoevesky's The Double. But here's my excuse. The question is wrong! Robert Lewis Stevenson wrote Dr. J in 1886, not 1866. That was right in the middle of Dostoevsky's career. And Dostoevsky wrote The Gambler in less than a month (still much more than three days).


Q9. What jailed Sioux militant was the subject of Peter Matthiessen’s In the Spirit of Crazy Horse?

A: Leonard Pelletier. (I bet most classes in other schools wouldn't get that one. See what happens when you can offer your students lots and lots of classes?)
[Both classes knew this.]

Q10. What Aussie author copped the Booker Prize for his debut novel Vernon God Little, a dark comedy about a Texas high school massacre?

A: D. B. C. Pierre?? Neither class knew this, and neither did I. Come to think of it, I know hardly anything about Australia. A few actors, but not authors. Oh, and the Crocodile Hunter.
Oh, and Pierre? It turns out he's a "self-confessed serial 'conniving bastard' ".

Q11. What author of 80-plus romance novels opened an art gallery near her San Francisco mansion in 2003?

A: Danielle Steele
[Advantage: Block IV]

Q12. What Australian author penned The Touch, about a miner who swaps a trunk of gold for his 16 year-old Scottish cousin?

A: Colleen McCullough. (One of the two Australian authors -- Nevil Shute is the other -- that I do know.) Both classes were stumped by this one, and I don't blame them.


And, the winner of the second Interclass Smackdown: Block IV!

The Myth of Multitasking

Also from this morning's (3/25) New York Times. New studies on multitasking confirm what my instincts had told me -- it's a myth.

The findings, according to neuroscientists, psychologists and management professors, suggest that many people would be wise to curb their multitasking behavior when working in an office, studying or driving a car. These experts have some basic advice. Check e-mail messages once an hour, at most. Listening to soothing background music while studying may improve concentration. But other distractions - most songs with lyrics, instant messaging, television shows - hamper performance. Driving while talking on a cell phone, even with a hands-free headset, is a bad idea.

You can do four things at once: it just takes you six times as long.

Big Brother is Stirring. . .

From an article in today's New York Times (Sunday, March 25). You can access the full article here.

An organization of artists called "Bands Against Bush". . . was planning concerts on Oct. 11, 2003, in New York, Washington, Seattle, San Francisco and Boston. Between musical sets. . . there would be political speeches and videos. "Activists are showing a well-organized network made up of anti-Bush sentiment; the mixing of music and political rhetoric indicates sophisticated organizing skills with a specific agenda," said the report, dated Oct. 9, 2003.

Sounds like democracy in action, doesn't it?

Well, the report was compiled by the Intelligence Division of the New York City police. They were preparing for the Republic National Convention the following year, which would renominate George W, Bush for president, and they wanted to be ready for any trouble. (Remember Chicago, 1968?)

They made friends, shared meals, swapped e-mail messages and then filed daily reports with the department's Intelligence Division. Other investigators mined Internet sites and chat rooms. . . But potential troublemakers were hardly the only ones to end up in the files. In hundreds of reports stamped "NYPD Secret," the Intelligence Division chronicled the views and plans of people who had no apparent intention of breaking the law, the records show. These included members of street theater companies, church groups and anti-war organizations, as well as environmentalists and people opposed to the death penalty, globalization and other government policies. Three New York City elected officials were cited in the reports.

I can understand why New York City would be worried about some violent events planned to coincide with the Republican Convention. And I can understand the need in this day and age to gather information, and the value of plants and informants. But it makes me nervous when the sitting goverment is secretly investigating citizens whose only crime is political dissent.

Here's a longer article from the Village Voice on how the authorities handled protests when the Convention finally rolled around. Is this protecting the peace, or stiffling poltical expression? There will continue to be a lot of tough calls like this in the future.

Interclass Smackdown (Round I) -- Answers

1. (Geography): What Thames River bridge is nearest the Tower of London?

A: The Tower Bridge. Maybe that's the one you were thinking of, but that's the Tower Bridge.





2. (Entertainment): What father and son won Oscars for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre?

A: Walter Huston (Best Supporting Actor), and his son John (Best Director). Humphrey Bogart, as Fred C. Dobbs, did not win an Oscar.





3. (History): Who won the 1968 California Democratic primary?

A: Robert F. Kennedy.


4. (Arts & Literature): What is Juliet’s last name?

A: Capulet.


5. (Science & Nature): What’s the most common color of garnet?

A: Red.


6. (Sports & Leisure): What American won the world Grand Prix driving championship in 1978?

A: Mario Andretti.


7. (Children’s Literature): What novice Keeper is hailed as Gryffindor’s “king” after winning the Quidditch Cup in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix?

A: Ron Weasley.


8. (Classics): What fearless Prince of the Geats gets munched by a dragon, in an old English poem?

A: Beowulf. (Block IV, I'll give you a pass on this. Block II, you should nearly be ahamed of yourselves.)


9. (Non-Fiction) What 72 year-old feminist rallied for the rights of the elderly in The Fountain of Age, in 1993?

A: Betty Friedan. (Click here for a little social commentary from our friends at The Onion.


10. (Book Club): What novel by Peter Carey finds an imaginary poet created by Christopher Chubb coming back to haunt him?

A: My Life as a Fake.

11. (Authors): What bit actor ran the Playhouse-on-the-Mall in Paramus, New Jersey, before penning, at age 40, the first of his twenty-plus best-selling thrillers?

A: Robert Ludlum. (Like Mr. Blais, Mr. Susla, Bill Belichick, and myself, Robert Ludlum has a degree of Wesleyan University.)

12. (Book Bag): What Dan Brown thriller pries into the secrets of the Priory of Sion after a murder at the Louvre?

A: The DaVinci Code.


The Results: Block II -- 8 correct answers, Block IV -- 6 correct answers.
(Block II caught a very lucky break in Beowulf, which you are just starting but Block IV has not come to yet. So toss out that question and all that stands between the two classes is "Betty Friedan".)

RU into Hip-Hop?

It's not really my cup of tea, but there's an International Hi-Hop Festival next weekend at Trinity College in Hartford.

It's time to put the heart back in Hartford.

(Don't forget to check out the Cinestudio while you're on campus. There's a French Film Festival coming up next month!)

Julie Taymor is a Genius. . .

and Joe Roth is a putz.

Who's Julie Taymor? Ever see the stage version of The Lion King? That was her vision. Those were her puppets. (Some of my long time fans will remember "Fool's Fire", her dramatization of the Edgar Allan Poe story "Hop Frog.") The best filmed verson of Shakespeare that I've ever seen is Titus, Taymor's version of Titus Andronicus. (If you're good, maybe I'll show you some of it.)

Joe Roth. Well, he's the genius who directed Christmas with the Cranks and Revenge of the Nerds II.

Taymor just finished directing a new movie, Across the Universe, a "psychadelic love story set to Beatles' music. The studio (Joe Roth), decided it was too long, and that it should be cut down, and that Roth was just the man to do it.

Taymor does not have final cut. (Very few directors do). She's so outraged that she may take her name off the whole project. Stay tuned.

I'd trust Julie on this one.

Update: Not so fast, says Nikki Finke in the LA Weekly.

Here's what four civilians who have seen it have to say (courtesy of Internet Movie DataBase).

And here's the website, where you can watch the trailer.

(I'm still going with Julie.)

Loon-y Tunes

Do you like Thoreau? (I bet you don't. I bet you had to read it last year in American Lit, something from Walden, and you thought it was boring and irrelevant, and even now you're not reading this, you stopped as soon as you got to Thoreau -- assuming you even came here in the first place.)

Well, I do. I love Thoreau. I would love to hang out with Thoreau. When I get to Heaven, one of the first people I'm checking out, is Thoreau.

Aunt (to HDT, on his deathbed): Henry, have you made your peace with God?
HDT: I wasn't aware that we ever quarreled.

There's nothing I'd like better than to get out my kayak this afternoon (right now!) and go play hide-and-seek with a loon!

THE LOON

(From Walden.)

By HENRY D. THOREAU.

As I was paddling along the north shore one very calm October afternoon, for such days especially they settle on to the lakes, like the milkweed down, having looked in vain over the pond for a loon, suddenly one, sailing out from the shore toward the middle a few rods in front of me, set up his wild laugh and betrayed himself. I pursued with a paddle and he dived, but when he came up I was nearer than before. He dived again but I miscalculated the direction he would take, and we were fifty rods apart when he came to the surface this time, for I had helped to widen the interval; and again he laughed long and loud, and with more reason than before.

He manœuvred so cunningly that I could not get within half a dozen rods of him. Each time when he came to the surface, turning his head this way and that, he coolly surveyed the water and the land, and apparently chose his course so that he might come up where there was the widest expanse of water and at the greatest distance from the boat. It was surprising how quickly he made up his mind and put his resolve into execution. He led me at once to the wildest part of the pond, and could not be driven from it. While he was thinking one thing in his brain, I was endeavoring to divine his thought in mine. It was a pretty game, played on the smooth surface of the pond, a man against a loon.

Suddenly your adversary’s checker disappears beneath the board, and the problem is to place yours nearest to where his will appear again. Sometimes he would come up unexpectedly on the opposite side of me, having apparently passed directly under the boat. So long-winded was he and so unweariable, that when he had swam farthest he would immediately plunge again, nevertheless; and then no wit could divine where in the deep pond, beneath the smooth surface, he might be speeding his way like a fish, for he had time and ability to visit the bottom of the pond in its deepest part. It is said that loons have been caught in the New York lakes eighty feet beneath the surface, with hooks set for trout,—though Walden is deeper than that. How surprised must the fishes be to see this ungainly visitor from another sphere speeding his way amid their schools!

Yet he appeared to know his course as surely under water as on the surface, and swam much faster there. Once or twice I saw a ripple where he approached the surface, just put his head out to reconnoitre, and instantly dived again. I found that it was as well for me to rest on my oars and wait his reappearing as to endeavor to calculate where he would rise; for again and again, when I was straining my eyes over the surface one way, I would suddenly be startled by his unearthly laugh behind me. But why, after displaying so much cunning, did he invariably betray himself the moment he came up by that loud laugh? Did not his white breast enough betray him?

He was indeed a silly loon, I thought. I could commonly hear the plash of the water when he came up, and so also detected him. But after an hour he seemed as fresh as ever, dived as willingly and swam yet farther than at first. It was surprising to see how serenely he sailed off with unruffled breast when he came to the surface, doing all the work with his webbed feet beneath. His usual note was this demoniac laughter, yet somewhat like that of a waterfowl; but occasionally when he had balked me most successfully and come up a long way off, he uttered a long-drawn unearthly howl, probably more like that of a wolf than any bird; as when a beast puts his muzzle to the ground and deliberately howls. This was his looning,—perhaps the wildest sound that is ever heard here, making the woods ring far and wide. I concluded that he laughed in derision of my efforts, confident of his own resources.

Though the sky was by this time overcast, the pond was so smooth that I could see where he broke the surface when I did not hear him. His white breast, the stillness of the air, and the smoothness of the water were all against him. At length, having come up fifty rods off, he uttered one of those prolonged howls, as if calling on the god of loons to aid him, and immediately there came a wind from the east and rippled the surface, and filled the whole air with misty rain, and I was impressed as if it were the prayer of the loon answered, and his god was angry with me; and so I left him disappearing far away on the tumultuous surface.

For hours, in fall days, I watched the ducks cunningly tack and veer and hold the middle of the pond, far from the sportsman; tricks which they will have less need to practise in Louisiana bayous. When compelled to rise they would sometimes circle round and round and over the pond at a considerable height, from which they could easily see to other ponds and the river, like black motes in the sky; and, when I thought they had gone off thither long since, they would settle down by a slanting flight of a quarter of a mile on to a distant part which was left free; but what beside safety they got by sailing in the middle of Walden I do not know, unless they love its water for the same reason that I do.

This Just In!

Death of Western Civilization Imminent!