The Dentist / Sweetheart

Post any comments / questions / critiques of "The Dentist" and "Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong" here.

Also, if you have a specific piece of text you would like to look at (as we've been doing... close reading), please post what intrigues / confuses you. We could examine these sections in class.

Happy Homecoming! SAXONS RULE!

p.s. I will never do the worm again.

Visceral Reactions and the Water Buffalo

Comments/Reflections/Questions about the water buffalo and our class discussion this Monday should be posted here.

Also, have you experienced any visceral reactions lately?
Were they in film, literature, music, elsewhere?
If visceral, did you also feel empathy? Why or why not?

Elroy

Comments/Reflections/Questions about Elroy and our class discussion this Thursday should be posted here.

EXCELLENT JOB to everyone who has participated in class thus far.

Juxtapositions of War

Many juxtapositions exist within the pages of The Things They Carried. Are there any that stand out or truly caught your attention due to their sublimity, their paradoxical nature, their abstract sense, and/or their visceral effect on you? Why?

Did O'Brien purposely want you to experience the juxtaposition this way or do you suppose it is an issue of interpretive truth?

9/11 Proximity Reflections

Thanks to everyone who has already emailed me
(please do if you haven't yet).

This specific post is reserved for reflections
on the E308 class of 9/11.
Please feel free to leave a comment
for someone who has posted here.

Quick Homework Poll

On a happy democratic day in E308, which would you choose:

1. more in-class writing, fewer typed assignments,
but more outside reading/annotation (about 40 pages every few days)

2. more reading/discussion during class,
decreased reading/annotation,
but more papers (about 1-2 STP every few days)

3. status quo (currently, I try to alternate between extensive reading/writing assignments, which gives you a fair allotment of class time to discuss text and composition and an ample schedule to prepare for the course at home)

I'm willing to simply catalog votes
or read cogent arguments on this topic.
If there is an overwhelming response from all three classes
for any one of these options, the class format may change.

Paradoxes

Other than the conventional examples given in class,
are there any paradoxes that inundate your life?

Are they unavoidable / unexplainable?

Conversely, are there any paradoxes that you happily accept?
(whoa, that's a paradox too!...)

Architectural Influence

I marvel at how many choices an architect must make when designing a building. This mode of art is certainly a vehicle, but think about how the vast nuances of each brick, each beam, each boundary intricately influence a person that enters, passes by, or even stands to witness the message of the structure.

Do we have a need to aim for the sky? (cue ethical appeal)
Do we experience awe and/or sublimity in the midst of such grand construction? (fondly, pathos)
If we build, do we improve society? (clear logic)

I wonder what buildings have influenced you...
OR
Have you ever actually designed/built something that required rhetorical choice?