English 585/586

We've only had one class so far, and we've covered so much ground, asked so many questions. My head is spinning with ideas, angles, depth, and a variety of colorful thoughts. How about yours? Let me reiterate some of the questions below, and allow you to post some of your kaleidoscopic responses here, and, hopefully, some support for your gut feelings and thoughts too please.

1. What distinction, if any, do you make between fiction and virtual reality? You may want to define fiction and virtual reality, on your own terms, first, before proceeding to answer the rest of the question.


2. When you think about people like celebrities, do you view them as real? Was Michael Jackson a fiction? How did you see him and why?


3. T.S. Eliot talks about the face we put on to meet the faces of others, which I understand as a version of the persona, where does that fit?




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topic of the week: CONFLICT [particularly around others' expectations of us, whether it be the boss's, school's, families' (plural if you are married and have more than one family expecting things from you), children's, students', self's, society's/culture's, religion's/church's, etc.] a small introduction to differences in voice which will continue across the semester, but teach students to start listening and how to start listening for differences in voice. Most of all enjoy the time teaching your class, and enjoy writing with them, but be sure to maintain order and structure, so it remains enjoyable.

Reminder of LiterActive Texts you can connect to theme of course and to "Girl":
1. Increase Mather's text on witchcraft (listed under Hawthorne)
2. Ted Hughes' text listed under Plath
3. Sylvia Plath's journal text
4. Mother text listed under Amy Tan
See if you can find one or two others and explain in one or two sentences what type of connection we can make to the class theme of types of enslavement and to "Girl."
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See Post #2 later tonight on beginning to write the paper, and other posts later in the week on the issue of quoting and on thesis statements.