Week 1: Beats

During our first class, we listened to Allen Ginsberg reading his famous work, "Howl".  Our assignment afterwards was to read this poem, and related texts and create a short response paper, which will become part of the class discussion on the following Tuesday.

Spring Quarter: March 28, 2011

Below are the course descriptions for the two courses I will be taking this Spring.



Topics in Comparative Literature: Dante's Inferno

This course examines Dante's Inferno in its cultural, social and political context. In particular we will explore how the underground world imagined by the poet relates to late medieval urban life and culture. To this end we will study Dante's masterpiece alongside textual and visual documents of his age, including selections from major works of literature, political science, historiography and visual arts. Ample use will be made of audio-visual resources as well as of reading and in-class discussion. Counts toward the Comparative & World Literature specialization.

Special Topics: The Beats: Conformity and Aesthetics

In this course, we will be examining the process by which art grapples with political, moral, and sexual conformity. Amid the unparalleled material wealth of the immediate post-World War II era, America seemed locked into conflict with an implacable foe. The very definition of what it meant to be American was contested, and "UnAmerican" activities denounced, UnAmerican people blacklisted or worse. Yet artists and writers like William S. Burroughs, Gregory Corso, Diane DiPrima, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and others refused to conform, and produced art which interrogated and resisted the culture. We will read both seminal and less-famous works by Beat Generation authors in the context of Cold War ideology and literary aesthetics, with special concentration on the politics and processes of identity formation and subject position. Counts toward the American Literature specialization.

End of the First Quarter

The first quarter of graduate school is over, my final papers have been turned in and my stress level somewhat reduced. I shared the first three weeks of each class previously to give you a taste of my classes. If you have any interest in either please let me know, I am more than willing to share.

Summary of the Quarter:
I LOVED my Debord class. It spurred numerous quality conversations with friends, family and co-workers. It completely changed my life for the better. I hope to stay in touch with new friends and Professor Winston is truly an amazing woman. It was the most positive experience I have had in a long time, and this class confirmed that I am doing the right thing, following this literature thing for myself rather than business for my career.

My other class was ok. I enjoyed the readings, and will be looking into some new authors to explore for pleasure. I did finally open up a little in class and meet a few people, I am sure I will see them again as I progress in the program. In the end, I disappointed myself with this class. For our first paper, I wrote a B paper, and got the deserved B. I have been beating myself up about it ever since, and turned myself into a basket case trying to outdo myself for the final paper-- but still convinced that in my professors mind I am nothing more than a B student. *sigh. Had the class had more direction, or focused on a more concrete set of ideas, I think I could have been more interested and thus been able to write a decent paper, as it was, I still have no idea what the class was about.

I am looking forward to next quarter, which starts in 2 weeks. I'm enrolled in a class about the Beat generation and one about Dante's Inferno. Both should be interesting. Look for more soon.

Week 3: Globalization

Topics this week:

1960's Haight-Ashbury
The Doors
Theory of Simulacra and Simulation
The Parallax View

This should have been one of the most interesting classes in the world. As someone who is highly interested in cultural icons, there symbols and the interesting ways in which they enter our lives, I couldn't wait to jump in. But, frustration was the primary outcome.

I am frustrated with this class because we never make a point. We talk. Everyone talks. My notes are a mixture of "notes to self", thought bubbles, tally of how my times my professor mentions Bob Dylan (5 last week, 2 yesterday) doodles and word webs. Everyone says a lot of very interesting highly intelligent words, but never really says anything. I sit there convinced that it's all an elaborate hoax. Everyone is just speaking in circles, with extensive vocabulary, to accomplish nothing but impress upon everyone else that they are highly evolved intellectual beings. The urge to stand up and scream, "SERIOUSLY?!" is almost overwhelming. As a result I sit there silent. I will probably fail in participation points. But, this occurred to me....

We read an essay entitled, "The White Album" by Joan Didion -- great read, highly suggested! in which she describes an anti-climatic moment while witnessing The Doors record in a studio. She describes each member as a regular person, includes chit chat about this and that, nothing of any importance. She describes how they all have to wait on Jim Morrison to show up, but once he does no one acknowledges the fact that he has finally arrived. Eventually, she gives up and leaves with the sense that they would be there forever, doing nothing but being regular people.

Iconic image of Jim Morrison

Then, we watched a clip of The Doors performances during which the spirit of sex, drugs and rock-n-roll was at it's peak; Jim Morrison being arrested on stage, people protesting their lyrics, fans attacking him. You know, what you think of when you think of The Doors. What you see when you think Jim Morrison (bet it's the picture above, and some black leather pants)

I thought of how this plays into the theory of the symbol becoming the reality over the actual  reality. (the symbol of The Doors as a band vs. the members of the band as people) The clip of The Doors, wild and crazy, on drugs, being pure rock-n-roll, is what is reality to me (having not lived during this time period-- ) and I wish we still had it.

I enjoy the music of The Doors, and find Jim Morrison an interesting cultural iconic character. I enjoy the cultural and historical relevance of Morrison, just as I do The Beatles, Elvis and Michael Jackson. And I wonder what has happened to this type of cultural relevance. Are we left with Britney Spears and Katie Perry. (let's hope not)

This should have been a profoundly interesting class.

Week 3: Debord

Art. Our fundamental concept of art is the final product. When you think of art you are lead to an idea of a particular painting, a piece of music, a film. And, if you love culture and art as much as I do, you may reflect upon several experiences of enjoyment at various museums around the world.

See this (one of my favorites) at The Cleveland Museum of Art

(side note: Top Museums I've visited thus far: Louvre, MOMA, The Cleveland Museum of Art , The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Art Institute of Chicago)

But that's not really art. That is our capitalist mindset separating art and showing us a product. Art is a process. I am sure you have learned this at some point in your lifetime, that art is not the final product but the process/adventure in which it was created.

The situationist believed we should all be experiencing this process of art, all the time, in every day life. I'm going to have to agree. I just need to figure out how to make it happen.


(And, I need to schedule a trip to the museum!)

Week 2: Globalization & Culture

This week we read:
Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49
Fredric Jameson, Chapter 1: Postmodernism
Dwight Eisenhower, " Farewell Address"

Interesting ideas from the reading:
Eisenhower: I read this, 1961 Farewell Address in which Eisenhower warns us (the American people) of the dangers of what he refers to as the " military industrial complex". He expresses a warning of the great power and responsibility having this large military will warrant. As I read this address, I couldn't help but relate this to the Doomsday System/fall out shelter discussion from my other class. It is interesting that Eisenhower, a formal general, is warning us of the growth and power of the military. Also interesting, the time period of his address signifies a change in the use/size of the military. Previously, it had been reactionary, building as needed during conflict. At the time of his address, it had become a new, complex prepared in advance. In my lifetime-- our military forces have always been this way.

Jameson: I ran out of time, and couldn't finish this chapter of extremely dense reading. But I did get a few good points that I will be using for future readings for this class and others. Historical context is important for reading of literature, analysis of art, film etc. This is one of the "commandments" of literature analysis. Jameson explains that for a work of literature to be understood, you must look at it in the time period of it's creation to fully understand it. (this becomes relevant via example below.)

Pynchon: I truly enjoyed The Crying of Lot 49. It is one of those novels I have been aware of, and meaning to read for quite some time, but hadn't quite gotten to yet. It is the story of a woman who sets out on an adventure to discover many mysterious circumstances, and conspiracy of a post delivery system. While the novel is well known for its themes deeply enveloped in the concept of entropy, among other ideas, what stood out to me was the stamp/post delivery conspiracy. This, using the historical context of the late 60's (Jameson commandment) can be understood when the fact that the use of zip codes in the US had just been established, and people were concerned with the surveillance of their lives. Perhaps part of Pynchon's novel was meant to parody the current concern. (or maybe it was pastiche, but that is an entirely different, long topic.)

Week 2: Debord

 An interesting discussion class focused on the reading assignments. Below, an interesting portion of one such reading which demonstrates and exemplifies the fact that in a Capitalist society, we can be made to work and consume on the basis of a purely fictional "need". 

1950's advertisement for fall out shelters

From the Reading: Geopolitics of Hibernation:

It is easy to see that these (already widespread) individual shelters could not possibly work, if only because of such gross technical oversights as the absence of an independent oxygen supply; and that even the most sophisticated collective shelters would offer only the slightest possibility for survival if a thermonuclear war was actually accidentally unleashed. But here, as in every racket, “protection” is only a pretext. The real purpose of the shelters is to test — and thereby reinforce — people’s submissiveness, and to manipulate this submissiveness to the advantage of the ruling society. The shelters, as a creation of a new consumable commodity in the society of abundance, prove more than any previous commodity that people can be made to work to satisfy highly artificial needs, needs that most certainly “remain needs without ever having been desires” (Preliminaries Toward Defining a Unitary Revolutionary Program) and that do not have the slightest chance of becoming desires. The power of this society, its formidable automatic genius, can be measured by this extreme example. If this system were to go to the point of bluntly proclaiming that it imposes such an empty and hopeless existence that the best solution for everyone would be to go hang themselves, it would still succeed in managing a healthy and profitable business by producing standardized ropes. But regardless of all its capitalist wealth, the concept of survival means suicide on the installment plan, a renunciation of life every day. The network of shelters — which are not intended to be used for a war, but right now — presents a bizarre caricatural picture of existence under a perfected bureaucratic capitalism. A neo-Christianity has revived its ideal of renunciation with a new humility compatible with a new boost of industry. The world of shelters acknowledges itself as an air-conditioned vale of tears. The coalition of all the managers and their various types of priests will be able to agree on one unitary program: mass hypnosis plus superconsumption.


For the whole text go here: Geopolitics of Hibernation

This again, brought up the idea that we are all selling our time to work for the class of people Debord has designated as "the managers".

A question we were left with: If you try to think about it, if you hadn't as a child been guided by your parents in any variety of activities (piano lessons, dance lessons, french lessons, soccer, football, etc.) and then, reinforced into specific roles in the educational system, what, since the time you were a small child, would you have chosen to do with your time (your whole life), and who would you be now?