PREVIEW: 24 October 2002 (Thursday)
-- We'll continue our discussion of Sula.

POSTSCRIPT: 22 October 2002 (Tuesday)
Notes from Sarah Beth on Tuesday's class:

Class began with a quick quiz over Sula by Toni Morrison. 

Dr. Richardson was our guest discussion leader on Sula.   He opened with the following thoughts: Sula is a tough book, a bloody book, and is not nice.  It is both metaphorical and direct.  People usually have strong reactions to reading the book.  The prodigal son will be used as a door for our discussion of Sula.   We will use their similarities as a pattern to work with.

            We read the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-31), taking note that the word prodigal means wasteful.  We know that Jesus told the prodigal son as a parable, or story, in order to teach the audience something.   What was Jesus trying to tell his audience?   How do we interpret this? (Richardson).   That we are never too lost to be redeemed.  The prodigal son represents the sinner (Bretlan). We should celebrate in each other coming back.  The older brother should have been happy for his brother (Beth).  Faith becomes more meaningful when you run away; question it, and then return rather that just going along with the flow (Megan).  We concluded that God represents the father, and freely gives forgiveness to his repentant son; however, some believed that the son may not have really repented, and that he may have just wanted to survive.  We agreed that the older son was bitter and jealous. 

            Dr. Richardson invited us to view the characters of the novel not as external but as internal.  Instead of only looking at what Jesus intended for the parable, we can view the characters of the prodigal son as parts of the self.  The prodical son was the part of the self that is unbounded, it desires; Freud calls it the id.  The elder son represents the side of the self that is resentful, self righteous, and judgemental.  The father then is the part in the center that wants to reconcile the two extreme parts of the self.  The father is the true voice, the center that knows, also called the ego.  Then he posed the question are you more like Sula or Nel? 

            Sula was unhampered by social norms, rules, and expectations (Richardson).  She allowed herself to experience emotion fully.   There is a difference between acting on and experiencing emotion (Beth).  Sula was honest, blunt, she just didn’t care, and has no regard to others' feelings. Acting that way isn’t always the best thing; no one is going to like you (Matt). 

We looked at pages 122-123 to examine what Sula meant to the town and why she was promiscuous.  “Sula was Pariah, then, and knew it.”  She played a role in the community.  The community wanted an enemy, someone to project themselves onto (Richardson).  What they hated most about her was that she slept with white men.   At the end of the passage we saw in the metaphors that she sought loss and the only way she could access that part of her and enter that feeling was sex. 

Loss and sorrow was the ball that pressed down on her throat and the ball that hovered behind Nel.  When the ball came out of Nel she experienced profound sadness and loss “circles and circles.”  At that moment Nel and Sula join (Richardson).  When Nel visited Eva, she shook her.  Eva said that there was no difference between her and Sula because each was living at such extremes that they are the same.  When Sula died, Nel lost her creativity.  Sula was pure creativity, but she had no focus, no discipline, and no way to channel what she had.  On the other hand, Nel was all discipline.  She pinned herself in a narrow dry life.  Both of them were out of balance. 

PREVIEW: 22 October 2002 (Tuesday)
-- Following today's quick quiz on Sula, Mr. Ed Richardson of the Department of LL&P will join the class to lead our discussion of Toni Morrison's "modern folk tale."  Among other things, Mr. Richardson will be suggesting certain parallels between Sula and the Parable of the Prodigal Son.  
-- Preparing for class: in addition to reading the novel and the parable, please have a look at the study questions and notes on Sula, posted at my Contemporary Literature course site. 

POSTSCRIPT: 17 October 2002 (Thursday)
-- If you think you might be interested in a two-week study-abroad experience in Estonia during the May break, please get in touch with Dr. Olavi Arens in Gamble Hall 210-B.  

We see with our language -- Neil Postman & Charles Weingartner
-- At the end of October and during the final week of term, we'll continue the discussion begun today on the nature and value of the humanities--both the imaginative vision of the artist (writer, musician, artist) and the imaginative experience of responding to art.  Responding to art (in our case, to literature) does not mean voicing opinions.  It begins with seeing--really seeing, really reading what is in front of us--and that's hard enough to do.  The temptation is to see what we want and what we expect to see.    Of course, when we stop looking altogether, somehow presuming that we've seen it all before, we don't have a prayer of experiencing art.  We're simply consumers.
.
Take a minute and read this listserv posting from Harriet Squier, "The Value of the Humanities in Medical Education," noting in particular the points she makes in her second and third paragraphs. 

Anton Chekhov, as we know, was a medical doctor as well as one of Russia's great writers.  In the summer of 1892 he visited more than two-dozen villages,  checking sanitation, treating dysentry, worms, syphilis, and tuberculosis.  After famine and cholera had struck the heartland, he offered to staff a village hospital where he was given no pay and no assistance.  I feel somehow more alert and more pleased with myself, he once wrote, when I know I have two occupations, and not one.  Medicine is my legal spouse, while literature is my mistress.  When I get tired of one, I go and sleep with the other.  He saw environmental degradation, human misery, complacency, and failed ideals--all fantastic material for new fiction.  And all the time, Chekhov was himself suffering from tuberculosis, which killed him at the age of 44. 

Risk! Risk anything! Care no more for the opinion of others, for those voices. Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth.
New Zealand-born author Katherine Mansfield was 35 when she, too, died of tuberculosis.    Life never becomes a habit to me, she wrote in a letter. It's always a marvel. 

I have always had a gift of feeling what is in other people's hearts
(the "stranger youth" in Hawthorne's "The Ambitious Guest")
Consider how the experiences provided by literature might transport us beyond the all-about-me stage of development to a somewhat higher, less self-absorbed stage. 

-- And here are Amanda's class notes (delivered so promptly that they actually arrived before the end of class):

Notes – October 17, 2002
We started out by quickly writing what we thought were common themes in Shirley Jackson’s stories “The Lottery” and “The Summer People.”

“The Lottery”
--We discussed how the lottery began in history. It originated to make a sacrifice (cultures sacrificed virgins, sheep, eldest sons, etc). While it was something common long ago, it is no longer universal in today’s New England 20th century towns, or anywhere else in America, for that matter.
--Old Man Warner said there had always been a lottery; his quote indicated that they believed long ago that it helped the corn grow. He is also the strongest supporter of the lottery because he’s never “won” it. He supports it because of self-interest and appeal to tradition.
--“The Lottery” is written in third person objective – a reporter’s point of view where the reader is informed of the actions of the story, but no thoughts or internal feelings of the characters. This allows for the ending to be a surprise, because the reader has no idea what the prize is.
--The citizens go along with the lottery, though it seems they participate out of obligation and not from earnestly wanting to take part. The only person who resists is the woman who says she is too tired. The people are slow to draw from the box, and their demeanors are nervous. Even the box is tattered and worn. This shows the people have little desire to keep the lottery going, and probably hope the box will just fall apart or be thrown out as trash so that there is no way to conduct the next year’s lottery.
--Old Man Warner represents the old way the town was, generations ago, and he represents tradition (including,  perhaps, blind obedience to tradition).
--Adams says that other towns have given up the lottery; thus, he represents change (though he lacks the courage to initiate change).
--The Hutchinson family wins the lottery. Then Mrs. Hutchinson (Tessie) tries to add her own daughter to the drawing in order to decrease the odds of her own name being drawn, but her daughter is married and cannot be included. Tessie wins the lottery, and she begins to complain that it’s not “fair.” In actuality, the lottery is fair.  Not until the very end of the story does she say what the reader has likely been feeling: "It isn't right."

Observations about “The Lottery”
--The time makes this story so horrible, that it takes place in the twentieth century.
--The children throwing the rocks as well as participating in the lottery was disturbing.
--View of human nature: mob mentality. When this story came out, it was during the Red Scare and McCarthy hearings.
--It illustrates superstition and can be a commentary on religion.
--It shows the loyalty of the citizens to their town and its tradition, no matter the cost.
(Check out this report on class behavior when a college instructor held a lottery in her classroom--a lottery with the prize of a grade of "F": "Lessons Learned from 'The Lottery.'"  )

“The Summer People”
It illustrates again people’s adherence to tradition.
--The setting and weather contribute to the mood of the story. It literally becomes darker as the story progresses, which gives it an ominous tone. It also has a small town setting, like “The Lottery.”
--The Allisons are superficial and seem “stuck up” to the townspeople, so they become unpopular. The reader is still able to see the Allisons’ weaknesses, however, as the story continues.  The story is told from the third-person limited omniscient point of view--allowing readers access to the thoughts of the increasingly isolated couple.
--The letter from the Allisons’ son has no sign of genuine affection. Do they only notice that because they are away from their old home and have been isolated by the townspeople?
--The Allisons have no reason to return home; their children are grown and no longer need them. All they have left is each other, which is shown at the end.
-- The phone is cut off, the car doesn’t work, there is no heat or electricity; the Allisons are in the dark. All of this is foreshadowing the ending, which does not seem to give them much hope of survival.
--The Allisons don’t listen to the townspeople. They ignore when somebody tells them that nobody stays after Labor Day, and they put the eating apples into a pie instead of saving them.
--Through the story, townspeople show their indifference and borderline passive-aggressive like hostility toward the Allisons.
--It was suggested that the end could have played more on nature, sending a storm perhaps.

“Midsummer Night” by Juhan Jaik
Katlin talked about the Midsummer Night held in Estonia. It is a huge celebration on the days where there is no night and people search for the legendary blossom of the fern, which is said to give eternal luck and love, but it really doesn’t exist.

“Toomas Nipernaadi” by August Gailit
--We have an excerpt from Gailit's lengthy picaresque novel, which is a series of adventures, similar to those of the naïve Don Quixote, a constant wanderer of “romantic adventures.”
--Toomas wants to know himself, and gives an anecdote about the poor girl and a fable about luck.
--His speech is very fancy; he is trying to be artistic through his speech. This is similar to what we talked about earlier the way people write poetry about themselves that they think is very good at the time it’s written, when in reality most times it isn’t something that will be remembered in 50 or 100 years, if at all. 

“The Ambitious Guest” by Nathaniel Hawthorne
--Hawthorne took the article we read and re-imagined it. The guest was ambitions in general. Part of the art of writing is re-creating reality so that readers may experience worlds beyond their own.
--The same goes for Chekhov’s story. He recreated the situation of the girl killing the baby, and described the conditions that led up to the action to give it perspective.
--Hawthorne and Chekhov go inside the readers’ minds to recreate a new perspective, not to give validation to the actions or to give a psychological profile of characters.  Details are the raw materials of art.  Like Toomas, authors convert details to art to make them more beautiful and more easily remembered.
--Art recreates life. It moves people out of themselves as they take it in. After they view it, they are drawn back into themselves, but that is the appeal. It is an escape of life and what they are, and it takes them somewhere else and describes it so it can be reenacted in their minds.
 
PREVIEW: 17 October 2002 (Thursday)
-- Today we'll discuss the short stories assigned for this week.   (See preview, below, for Oct. 15th.)

POSTSCRIPT: 15 October 2002 (Tuesday)
-- Notes below are from Katlin (setting a new record for quick delivery):

The lesson started with a quiz on the eight stories we had to read for today’s class.

After the test we checked the answers and we had a small class discussion on “The Summer People”  by Shirley Jackson--whether or not the Allison’s son really wrote to them.  We came to a conclusion that we never know for certain!

We came back again to The Duchess of Malfi and to its key passages. Key passages usually reveal the true personality of characters, and therefore the language used there is very important.   No one really chooses the same passages as others.  Everybody sees the most important and striking aspects from their point of view.  One might even remember the paragraph forever as it might include something meaningful for him.

The Duchess is dead by Act 5--isn’t she the main character at all?  No--she still remains the main character as she is the corner stone for Act 5: without her there would not be the last act. There is even an echo scene that in the play on the stage is performed by the Duchess. 

Sara suggested that maybe Bosola is the leading character because he experiences a change and he is  the most dynamic character. He also has the best speeches. After the death of the Duchess, it is as if Bosola has inhaled her personality.

We still had not finished with the passages we had to choose, so we looked at them.

-          Beth: page 18, line 204, the speech by Antonio. “Stains” defined as “eclipses or puts into shade.” She liked how the line appears without the definition: “stains”-makes a mark on what a profound compliment; shows insight into Antonio’s feelings for the Duchess.

Page 34, lines 45-61, the speech by Bosola. Man is quick to judge. Man thinks highly of himself when we are no more than dirty animals ourselves, dressed in “rich tissue.” “Man stands amazed to see his deformity in any other creature but himself.” We are blind to our own faults.

Page 36, lines 79-82, the speech by Bosola. “For the subtlest folly proceeds from the subtlest wisdom.” Ignorance is bliss, wisdom brings to light faults that would not have been seen without this wisdom.

Page 92, lines 5-7, the speech by the Duchess. “Nothing but noise and folly can keep me in my right wits, whereas reason and silence make me stark mad.” Reveals the Duchess’s inner torment over Antonio.  She does not want to be left alone to confront her tormenting thoughts about what reality is and about what is happening.  Also mirrors how there has really been no reason or peace and quiet in her life lately. She can not function without the noise, folly, and insanity that has surrounded her for so long via the people in her life.

 -          Bretlan: page 104, the speech by Bosola.  He is taunting Ferdinand, threatening him and you can feel the tightness going on between them.

-          Sophia: page 105, the speech by Bosola. It reveals that he has not changed and that he is the most self-conscious character.

-          Sara: page 105, lines 308-315, the speech by Bosola. This is one of the key passages of the play.  He uses words such as “rotten” and “grave” to talk about the insides of people.  He remarks how horrible everybody is but distinguishes himself.

 In The Duchess of Malfi there are references to a lot of things compared to King Lear. At the same time there appear references to nothing!  We found out that at the end of the play Bosola recognizes how wrong everything is, and he has a self-confrontation.

 -          Emily: page 118, line 226, the speech by Julia. Emily liked the language used in this passage. It came out that at the beginning of the play the good guys are doing themselves, but at the end these are the bad guys who are doing themselves.  (In other words, earlier scenes are re-enacted ironically toward the end by the evil characters.)

-          Dr. Nordquist: page 122, the speech by Bosola, and pages 127-128, the speech by Antonio. It appears to be a cruel act itself and seems to be a mortification.

-          Sophia: page 132, the speech by Ferdinand. It is well written and is a selfish way of apologizing.

 Throughout the play there are several references to diamonds (look at the speech by the Duchess on page 100!!!). Steve said that diamonds can be cut only by other diamonds.  (You can find more information about diamonds online at http://www.sdnhm.org/exhibits/diamonds/facts.html .)

For the last 15 minutes of the class we acted out a funny play “Sure Thing”  by David Ives. Each passage was separated from the next one by the sound of the bell. The point was that actors had to switch parts after the bell rang and we did it in a circle. It came out as a very interesting and unique play!

PREVIEW: 15 October 2002 (Tuesday)
-- Two of the stories that we're reading for today are by Estonian authors (Gailit and Jaik).  The stories appear in issues of ELM, the online Estonian Literary Magazine. Purely optional: for some background on Estonian Literature, visit this page (in English) designed by Loone Ots.  (Coming soon: short stories by Bolivian writers.)
-- Other writers that we'll be encountering this week include the New Zealand-born author Katherine Mansfield (see also here), the Russian Anton Chekhov (see also here), 19th-century New Englander Nathaniel Hawthorne, and 20th-century New Englander Shirley Jackson.

NOTES ARCHIVES
archive 5 (Oct. 15 - Oct. 24)
archive 4 (Oct. 3 - Oct. 8)
archive 3 (Sep. 24 - Oct. 1)
archive 2 (Sep. 5 - 19)
archive 1 (Aug. 20 - Sep. 3)

English 2100H is taught by Dr. Richard Nordquist.
Armstrong Atlantic State University
University Hall 297D
11935 Abercorn Street
Savannah, Georgia 31419
912-921-5991
e-mail: nordqudi@mail.armstrong.edu           

 
24 October 2002

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