Hey everyone. It was nice seeing the classroom come alive with discussion about Nietzsche just yesterday. Here, I want to continue that discussion, or provide you my thoughts.
I mentioned in our discussion that in certain passages of text, even though Nietzsche himself does not pose questions, what he wants us to ask ourselves is apparent.
In the second paragraph, Nietzsche says, "One might invent such a fable and still not have illustrated sufficiently how wretched, how shadowy and flighty, how aimless and arbitrary, the human intellect appears in nature. There have been eternities when it did not exist; and when it is done for again, nothing will have happened. For this intellect has no further mission that would lead beyond human life." Here I wonder how Nietzsche believes the world came to be. Does everything return to nothing which the world once was? Why then, does he want us to look inside his world, to consider for even a moment that it is significant enough to merit some time from the admirer (the reader of his essay), if this world should cease to exist the moment we cease to exist?
To build on what I just said, at the end of the third paragraph, Nietzsche says, "That haughtiness which goes with knowledge and feeling, which shrouds the eyes and sense of man in a blinding fog, therefore deceives him about the value of existence by carrying in itself the most flattering evaluation of knowledge itself. Its most universal effect is deception; but even its most particular effects have something of the same character." Here, it seems like Nietzsche is saying that knowledge is a quest to understand the world. Knowledge gives humans a purpose and makes them feel proud and distinguished from the rest of the world, the rest of the perspectives. But even with that said, I believe he wants us to focus on the fact that this arrogance that results from deeming ourselves superior makes us blind to why we actually exist; our arrogance shrouds any real meaning,which we seek.
Continuing this train of thought, in the fourth paragraph, Nietzsche asks why knowledge must appear in the form of deception: "...nothing is more incomprehensible than how an honest and pure urge for truth could make its appearance among men." But in searching for this truth, why is it that we find ourselves living in vain, imitating others at an attempt to achieve contentment? "[Our] ignorance [has us] hanging in dreams, as it were, upon the back of a tiger." Why is it that we cling onto the hope or urge that there is more to life than reality?
In class, we also wondered why Nietzsche chose to associate implicitly "peace" with "truth." Perhaps he did, perhaps he did not--we will never know. Curiously and hesitantly, I tie this thought to his notion of "concept," the residue of a metaphor. In the tenth paragraph, he mentions that "the illusion which is involved in the artistic transference of a nerve stimulus into images is, if not the mother, then the grandmother of every single concept." This leads me to wonder whether he believes that the millions of concepts we have today all branched from one single illusion.
Alas, I hear rumblings of thunder. So I must walk, with slow steps, away from this article for now (or risk missing dinner and rambling for another unpredictable number of pages).
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Syllabus!
Jan 21: Introduction, Writing Analytically, Chapter 1 (5 Analytical Moves)
Jan 26: 2-3 Minute Introductions
Jan 28: Nietzsche, “On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense”
Feb 2: Nietzsche; Style, Chapter 3
Feb 4: Nietzsche; Emerson, “Self-Reliance”
Feb 9: Emerson
Feb 11: Emerson; Poems by Whitman (will be posted on blog); Writing Analytically, Chapter 4
Feb 16: ACADEMIC HOLIDAY
Feb 18: Whitman (grab the poems here)
Feb 23: Whitman, Langston Hughes, Style, 152-155 (quotations); Writing Analytically, Chapter 7
Feb 25: Whitman, Hughes, Emily Dickinson
Feb 27: PAPER 1 DUE BY 3PM IN MAILBOXES, 7408 Dwinelle
March 2: Jean Toomer, Cane, p. 1-35; Style, Lesson 5
March 4: Cane, p. 39-78
March 9: Cane p. 81-116; Style, pg 91-102
March 11: Cane
March 16: LeRoi Jones, Dutchman; Writing Analytically, Chapter 14
March 18: Dutchman
March 23- 27: Spring Break
March 30: Nina Simone and John Coltrane; Draft of Paper 2 Due
April 1: Peer editing
April 5 (Sunday): Film Screening, 6pm, Room TBA. PAPER 2 DUE AT 6PM
April 6: Discuss film; Writing Analytically, Chapter 6
April 8: Discuss film
April 13: Adorno and Horkheimer, “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception”
April 15: Adorno and Horkheimer; Style, Lesson 7
April 20: Adorno and Horkheimer
April 22: Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49, p. 1-63
April 27: Lot 49, p. 64-119; Writing Analytically, Chapter 11
April 29: Lot 49; p. 120-152
May 4: Jimi Hendrix, “Are You Experienced?” and “Star-Spangled Banner”
May 6: Poems by Claudia Rankin; Style, Lesson 12;
May 8: 5 page draft of Final Paper Due (e-mailed to members of your group and to both Ben and Hui-hui by 8pm)
May 11: Wrap up; Peer Edits
FRIDAY, May 15: 8-10 PAGE FINAL PAPER DUE BY 3pm in MAILBOXES, 7408 Dwinelle
Jan 26: 2-3 Minute Introductions
Jan 28: Nietzsche, “On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense”
Feb 2: Nietzsche; Style, Chapter 3
Feb 4: Nietzsche; Emerson, “Self-Reliance”
Feb 9: Emerson
Feb 11: Emerson; Poems by Whitman (will be posted on blog); Writing Analytically, Chapter 4
Feb 16: ACADEMIC HOLIDAY
Feb 18: Whitman (grab the poems here)
Feb 23: Whitman, Langston Hughes, Style, 152-155 (quotations); Writing Analytically, Chapter 7
Feb 25: Whitman, Hughes, Emily Dickinson
Feb 27: PAPER 1 DUE BY 3PM IN MAILBOXES, 7408 Dwinelle
March 2: Jean Toomer, Cane, p. 1-35; Style, Lesson 5
March 4: Cane, p. 39-78
March 9: Cane p. 81-116; Style, pg 91-102
March 11: Cane
March 16: LeRoi Jones, Dutchman; Writing Analytically, Chapter 14
March 18: Dutchman
March 23- 27: Spring Break
March 30: Nina Simone and John Coltrane; Draft of Paper 2 Due
April 1: Peer editing
April 5 (Sunday): Film Screening, 6pm, Room TBA. PAPER 2 DUE AT 6PM
April 6: Discuss film; Writing Analytically, Chapter 6
April 8: Discuss film
April 13: Adorno and Horkheimer, “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception”
April 15: Adorno and Horkheimer; Style, Lesson 7
April 20: Adorno and Horkheimer
April 22: Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49, p. 1-63
April 27: Lot 49, p. 64-119; Writing Analytically, Chapter 11
April 29: Lot 49; p. 120-152
May 4: Jimi Hendrix, “Are You Experienced?” and “Star-Spangled Banner”
May 6: Poems by Claudia Rankin; Style, Lesson 12;
May 8: 5 page draft of Final Paper Due (e-mailed to members of your group and to both Ben and Hui-hui by 8pm)
May 11: Wrap up; Peer Edits
FRIDAY, May 15: 8-10 PAGE FINAL PAPER DUE BY 3pm in MAILBOXES, 7408 Dwinelle
Friday, January 16, 2009
Course Description
The goal of this course is to develop the critical reading and argumentative skills necessary for writing college-level papers. Our topic for the semester will be “Figures of America.” We’ll be understanding “figures” here not in the sense of people who somehow embody America, but as a set of ways “America” has been or is understood figuratively.
As such, we’ll begin by addressing some philosophical and theoretical thought about figuration in general, exploring the way numerous thinkers conceive the relationship between representation and experience, especially as that relationship proceeds through figurative language. From there we’ll go on to explore texts from across the last century and a half or so, including a fair amount of poetry, a novel (Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49), a play (LeRoi Jones’ Dutchman), a book described as a “fictive symphony” (Jean Toomer’s Cane), some cultural and social theory, at least one film, and if we have the time and the inclination, a variety of American music from the last 100 years. Along the way we’ll be asking ourselves the following: how does each of these works figure America, explicitly or implicitly? How do they limit or expand our experience of what America is or what it can be? How do perspectives identified through their racial, geographical, gendered or class-based associations come to either assume the voice of America or challenge the dominance or unity of that voice?
As this is a 1B class, we’ll also spend a fair amount of time on writing and argumentation, working on various problems of interpretation, style, clarity, flow, interest, cohesion and analysis. You’ll be writing a number of shorter papers throughout the semester which will gear you up for a longer (8-10 page) research paper due at the end of the class. We will tackle our writing with gusto and verve; the result will be new regions of flair, refinement and persuasiveness.
As such, we’ll begin by addressing some philosophical and theoretical thought about figuration in general, exploring the way numerous thinkers conceive the relationship between representation and experience, especially as that relationship proceeds through figurative language. From there we’ll go on to explore texts from across the last century and a half or so, including a fair amount of poetry, a novel (Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49), a play (LeRoi Jones’ Dutchman), a book described as a “fictive symphony” (Jean Toomer’s Cane), some cultural and social theory, at least one film, and if we have the time and the inclination, a variety of American music from the last 100 years. Along the way we’ll be asking ourselves the following: how does each of these works figure America, explicitly or implicitly? How do they limit or expand our experience of what America is or what it can be? How do perspectives identified through their racial, geographical, gendered or class-based associations come to either assume the voice of America or challenge the dominance or unity of that voice?
As this is a 1B class, we’ll also spend a fair amount of time on writing and argumentation, working on various problems of interpretation, style, clarity, flow, interest, cohesion and analysis. You’ll be writing a number of shorter papers throughout the semester which will gear you up for a longer (8-10 page) research paper due at the end of the class. We will tackle our writing with gusto and verve; the result will be new regions of flair, refinement and persuasiveness.
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