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In thinking about the evolution of this course, I looped back to Darwin.  His own intellectual evolution, from the time on the H.M.S. Beagle, to the theory of natural selection, to the humans and the mind.  It appears to me that we are following a similar path.  We read about the theory of evolution, its implications, and the human mind.  I love the pairing of Whitman and Hustvedt because so many concepts in The Leaves of Grass were made clear and explicit for me when reading The Sorrows of an American.  Whitman’s presentation contained many observations that were challenging to incorporate into a coherent story.  The combination of conscious storytelling and revision helped clarify the role of the unconscious for me.  Perhaps it is neither Whitman nor Hustvedt that was particularly appropriate to read, but rather the importance of the relationship between the two.