Week One: Clash of Civilizations

9/11 Commission Report  - A Graphic Adaptation (we could also read the original text but this plays with form)

Path to Paradise: The Inner World of Suicide Bombers and Their Dispatchers  -

Week Two: Environmentalism and Capitalism

When we gathered in groups today to write down a group proposal, we looked at all the books that the other people proposed and tried to find the most interesting and most suggested forms of writing. We decided that the best way to continue this semester is to choose different mediums, some of which we have explored earlier this semester such as graphic novels, and others that we have not yet studied, such as documentary and film. We considered dividing the books to a variety of categories to explore diverse forms of writing.

The books are listed in the order we thought would transition us from the books we read so far to where we could be:

1. History: Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson

2. Science: Spook by Mary Roach

Week One: Clash of Civilizations

9/11 Commission Report  - A Graphic Adaptation (we could also read the original text but this plays with form)

Path to Paradise: The Inner World of Suicide Bombers and Their Dispatchers  -

Week Two: Environmentalism and Capitalism

Identity is sometimes defined by race, religion, and/or the place where you grew up. Yet, two people can have all of these things in common, and define themselves as very different from one another. How much of your identity is yours? How do people then go about writing an autobiography and giving their readers the 'important' pieces of information.

Suggestions for Readings:

Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington

The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James

An American Dilemma by Gunnar Myrdal

Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen

Autobiographies by W.B. Yeats

Group Members: Aya, Kate, Sandra

Theme: The Construction of Reality

Spatial Reality:
"You Are Here" by Colin Ellard

Language:

OED, Webster, Urban Dictionary

"The Professor & the Mad Man"

Distortion:

"F is for Fake" by Orson Welles (mock-documentary)

Affiliation:

"Spook" by Mary Roach

"The Varieties of Religious Experience" by William James

Mental Health:

-"Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health" by Ron Hubbard

Memoir:

"The Year of Magical Thinking" by Joan Didion

 -Grading: Relationship to getting lost.

              Numeric value might give students a sense of place in curriculum

Link: "The Anosagnosic's Dilemma"

              "not very good at not knowing what we don't know"

-Discussion on 2nd Half of Course:

             Post in course forum a proposal for the rest of the semester, an "Independent Study Program".  Think about what you do not already know.

-Discussion on Arne Naess

              We all meet a different Arne Naess.

From a NYTimes article today about Why Indiscretions Appear Youthful: "memory amplifies righteous self-messaging. In piecing together a life story, the mind nudges moral lapses back in time and shunts good deeds forward ... creating a doctored autobiography .... “We can’t make up the past, but the brain has difficulty placing events in time, and we’re able to shift elements around .... The result is that we can create a personal history that ... makes us feel we’re getting better and better.”