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Group Proposal

platano's picture
Submitted by platano on Tue, 10/05/2010 - 4:26pm

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

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Comments

jaranda's picture

 I like this syllabus because

Submitted by jaranda on Thu, 10/07/2010 - 1:17am.

 I like this syllabus because it seems to look at reality in a way haven't really looked at yet.  I mean I know we've gone over the idea of "what is reality?", but I like that this syllabus includes topics like science and religion.  I think that looking at different mediums, like the mock-documentary would be a good way to further explore the ideas of constructed reality. 

I do kind of have to agree with ckosarek, when she mentions that we've already covered the ideas of spatial reality.  "You Are Here" seems like it might have a different perspective on things than Sonit, but I would be interested in reading about the ethnographic version of reality in a book like "Children of Crisis."  

AyaSeaver's picture

 I could second that

Submitted by AyaSeaver on Wed, 10/06/2010 - 8:30pm.

 I could second that (dropping/switching Ellard)  I remember hoping that I would like Ellard more than Solnit but we are dealing with a limited amount of time. 

I don't think that sometimes conversation does stop at "reality is subjective and can't be defined", I think these texts will take us beyond that. "Children of Crisis" and some of the other texts would give us specifics to back up what has sometimes been generalizations. That, at least, would be my hope? I haven't really read enough of the texts to be sure but that would be the general direction I'd like to head in. 

I think it's quite in the spirit of non-fiction (whatever that means) to try and crack down on some examples of our ideas and I think that while it's the same kind of question we've approached before, our answers will change with the material. 

ckosarek's picture

I do like this proposal for

Submitted by ckosarek on Wed, 10/06/2010 - 7:34pm.

I do like this proposal for our syllabus, but I do wonder if our class had kind of done the "what is reality?" question to death. At this point, I'm accepting the fact that reality is subjective and that it can't be defined - do we really need another six weeks of that?

That being said, the selection here is intriguing, especially because we have not yet dealt with science or religious writing. However, I'm not so keen on the Colin Ellard book. Through Sonlit, we have dealt with a spatial reality and the value of getting 'lost.' I don't think we need to explore that again. Perhaps we could substitute "Children of Crisis"by Robert Coles, as we have yet to explore the ''ethnographic'' version of reality.

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