Nov 24, 2008
"Taking Over"
A play in NY just opened, tackling issues of gentrification in Brooklyn. Another example of creative intervention...
Nov 20, 2008
Tripping in the hollows - writing and section updates
Thanks for your patience with the topics, folks...I do hope you've been enjoying shenanigans with Wittman Ah Sing, with the anti-hollowness energies of Solnit.
*Update on section: we will meet in the flesh the week we get back from the holiday.*
**Proposals: I will continue to comment on proposals over the next few days, but if you have immediate questions, send me an email.**
You can take till next Wed., 11/26 for this next post on Solnit and/or Kingston.
Write a response on at least one of the following topics:
+ Identify a perplexing passage, chapter, or character in Tripmaster Monkey and do a close reading to try and get at the tensions within. The idea behind this topic is to find a way to navigate the polymorphic, meandering currents of the text. Does this style have anything in common with other texts we've read? How does style function here, and what purpose does it serve?
+ How does one describe Wittman Ah Sing?
+ Find a side reference in Kingston or Solnit and draw out its significance in the work. Can you find other details to deepen the connection? Post links or secondary sources to your blog. Your selection could be a passing literary or cultural reference in Tripmaster Monkey, for example, or a social/artistic movement mentioned in Solnit.
+ What sorts of visions of San Francisco do Kingston and/or Solnit present? What do they perceive to be the current state of San Francisco, and what is to be done next? (Note: easy-out answers like, "Kingston imagines an SF without racism" or "Solnit imagines an SF without consumer greed" will be sacked.)
+ Connect a key component of Solnit's discussion in Hollow City with one or more scenes, interactions, characters, etc. in Tripmaster Monkey. Does Solnit's reading of present day San Francisco connect with Kingston's novel written thirty years prior?
*Update on section: we will meet in the flesh the week we get back from the holiday.*
**Proposals: I will continue to comment on proposals over the next few days, but if you have immediate questions, send me an email.**
You can take till next Wed., 11/26 for this next post on Solnit and/or Kingston.
Write a response on at least one of the following topics:
+ Identify a perplexing passage, chapter, or character in Tripmaster Monkey and do a close reading to try and get at the tensions within. The idea behind this topic is to find a way to navigate the polymorphic, meandering currents of the text. Does this style have anything in common with other texts we've read? How does style function here, and what purpose does it serve?
+ How does one describe Wittman Ah Sing?
+ Find a side reference in Kingston or Solnit and draw out its significance in the work. Can you find other details to deepen the connection? Post links or secondary sources to your blog. Your selection could be a passing literary or cultural reference in Tripmaster Monkey, for example, or a social/artistic movement mentioned in Solnit.
+ What sorts of visions of San Francisco do Kingston and/or Solnit present? What do they perceive to be the current state of San Francisco, and what is to be done next? (Note: easy-out answers like, "Kingston imagines an SF without racism" or "Solnit imagines an SF without consumer greed" will be sacked.)
+ Connect a key component of Solnit's discussion in Hollow City with one or more scenes, interactions, characters, etc. in Tripmaster Monkey. Does Solnit's reading of present day San Francisco connect with Kingston's novel written thirty years prior?
Nov 18, 2008
"hollow city" riffs
I've never been to the Fly Bar, but they do have a pretty glamorous web site, complete with images and a blurb on the "vibe"...
Saint John Coltrane Church used to be down the street, now it's here.
What other exorcisms to perform?
Saint John Coltrane Church used to be down the street, now it's here.
What other exorcisms to perform?
Nov 17, 2008
Proposals due Tues.
Reminder: write ups/proposals for final projects are due Tuesday. PLEASE ANSWER THE "PROMPT QUESTIONS" (at the bottom of the handout below) and post on your blog.
To reiterate, I don't expect you to have everything mapped out in your proposal, but you should have a pretty clear idea of directions you will head in. The areas that are less clear will be good places to focus your energies.
As always, feel free to come talk to me about ideas or questions. sc
To reiterate, I don't expect you to have everything mapped out in your proposal, but you should have a pretty clear idea of directions you will head in. The areas that are less clear will be good places to focus your energies.
As always, feel free to come talk to me about ideas or questions. sc
Nov 10, 2008
Dharma Bummin
This week's writing piece: Dharma Bums
Explore one/more of the following questions:
+ What IS a Dharma Bum? How does it relate to the Beats/beatitude? Point out illustrative passages.
+ Does Dharma Bums offer cultural critique, and how does it do so, as compared to other SF works we've encountered?
+ Reflect on the Japhy Ryder and Ray Smith characters. What are their central characteristics? How do they compare/contrast with one another as SF/counter-cultural figures?
+ Comment on the mixing of spiritual traditions in the novel: is there a particular spiritual practice being championed? What does it look like for Japhy? for Ray?
+ What other thematic connections do you see here, with the other SF texts we've read?
"It was a great new feeling to be able to jump from rock to rock..." (ch 12)
Final Project: Topics
This handout will be distributed later this week, but it'd be a good idea to read it over and begin collecting ideas:
LTEL155B: Regions of the United States—San Francisco (Fall, 2008)
FINAL ESSAY TOPICS & PROCEDURES:
As announced at the beginning of the class, the final paper will consist of a “research” essay, ranging in length at around 8-10 pages, and in the form of critical (or creative) analysis with footnotes and bibliography where appropriate.
The main topic will be to pick any “San Francisco” author, site, institution, genre, social community, film, or cultural phenomenon and discuss some of the cultural, geopolitical, and social dynamics making this object a distinctive expressive phenomenon. Group projects will be allowed, and each person will receive the same grade for what is presented as the final project. To choose topics, you can use your personal experience, historical background, research, imagination, and conceptual and critical skills; we will be open to any projects that touch upon some materials and themes discussed in the class and apply them to SF urban space and culture in some informed and interesting way.
A) To get started on this, you will need to provide a one-page outline of your proposed topic and discuss it with your TA as you begin to work on it. You will need to describe this topic in a one-page written or email statement to your TA: Jessica, Stephanie, Eireene, or Jonathan will set the specific deadline for this one-page outline for your section. (If you do a creative project, you will need to provide a one-page description of what you are aiming to achieve, some techniques used, and SF authors and materials drawn upon as model or source.) Please see the suggested “prompt” questions below for help on “getting started.”
B) Your typed, footnoted, and proofread essay will be due in Humanities Steno Pool office mailroom by 4PM on Tuesday, December 9. [Please note: there will be no final exam for this course, so you need to do a good job on the final essay! If you want to get this written work back, please submit a stamped, self-addressed envelope with your final essay. Otherwise, you will have to arrange to get it back from RW or your TA during winter quarter in 2009. Late paper submissions will be downgraded for lateness.
Whatever topic you decide upon, make sure that you have some kind of compelling “thesis” and that you back up this interpretation with details/quotations from the relevant texts and have a title for your work.
--------------------------------------------------------------
The following are possible essay topics, although you can define a topic or focus upon one that is of particular interest to you (see topic “g” below:
a) Focusing upon two or more works or authors, define some recurring “theme,” image, subject matter or problem that, in your own terms, ties these works together and has been an important part of the “San Francisco literature” materials you have read in this course.
b) Present an interpretive reading of one or more movies set in San Francisco: What are some of the key themes and conflicts as portrayed in the movies, and how are these resolved? What kind of racial conflicts, gender dynamics, and social hierarchies are shown? How are the city spaces of San Francisco uses in the movies? How do the history, values, and social energies of San Francisco get reflected and expressed in the movies? (If you want to write a convincing reading, it would help to do some research into the production history, interpretations, and reviews of the movie.)
c) How do one or more of the writers read for the course express a counter-cultural or “Beat” vision of what Gray Brechin calls “the San Francisco contado”? Or, another way to approach this topic: what are other angles of vision or works that might be used to critique or supplement the imperial-capitalist contado vision of Brechin’s Imperial San Francisco?
d) How does an author we have not read or may have just alluded to in this course (for example, Kenneth Rexroth, Jack Spicer, Diane Diprima, Michael McClure, Robert Gluck, Gary Snyder, Michelle Tea, Lew Welch, Lenore Kandel et al) distinctively express the literature and geo-material history of San Francisco? (You will need to connect this author to some works read or critical frameworks discussed in the class.)
e) Pick a social movement, neighborhood, or institution in San Francisco—Haight Ashbury hippie movement, rock music scene, Castro, City Lights Books Store, San Francisco Poetry Center at SF State, performance works of Margaret Cho or Frank Chin—and describe some of the values, goals, and expressive forms of this phenomenon.
f) Pick any one essay from Relocating San Francisco or San Francisco Stories, and use this as a critical starting point to discuss or reflect a movement, work, art form, neighborhood, or some SF social, art, or literary movement you are interested in. For example, create your own “meta-tourist” narrative for a tour of San Francisco.
g) Define your own distinctive “SF” topic and, as you do so, make sure to consider and come to terms with the “prompt” questions below. (Please discuss the suitability of this topic with your TA.)
*Whatever topic you pick, here are 5 “prompt” questions each student should consider as you begin to define your topic and approach to writing on a SF subject:
a) What is the topic you are interested in pursuing and why?
b) How does this topic relate to San Francisco materials or frameworks read for the course? Which of the readings are particularly relevant to this topic?
c) What are some of the other materials you will need or want to read and/or inter-connect to cover this topic?
d) What is your provisional “thesis” (hypothesis) at this point concerning this topic and these materials?
e) What problems or limitations do you anticipate in pursuing, framing, researching, and writing on this topic?
LTEL155B: Regions of the United States—San Francisco (Fall, 2008)
FINAL ESSAY TOPICS & PROCEDURES:
As announced at the beginning of the class, the final paper will consist of a “research” essay, ranging in length at around 8-10 pages, and in the form of critical (or creative) analysis with footnotes and bibliography where appropriate.
The main topic will be to pick any “San Francisco” author, site, institution, genre, social community, film, or cultural phenomenon and discuss some of the cultural, geopolitical, and social dynamics making this object a distinctive expressive phenomenon. Group projects will be allowed, and each person will receive the same grade for what is presented as the final project. To choose topics, you can use your personal experience, historical background, research, imagination, and conceptual and critical skills; we will be open to any projects that touch upon some materials and themes discussed in the class and apply them to SF urban space and culture in some informed and interesting way.
A) To get started on this, you will need to provide a one-page outline of your proposed topic and discuss it with your TA as you begin to work on it. You will need to describe this topic in a one-page written or email statement to your TA: Jessica, Stephanie, Eireene, or Jonathan will set the specific deadline for this one-page outline for your section. (If you do a creative project, you will need to provide a one-page description of what you are aiming to achieve, some techniques used, and SF authors and materials drawn upon as model or source.) Please see the suggested “prompt” questions below for help on “getting started.”
B) Your typed, footnoted, and proofread essay will be due in Humanities Steno Pool office mailroom by 4PM on Tuesday, December 9. [Please note: there will be no final exam for this course, so you need to do a good job on the final essay! If you want to get this written work back, please submit a stamped, self-addressed envelope with your final essay. Otherwise, you will have to arrange to get it back from RW or your TA during winter quarter in 2009. Late paper submissions will be downgraded for lateness.
Whatever topic you decide upon, make sure that you have some kind of compelling “thesis” and that you back up this interpretation with details/quotations from the relevant texts and have a title for your work.
--------------------------------------------------------------
The following are possible essay topics, although you can define a topic or focus upon one that is of particular interest to you (see topic “g” below:
a) Focusing upon two or more works or authors, define some recurring “theme,” image, subject matter or problem that, in your own terms, ties these works together and has been an important part of the “San Francisco literature” materials you have read in this course.
b) Present an interpretive reading of one or more movies set in San Francisco: What are some of the key themes and conflicts as portrayed in the movies, and how are these resolved? What kind of racial conflicts, gender dynamics, and social hierarchies are shown? How are the city spaces of San Francisco uses in the movies? How do the history, values, and social energies of San Francisco get reflected and expressed in the movies? (If you want to write a convincing reading, it would help to do some research into the production history, interpretations, and reviews of the movie.)
c) How do one or more of the writers read for the course express a counter-cultural or “Beat” vision of what Gray Brechin calls “the San Francisco contado”? Or, another way to approach this topic: what are other angles of vision or works that might be used to critique or supplement the imperial-capitalist contado vision of Brechin’s Imperial San Francisco?
d) How does an author we have not read or may have just alluded to in this course (for example, Kenneth Rexroth, Jack Spicer, Diane Diprima, Michael McClure, Robert Gluck, Gary Snyder, Michelle Tea, Lew Welch, Lenore Kandel et al) distinctively express the literature and geo-material history of San Francisco? (You will need to connect this author to some works read or critical frameworks discussed in the class.)
e) Pick a social movement, neighborhood, or institution in San Francisco—Haight Ashbury hippie movement, rock music scene, Castro, City Lights Books Store, San Francisco Poetry Center at SF State, performance works of Margaret Cho or Frank Chin—and describe some of the values, goals, and expressive forms of this phenomenon.
f) Pick any one essay from Relocating San Francisco or San Francisco Stories, and use this as a critical starting point to discuss or reflect a movement, work, art form, neighborhood, or some SF social, art, or literary movement you are interested in. For example, create your own “meta-tourist” narrative for a tour of San Francisco.
g) Define your own distinctive “SF” topic and, as you do so, make sure to consider and come to terms with the “prompt” questions below. (Please discuss the suitability of this topic with your TA.)
*Whatever topic you pick, here are 5 “prompt” questions each student should consider as you begin to define your topic and approach to writing on a SF subject:
a) What is the topic you are interested in pursuing and why?
b) How does this topic relate to San Francisco materials or frameworks read for the course? Which of the readings are particularly relevant to this topic?
c) What are some of the other materials you will need or want to read and/or inter-connect to cover this topic?
d) What is your provisional “thesis” (hypothesis) at this point concerning this topic and these materials?
e) What problems or limitations do you anticipate in pursuing, framing, researching, and writing on this topic?
Nov 5, 2008
"The Princess of Nebraska"
In case any are interested, I think it's worth mentioning this film by Wayne Wang again (it was brought up in class a couple of weeks ago). The storyline is set in San Francisco and touches on issues of gender, identity, twenty-something life/coming of age, and transnational movements between U.S. and Asia. The full film is available here:
Nov 4, 2008
Breather
Nice job making it through the midterm, everyone. No writing piece required this week, but as always, post as you wish.
Dharma Bums is up next, on Thurs...much reason for excitement...
Do also start thinking about what interests you for a final project: more soon.
Dharma Bums is up next, on Thurs...much reason for excitement...
Do also start thinking about what interests you for a final project: more soon.
Nov 3, 2008
visions of successful midterms
Hope your preparations have been fruitful, gang. Here are some mostly common-sense suggestions for success tomorrow, and a few words on what we'll be looking for:
Keep in mind: Since you've had time to work in advance with the questions, it will be crucial to build details and organization into your writings. In other words, know your way around the materials, and make sure you can write specifically on the topics.
I. Poem Interpretation
You'll likely be shifting between general and specific modes of discussion: balance. Point out quotes and interpret them to get at your ideas. Connect interpretations with the larger problems. Rule of infinite goodness: close read, close read, close read... Aim for 3-5 pages.
II. Identifications
Key is PRECISION. The more sharp and accurate your details, the more points you'll earn (i.e. show me you really know what the item is, rather than provide a loose list of related information). Correct, but less-than-relevant details will reel in fewer points.
III. Essay
Thorough + engaged + organized. Aim for 3-5 pages of *quality* prose and specific details. Leave out general statements and assumptions. Include a thesis (where you tell me the point of your essay), use analytical language, and use your organizational powers.
(blue books, blue books, blue books, blue books...)
Good luck with it all -- see you soon.
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