English A: Several of you expressed an interest to do some writing about this book -- fantastic! -- let me know how I can help support you in this (thesis topics for example or other ideas/genres of expository writing beyond thesis essays) -- I think this book is a terrific book (scary, real, myth making and infuriating) so there is a lot to untangle and I encourage you all to do this untangling in writing. Perhaps a "book review" -- plot summary and your opinion of the reading experience. (If you would like specific topics/question/angles let me know and I'll make a list to get you started)

On Monday we will reserve any time you all want to finish up loose ends of "Atonement" -- (or read from your writings?)

Read Through top of page 17 (to when Doalty and Bridget enter) of "Translations" -- We'll spend time discussing what this play will be about (playwrights can't waste a single sentence -- especially in the first 5 minutes of a play-- so read each sentence this way and soak out the meaning) and incidentally talk about the genre of playwrighting and play reading.

English B: Capek's "War with the Newts" -- through page 34

English C: "The Great Gatsby" -- Chapter Three

Given that 3rd block is so short -- if there are any takers, I'd like to offer a "preliminary class" from 11:45 - 12:15 -- we'll talk about the what has been read of Gatsby in the past (so Monday we'll talk Chapters 1 and 2 again) -- this book can hold so much more than 30 minutes a chapter (in my opinion)

And regardless if you come to the "preliminary" -- do make record of your reading -- record questions, reactions (most excellent) but also make note of favorite lines, images, language from the story with specific page notes so that we can all benefit from your favorite parts.

English D: Poetry discussion -- Nora had expressed interest in William Carlos Williams -- Let me post something here that we will cover Monday (perhaps a short story and selection of poems)

Unless there is a leader among you who wants to suggest something else -- we'll all follow you instead....

English A: "Atonement" to the finish....

Several of you expressed an interest to do some writing about this book -- fantastic! -- let me know how I can help support you in this (thesis topics for example or other ideas/genres of expository writing beyond thesis essays)

On Monday we will reserve any time you all want to finish up loose ends of "Atonement" -- I'll assign a few pages of our next work, a play, "Translations", so that we can talk generally about reading a play and more specifically about the opening scenes ("expository scenes" which are golden for a playwright -- when your audience is fresh and innocent)

English B: Capek's "War with the Newts" -- copies in the "grey box" -- to Chapter 8 "ANDRAIS SCHEUCHZER I" (left paragraph page 18)

English C: "The Great Gatsby" -- Chapter Two

Given that 3rd block is butchered so short -- if there are any takers, I'd like to offer a "preliminary class" from 11:45 - 12:15 -- we'll talk about the last assignment (so Friday we'll talk Chapter 1 again) -- this book can hold so much more than 30 minutes a chapter (in my opinion)

And regardless if you come to the "preliminary" -- do make record of your reading -- record questions, reactions (most excellent) but also make note of favorite lines, images, language from the story with specific page notes so that we can all benefit from your favorite parts.

English D: Poetry discussion -- Nora is way ahead of the ball -- she already has something posted for the class -- feel free to do your won Billy Collins research (find a fun poem for example) to widen on this base she has provided.

Thanks to all the leaders for taking up the torch -- these classes have been (and will be) most excellent in inverse proportion to the amount I talk....

English A: "Atonement" -- through page 266 --text break "silence was Cecilia's answer." --(ouch)
English B: "Twilight Zone" episode(s) in class.
English C: Either read the "character stories" or I'll bring in something else for class time. We are moving on to "The Great Gatsby" so perhaps a romantic poem by F.Scots Fitzgerald's favorite Keats.
English D: Poetry discussion -- Emily Dickinson -- as per Anna's instructions/lead. As I recall the substance of the class was discovering Dickinson through her poems that we each access -- if you are waiting for leadership before you act, I'd find some ED poems you enjoy....

English A: "Atonement" through page 231 -- break in the text on that page. "only as a favor to Turner" are the last words.

Not much advance -- but since we had a very abbreviated class (Z and G and I) we can recover (retreat through?) the ground we walked on Wednesday.

English B: "Martian Chronicles" to conclusion.

English C: Diverting off one of the character studies posted on the web, write a 500 word "story" that involves this person. Don't feel your story needs a "plot" -- just create a situation in which the character you chose "lives" for us all to enjoy.

English D: Find a copy of "Billy Budd" in the "white box" (which as Sidney points out is more grey than anything.) This box was last seen near my desk on a table.

We won't have Tom for Friday, but will have him next week.

This is one reason I would like to start slowly. The danger in starting slowly is that "BB" is that as soon as we catch up to Melville's prose we'll be finished reading for the night (and Melville is a master of taking his time -- and yours -- to get to "the point" -- ask Claire about Moby Dick).

"BB" is definitely senior level reading -- you need to read with a pencil/pen and ask questions of yourself as you read. Take your time. Find enjoyment. Bring this experience of reading to class as an important element to discussion. (This work -- poetic as it is -- leaves the read and feel ability of the poems we have been reading behind -- if you make "reading" your only preparation we have the wrong caliber of story. Bring something besides 20 minutes preparation to class or we will instantly switch gears to another excellent alternative -- i.e. if you have nothing written don't come to class)

I'll only have us read chapter 1 and 2 but I would like from these two chapters to extrapolate the whole story from what we will read. What is Melville after? What is his narrative device (who is speaking; what is the distance; how is the reliability; what is the tone of the language; is there humor; what is --will be -- our function as readers for discerning/elevating meaning) What is going to happen in this story?

Be you; have fun -- this is the meld to spend your time -- what else beyond is life to value (or literature)

English A: "Atonement" through page 212 -- break in the text on that page. "He settled once more into a silent head down trudge" are the last words.

English B: "Martian Chronicles" up to the story "There will come Soft Rain" -- I didn't bring my MC copy home so I'll be scrambling to catch up Wednesday.

Here's the Sara Teasdale Poem Bradbury makes reference to by the way to the story we'll read Friday....

There will come Soft Rain

Sara Teasdale

There will come soft rain and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;

And frogs in the pools singing at night,
And wild plum-trees in tremulous white;

Robins will wear their feathery fire
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire.

And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,
If mankind perished utterly.

And Spring herself when she woke at dawn,
Would scarcely know that we were gone.

English C: Sage and I printed out the story "Hills Like White Elephants" by Hemingway for the class to read for discussion Wednesday, but, in my hurry to leave I do not remember where I put the copies (as I don't remember putting them in the "white box") -- check on my desk perhaps. Sage does have a copy on the computer and can print out another copy for you all to photocopy.

The story is only one page long (both sides). It is nearly completely dialogue between a man and a woman on while they wait for the train. It is as close to reading a play as fiction gets -- so dig in like you are actors and figure out what is going on between these two people. Look for text clues to make your judgments about these characters and bring these text clues to class as the source of our discussions.

I thought this would be a good exercise in preparation for preparing our character studies for Friday.

English D: Read "Prufrock" in its entirety. There are many links to the poem on the internet (complete with quote, in Italian, from Dante and extensive notes left by our overly anal authour -- whoops -- I was supposed to leave personal lives out of it , even if our poet was a priggish American masquerading as a super priggish Brit; working as a banker in London; notice the spelling of author above; and notice how if you makes T.S. Eliot an anagram that it spells "toilets") -- print out a copy and take notes of your feelings as you read, favorite lines, beauties and cruelties.

This poem is only as inaccessible as you let it be -- so don't let it -- like I said it continues to play my "romance of the feet" back to me to so acutely it accesses feelings I haven't had in 30 years every time -- but my generations sad romantics have become stalkers (alas, for all romantics...)

Again questions for you to ponder:

1. Who is the narrator and how is this narrator distinct from Eliot? Who is the 'audience' for this narration ("you and I")?
2. What do we know about the narrator from what is said or how it is said?
3. What is the physical universe of the poem -- where is the "action" taking place?
4. What is the plot of the poem? What is happening and what is going to happen (this excerpt is about 1/4 of the whole length of the poem)
5. What is the tone of this poem? How does the tone of this poem differ from the "Icarus poems"?
6. What are repeated images? What are images/items that are not present?
7. For Hamlet people, who is Polonius -- "no Price Hamlet"
8. What is your back story for the story that is being played out in the poem?
9. Is this a love song? Is this a stalker? Is this romantic? Is this an Icarus going to drown? Is this a "sensible daddy" gone to the beach?