HUM LIT Blog Central

…McMurphy led the twelve of us toward the ocean.

And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak. Mark 7:37

… his relaxed, good-natured voice doled out his life for us to live … for all of us to dream ourselves into.

• Reflect upon the change in Chief Bromden, who not only acknowledges he can hear but begins to speak to McMurphy. Is he tricked into speech? healed? What significance is there in the memory he shares of his encounter with the government agents? How do we and McMurphy respond to the Chief’s insistence he is too small to rebel? Does McMurphy listen with special care to Chief’s account of his father’s death?
• Consider how the latter half of part III shows McMurphy more intersested in building up the men (from Chief, whom he promises to restore to full height, to Billy and the inmates with whom he fishes.  Recall their challenges at the filling station and fishing pier, compared to their success in fishing and their triumphant return. What do we make of the contrasting descriptions of the empowered men (”we weren’t the same old bunch of weakness” ) and McMurphy’s exhaustion?

Harding’s Psychosexual View

If you’re up against a guy who wants to win by makign you weaker instead of making himself stronger, then watch for his knee, he’s gonna go for your vitals. And that’s what that old buzzard is doing, going for your vitals (McMurphy; p. 58)

“This world … belongs to the strong, my friend! …. Mr. McMurphy… my friend … I’m not a chicken, Im a rabbit… All of us in here are rabbits of varying ages and degrees, hippity-hopping through our Walt Disney world. Oh, don’t misunderstand me, we’re not in here because we’re rabbits–we’d be rabbits wherever we were–we’re all in here because we can’t adjust to our rabbithood. We need a good strong wolf like the nurse to teach us our place” (Harding; p. 62) … you too, Mr McMurphy, for all your cowboy bluster and your sideshow swagger, you too, under that crusty surface, are probably just as soft and fuzzy and rabbit-souled as we are.” . . . . Rabbits are noted for that certain trait, aren’t they? Notorious, in fact, for their whambam. Yes. Um. But in any case, the point you bring up simply indicates that you are a healthy, functioning and adequate rabbit, whereas most of us in here even lack the sexaul ability to make the grade as adequate rabbits. Failures, we are–feeble, stunted, weak little creatures in a weak little race ….” (64-65)

“Ah, I believe my friend is catching on, fellow rabbits. Tell me, Mr. McMurphy, how does one go about showing a woman who’s boss, I mean other than lauging at her? How does he show her who’s king of the mountain? A man like you should be able to tell us that….” (68)

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Chief Broom’s Mechanistic View
The Big Nurse is able to set the wall clock at whatever speed she wants by just turning one of those dials in the steel door; when she takes a notion to hurry things up, she turns the speed up, and those hands whip around that disk like spokes on a wheel. The scene in the picture-screen windows goes through rapid changes of light to show morning, noon, and night…going through the full schedule of a day maybe twenty times an hour, till the Big Nurse sees everybody is right up to the breaking point, and she slacks off on the throttle, eases off the pace on that clock dial, like some kid been fooling with the moving picture projection machine …. But generally it’s the other way, the slow way. She’ll turn that dial to a dead stop and freeze the sun there on the screen so it don’t moave a scant hair for weeks….(73-4)
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Radio as metaphor?

Oh , yes, the so-called music. Yes, I suppose we do hear it if we concentrate, but then one can hear one’s own heartbeat too … You’ see, that’s a recording playing up there, my friend. We seldom hear the radio. The world news might not be therapeutic. And we’ve all heard that recording so many times now it simply slides out of our hearing, the way the sound of a waterfall soon becomes an unheard sound to those who live near it. Do you think if you lived near a waterfall you could hear it very long?” (76)

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The toothpaste stand (90-97)

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The television revolt (134-38)

I have selected a few examples of digital literature from an new “online anthology” sponsored by the Electronic Literature Organization. Their plan is to select and introduce work they think promises to become classic — which will prompt us to ask questions about how to read these works of a future ENGL 121.

1.) What are we invited to do in reading it? 2) What idea of an “author” lies behind it? 3) What implied function does it fulfill (entertain, please, teach, inform, raise questions, move emotionally…)?

Faith

Project for Tachistcope

Fall of the Site of Marsha

Storyland

Be sure to read part I of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest for Wednesday.

Today let’s discuss some of the surreal moments in the close of the play, as the “hour of blood” slowly drips away.

Here are a few hits from your blogs: Ana, David, Kevin, Maureen, and Casey.

Let’s begin with the blogging you did overnight:

• What are some of most dramatic lines (in relation to the themes of violence, gender, marriage, home, name, inheritiance, and blood)? What did you find blogworthy?
• Does the play present ideas that correspond with your own?

Now let’s look specifically at the wedding morning, reception, and flight of the Bride with Leonardo:

• Marriage: How would you describe each of the characters’ attitudes towards the marriage? What aspect interests each?
• Leonardo: How do we become aware of Leonardo’s continued desire? Is he aware?
• Bride: How do we learn the Bride will leave? Do we understand why? Does she?
• Parents: What’s significant about the response to the crisis of the two parents?

Let’s aim to finish up Act 3 for next class, if you haven’t already.

Choose one of aspect of subjectivity as discussed this week; blog your reflections on how ideas about home, gender, violence, etc. are taken up or represented by the characters. Incorporate at least two specific reference to dialogue you’ve marked as relevant.  Try to develop your response by looking at the ideas within the play, which may or may not correspond with your own. 

Also: comment on two group mates’ posts. This means if you’re the first one to post, you will need to check back later! (Vote early and often….)

This week we’ll continue the discussion of Garcia Lorca’s play, Blood Wedding, which I introducted to you last week.

As a heuristic for active reading, we’ll focus on a number of intertwined thematics throughout the play:
1) violence
2) gender roles, masculinity and femininity
3) marriage
4) the name, inheritance, blood
5) home, domestic space

I.2

For Monday’s class, we’ll begin with a focus on Act I.2, looking at how Leonardo’s violent entry into the domestic space of his own home underscores what’s socially expected and how his character violates the space. How does the surreal lullaby contribute to the tone of this scene?

I.3
What do we learn about traditional ideas of marriage, the needs of individuals and the larger social functions as the betrothal takes place? In particular, how is the Bride exposed as a character struggling with her own subject position?

As you read Act II, look for moments when characters reveal elements of their conflict, their fear, and their hope. Often the language can be enigmatic at these crucial points (e.g. “Why do you look at me that way? With a thorn in each eye.” 66) Look too at points where the characters express feelings about why this wedding must come off.

(Due at the start of class, Wednesday)

Choose four of the five questions below with which to work. For each, write a short essay (250-400 words) addressing the question. Please start each on a fresh page, beginning with the question number; print in a 12pt. font. You should do this work on your own, without any external research; but please do make reference to the novels and quote from them when appropriate. Please email me with any questions: sherwood at iup dot edu.

1. When we talk about identity, we usually end up talking up choice, will, and determinism. The theory of subjectivity holds that we are neither born as our “selves” nor do we assume an identity by simple, personal choice. Think about its claim that one’s subjectivity is comprised of a series of social roles that one takes up and works with like an actor (student, brother, mother, athlete, daughter of a salesman, Hispanic, worker, country-clubber, sorority sister, etc.). Choose one relevant scene from each novel in which you can see subject formation taking place. A character or narrator might be confronted with an appropriate role or compelled to shape his/her behavior to correspond. Describe the scene and compare/contrast the views the novels seem to take about subject formation.

2. Novels can be thought of as forms of entertainment, but authors sometimes have grander ideas about the significance or potential weight and writing. Both Silko’s Ceremony and Allende’s House of the Spirits feature characters and narrators for whom stories within the book have special significance. Discuss several examples of the role stories play in each of these, exploring such features as how stories come to be known, how they are viewed in general, and what uses the protagonists find for them.

3. Power is sometimes measured in terms of weaponry, brute force, the success with which events can be shaped to one’s will. Choose just one of the two novels, and discuss how it provides a counter-example. Can you find a view that power-as-brute-force is limited? Can you find dramatization of an alternate image of power? Be sure to describe specific incidents and characters in detail.

4. Reading a novel, we might imagine we are responding to an author’s intention; sometimes, it even comes to seem like a book is forcing us to submit to its authority, perhaps in ways we do not want to. Choose one, single example from just one of the novels for which you resist the author’s intent – i.e. where you don’t want to be seduced into seeing the world as the book does. Describe the instance, explain how the novel tries to exert a force upon you, and discuss whether or how one can continue reading but resist it.

5. One of the interesting things about reading a foreign novel is that it can open one’s eyes to a different culture. In Isabel Allende’s House of the Spirits the “culture” of Chilean childhood is populated with spirits, myths and other fantastic elements. Write an essay in which you discuss how the narrator’s familiarity with the world of the imagination literally helps her face and survive terrors as an adult. What does this suggest the novel has to say about the power of the imagination?