Unrelatedly delightful

The 100 Best First Lines from Novels (two of which we are reading this semester).

It's fun, I think, to thus loftily survey the art of the first sentence.

If you're not confused, you're not paying attention

"The Waste Land" is probably the most influential poem of the twentieth century, and was almost immediately a text with which poets and writers throughout the English-speaking world had to contend. Yet for all its influence "WL" is not an easily accessed poem--as Aaron amply demonstrated this morning, it takes ten years of reading and research to piece together even the stories to which Eliot is referring, to say nothing of making sense of this mishmash of allusions and the complex philosophical evaluation of the modern world which it betokens.

Put simply: if "The Waste Land" makes sense to you, you're not trying hard enough.

Alternatively, you've lost your mind.

No, seriously: Eliot began writing "The Waste Land" in a European sanitorium. Eliot's mental life was never pleasant for him, but much of the work he produced before his conversion to Anglicanism in the 1930s was the particular result of what he saw as the maddening effect of a postchristian world. One of the better fictionalized takes on "The Waste Land" is Pat Barker's 1991 Regeneration, in which characters from "The Waste Land" and fictional representations of contemporary poets mingle in an asylum in England in the middle of WWI.

It is easy to be caught up in "WL"--it is one of the deepest and greatest verse works our language has produced. Aaron and I and many of our colleagues in the English graduate program wound up here partly because we fell in love with T. S. Eliot in early survey courses in college. I'm hoping that some of you are having similar experiences this week--well, not in the sense that you all wind up going to grad school, but in the sense that you are finding something real and powerful in the poems we're reading this week.

You don't have to look up every reference Eliot makes in "WL" to appreciate its depth: I hope you've read through the poem two or three times already, and that you continue to reread it over the coming weeks. "WL" rewards multiple readings, and in particular rewards sensitivity to its details and to its structure.

If you find yourself taken by the allusions in "WL" and want to pursue them a little further--say, into at least the first essay--you might consider picking up an edition of the poem that tries to collapse these years of research into footnotes and excerpts of the texts to which Eliot refers. The best edition out there right now is the Michael North edited Norton Critical (call no. PS3509 L43 W3 2001--there's a copy still in Memorial Library, and you can request it from other UW System Libraries), which quotes extensively from the Weston From Ritual to Romance and the other sources to which Aaron referred (Petronius, Ovid, Dante, Buddha, etc.).

Don't want to make the trek to the library? There is a strong online resource available to you in the form of the Modern American Poetry pages on T. S. Eliot at the Univeristy of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. They have a thorough biography and timeline, but the real treasure is there pages summarizing critical responses to his work--they quote the major literary scholars on "The Waste Land" and The Love Song. "WL" devotees might want to read critics' evaluations of the composition of "The Waste Land", which we might discuss briefly in class on Friday.

Want more depth than some well-chosen critical blurbs? You can read a more detailed take on Eliot's biography via the lengthy literary biography put together by Contemporary Authors or his even lengthier entry in the Dictionary of Literary Biography.

But, remember, all this biography is only as valuable as the sensitivity you bring to your reading of the poem: all the detailed allusive identification in the world is for naught if you're not paying attention to the tone and the sheer poetry of the work.

Hebdomadal 2: T. S. Eliot (Updated 1/31)

Remember to bulid your argument around a close reading. Even if you are answering a topic that asks you to summarize the lecture, when you add your own argument to the lecturer's be sure to pick apart the rhetorical and formal details of a short passage from the text. (By "short," I usually mean one or two sentences of prose, and probably no more than four lines of poetry. The focus here should be on your own ideas.)

Note that I might add another topic later in the week, once I've heard Aaron's lecture on Tuesday.

Topic 1: Xtreme Close Reading

Choose a section of either "The Waste Land" or "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"--a full sentence in the vicinity of four lines long--that hasn't been covered in class. (If you turn in your hebdomadal before class you are welcome to choose any chunk of the poem you like.) Quote this passage in your hebdomadal and, for one long paragraph, read it as closely as possible. In particular, identify

• The sorts of words that Eliot chose to use, and in particular words that are repeated (inside the section or from elsewhere in the poem) and that sound somehow unusual
• Keep an eye out also for metaphor and symbolism, as well as for other basic literary tropes (allusion is a big one, and irony)
• The organization of words within that passage: is the syntax poetic? conversational? awkward? erudite?
• The punctuation and--if interesting--even the indentation of the lines.
• Look also at the meter of the poem: are the numbers of syllables consistent between lines? How about the arrangement of stresses?
• What words rhyme within or between lines?

Using these details, write a paragraph analyzing the tone and structure of this passage. That is to say, characterize how these details of your reading give you a sense of what this passage is saying over and above what the words themselves mean. How do these lines give us a sense of what the poem is about? (Remember: I am looking for original analysis here. There's nothing wrong with agreeing with Aaron or Prof. Wolfe, but be sure that if you work with their ideas that you take them in your own direction.

Topic 2: Grail Quest or Failed Mess?

Think of this as a brain teaser: rewrite Aaron's Tuesday lecture in 100 words or fewer, focusing--necessarily--only on his main points. Cram as much detail into your summary as possible. (If you want to write your summary in paratactic Eliotic verse à la "The Waste Land," go for it!)

The remaining 150+ words should, of course, involve your building off of Aaron's ideas and arguments. You might tackle some of the specific textual questions he raises: Who ventures into the chapel perilous, and does he succeed? Is something positive betokened by the falling rain of the first lines and of the chapel perilous scene? Is "The Fire Sermon" arguing for celibacy or against lustful infertility? Just how should we read "Shantih shantih shantih"?

Hebdomodels (Updated 1/31)

Jump to the update--a fuller hebdomadal example.

This first round of hebdomadals was maybe a little weaker than I had expected, which tells me I did a poor job explaining what I was looking for in class and in the assignment itself.

I reward hebdomadals that are specific, rigorously analytical, and original. These are all challenging qualities to maintain while still writing expansively about both text and meaning and while still connecting your reading to that of Prof. Wolfe.

By way of showing you the sorts of writing I'm looking for, here are two paragraphs from two different writers.

This first paragraph gives us a strong, specific review of the lecture from last Tuesday. Notice particularly how the author doesn't mince words: the sentences are phrased actively and are rich with textual and analytical detail. The author details each connection between text and argument.

The main argument in Ray’s lecture was that Faulkner presented different perceptions of time and space, and the body’s relation to them, through different characters in As I Lay Dying. Ray made his points by cross-referencing answers to questions including ‘How does Faulkner represent time (or space) as subjective?’ and ‘How does Faulkner mix time and space?’ We see subjectivity in the way Tull measures time by the beginning and ending of the singing, while Vardaman measures time in periods of continuous events. Anse puts the concepts of time and space together when he speaks of the long wait and distance of Addie’s burial journey and her passage from earth to heaven, while Dewey Dell combines time, space and bodies while thinking about the baby developing in her womb through the repetition of “New Hope 3 mi.” and “Too soon.” These examples show the variety of perceptions about time and space and the ways the ideas can be merged. They reveal to us something of the characters’ individual experiences, knowledge, opinions, and thought processes.

But, of course, a strong summary was only half the assignment. The second half--in which the topic asked you to expand on or to question the lecturer's argument--called for you to write in your own voice exclusively, and with evidence and analysis of your own extraction. This is the guts of what I'm going to be asking you to do this semester, and I wanted to give you a good example of what this looks like. Lauren (314) contributed this gem of a paragraph:

I agree with the topic of this lecture; however I think that Faulkner’s commentary on the subjectivity of time and space is less profound than his use of character narration to show the importance of point of view. With each character he demonstrates that time and space are subjective, yes, but he also demonstrates how nearly everything else in life is subjective as well depending on the person who is viewing it. For example, nearly every character in the book (maybe with the exception of Cora) views Darl as an outsider, yet he seems to have the most insight on nearly everything. He can pick a person apart, reveal their deepest secrets without words, via observation. We see this when he discovers Dewey Dell’s secret pregnancy and Addie’s adultery. Even something as universal as death, death of a mother at that, is viewed differently by each character. Here, Faulkner not only makes the point that Time is not universal, he makes the point that nothing is universal. Furthermore, if Faulkner is indeed arguing for this fact, he brings up the topic of life’s devastating absurdity. This is evident in Anse. Anse, who has never worked a day in his life and has led a seemingly selfish existence, only becomes stubborn about pleasing his wife when she is dead. Death consumes this family, they are trying their own lives for the request of someone who no longer has a life.

Notice that Lauren is using the lecture topic as a springboard for her own approach to the text, moving from Ray's questions about subjectivity and time to the larger (as she conceives them) questions of subjectivity inherent in the very style of the text's narration.

Note that Lauren is not close reading the text--which I didn't ask you to do this first time around--so her statements about As I Lay Dying tend towards generality. I hope that the next time around you can all offer complex approaches to important textual and analytic questions through the agency of a close reading of a passage from the text.

Please, if you have any questions about hebdomadals or my comments on them don't hesitate to email me: I'm always excited to work with students individually on the way they put their analyses together. You might also consider emailing me a draft of your hebdomadal two or three days early so I can give you some early feedback.

(Update 1/31)

Sebastian (314) takes a different approach than Lauren does above, playing with the counterargument to Prof. Wolfe's position. What I really like here is how comfortably Sebastian moves from discussing the structure of both the lecture and the text to thinking about how these details reveal important tonal ideas.

During today’s lecture Professor Wolfe furthered his analysis of whether the Bundren family is represented as noble and successful heroes or as failing fools throughout their mythic quest in As I Lay Dying. He stuck to his original claim that they deal poorly with their challenges and that Faulkner’s treatment of them is satirical in nature. He initially broke his argument into three sub-questions but ended up focusing heavily on Cash’s character and the question of if the tone of the novel is more grotesque, and therefore pessimistic, than it is heroic. He cited that Cash, arguably the most likeable of the family, did nothing to help Darl, his closest brother, when he was getting dragged off for burning Gillespie’s barn, an action that he himself admits was an attempt to do justice to their dead mother (pg. 232-233). The professor then went on to cite the idiotic cement casting of Cash’s leg and Peabody’s ridiculing of Cash’s inability to acknowledge the stupidity of the situation and Anse’s orchestration of it (pg. 239-240). Professor Wolfe concluded from these examples that Faulkner’s portrayal lends few redeemable qualities to the Bundren family throughout their journey.

The professor’s argument, while very understandable, does not take into consideration the author’s stance on success and failure. In the beginning of the lecture the professor cited an interview of Faulkner’s in which he criticized Hemmingway for never taking any chances. To Faulkner success is not to succeed in something you are already good at but to find something challenging and attempt it regardless of the outcome. They endured “the two greatest catastrophes man can suffer” (lect. 1/19) and not only did they survive them both but were also able to carry with them the burden of a loaded and rotting coffin. The fact that they set out to accomplish something they had never done before with minimal means would, in Faulkner’s eyes, give them the nobility they seem to lack when setting barns on fire and trying to mend bone with concrete. The way in which the family deals with their trials matters not. This line of thinking does however begin to falter when taking into consideration the motives of the family. Cash, Darl, and Jewel display no ulterior motives in their quest but the rest of the family each has their own personal reason for staying on. Dewey Dell’s need for an abortion, Vardaman’s desire for his train set and Anse’s longing for teeth and his secret woman all lead to an uncertainty in what Faulkner’s opinion really was of the Bundrens. When looking at the sacrifices each of the three older brothers make in contrast to the lack of sacrifice in the other three it its possible to see a certain implication. Perhaps in Faulkner’s eyes there exists a need to give up something important of your own in order to truly achieve or succeed.

By the way, don't let these buttoned-up examples steer you away from writing more conversational hebdomadals or from experimenting creatively with the tone and organization of your responses to the texts and lectures. I'd be excited to see you moving away from the stated hebdomadal topics to explore the texts in ways you find more compelling!

The Waste Land

On Tuesday, our local T. S. Eliot expert--Aaron, a fellow TA--will give the lecture on "The Waste Land." The poem is in the course packet, available at Student Print in the Memorial Union basement.

"The Waste Land" precedes As I Lay Dying by eight years. It was an immediate success, and is one of the most influential poems of the twentieth century. Read it carefully, and read it specifically with an eye to associating the problems Eliot raises with those of Faulkner. There are a few specific questions you might consider about AILD just to get a sense of the larger moral and social position it implies.

• What comment is Faulkner making on society in general in As I Lay Dying?
• What is Faulkner's attitude toward Christianity? How does he characterize its place in the modern world?
• Is Faulkner's pessimism fatalistic or is there a certain good-humoredness to it? How desperate does he feel humanity's position to be?

(Hint: you might ask these same questions of "WL.")

Come say Hi Tuesday afternoon!

My first office hours of the semester are tomorrow (Tuesday) afternoon, 1:30 to 3:30 in the Steep & Brew on State Street. (It's on the north side of the street, just a few blocks down from campus.) Feel free to swing by to say hello! I'd love to hear what you are up to academically and what you think of the class. If you have some ideas for you hebdomadal you want to run by me, this is a great way to do it!* Also, if there are any ways I can teach directly to your interests this would be an excellent occasion for you to let me know!

If you can't make it this week, I still urge you to stop by in the future: I would love to get to know you all better. If this time won't work for you, I'm happy to schedule another meeting time for you. Just let me know!

* I should add that I am happy to skim over hebdomadal drafts & give you feedback, as long as you email them to me sufficiently early. (Thursday will probably be too late.)

How to write a strong hebdomadal: learning from history

It can be difficult to describe what I am looking for in a hebdomadal, and it can be especially difficult to characterize the range of answers that can respond effectively to the topic. It might be worth looking over some examples of strong hebdomadals I posted, early last semester, to illustrate the sorts of answers that were working well. Obviously these students were coping with a different topic and with different texts, but the style of these short responses is nonetheless illutrative. Here, then, are two posts giving examples of strong hebdomadals: post one, post two.

Hebdomadal 1 Updated 1/24

A quick plea: please, if you could, include your hebdomadals in the text of your email rather than in an attachment. This saves me a step and allows me to get back to you more quickly. Your essays, on the other hand, I will ask you to hand in as attachments to email messages. Thank you for putting up with my confusing requests!

Topic 1: Lecture summary and expansion

Divide your hebdomadal into two paragraphs. In the first paragraph, briefly summarize one of the lectures you hear this week, either Ray's on Tuesday or Prof. Wolfe's on Thursday. In about five clear, short sentences, identify

1. The main argument or thesis that the lecture advances,
2. The smaller claims advanced to support that argument (you might think of these subclaims in terms of a set of questions into which the lecturer breaks down his main argument),
3. Examples of the evidence used to support those claims and the conclusions drawn from that evidence,
4. The way the conclusions drawn from that evidence helps the lecturer answer the main problem he raised for analysis.

That should be a short paragraph: please resist the temptation to narrate the lecture in its entirety, as I will feel terrible for having made you write a 1,000-word essay for the first week.

In the second paragraph--which should be longer than the first, and should be very much in your own voice--work through at least one way that the argument or interpretation presented in this lecture could be expanded upon, challenged, or applied to other parts of As I Lay Dying.

Topic 2: Really just a narrower version of Topic 1

Consider and briefly restate Ray's argument in lecture on Tuesday about the intermingling of time and space in As I Lay Dying. What does he conclude about the relation of time and space?

Use a passage from the last third of As I Lay Dying to expand Ray's argument. You might consider, for example, how Dewey Dell's attempts to get an abortion complicate the relationship between the body, language, and time/space.

Finally, and most importantly, suggest a reason why this particular topic is important to our understanding of As I Lay Dying. Be specific: how, exactly, does an exploration of the relationship of time and space in this text give us, as readers, a better sense of what Faulkner was trying to say? What was Faulkner trying to say with this book?

Lecture syllabus

I have added a link to the lecture syllabus over on the sidebar. Let me know if you have any questions about it!

Here are some details about the assignments listed on that syllabus that might be useful for you to know now:

• Our first hebdomadal, the topic of which is to be posted shortly, fills the Short diagnostic writing assignment listed on the lecture syllabus.
• The midterm and final exams will privilege the sections of the texts that Dr. Wolfe covers in lecture, so it might be worth your while to mark what passages he talks about a lot.
• On the second essay, I will give you the option of collaborating with a classmate; you might bear that in mind as you get to know your peers.

A thrilling tour de blog

Welcome to the English 168 (sections 313 & 314) class blog! This is my primary vehicle for extraclassroomular conversation: check back here somewhat regularly for hebdomadal assignments, advice on how to read the texts we're encountering this semester, and generally remarks about our coursework and the reading material. When you ask me questions that I should really have answered in class, I'll post those answers here to enlighten all.

← Observe, on the sidebar, a number of helpful resources:

• My office hours and email address, both of which I urge you to use regularly;
• a search bar through which to access the most complete dictionary in the English language;
• links to the Writing Center, its immensely useful Writers' Handbook, and the two Writing Center classes I've voted Most Likely to Be Useful to You;
• links to the section syllabi so you can download a new one if you end up misplacing yours; I'll attach the lecture syllabus, too, as soon as I get it;
• a schedule of the class assignments.

Coming soon: some notes about hebdomadals and your first hebdomadal topic.