Camus Entry

"O my soul, do not aspire to immortal life, but exhaust the limits of the possible."

How will you exhaust the limits of the possible...and perhaps as a result, not become immortal, but leave a legacy?

Or

Write about something you felt, or thought about, during class today.

Nice job today, keep up the good work.

Alchemist Blog

Again you have three blogs due over the next two weeks:

1.) How is The Alchemist a hero journey?

2.) React to a review on mouthshut.com
http://www.mouthshut.com/product-reviews/Alchemist___The_-_Paulo_Coelho-925035707.html

3.) Comment upon Coelho's blog
http://paulocoelhoblog.com/

All of the outside postings should be pasted into our blog in order for you to receive credit.

Let me know if you have any questions...

More Extra Credit

A modern art interpretation of Borges Labyrinth principle--maybe or maybe not? You decide, if you would like...

http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/serra/index.html

More Fights

Here are some more options:

1.) What is the human sacrifice that Tyler starts performing?

2.) Is our narrator's name really Tyler Durden?

Talk amongst yourselves....

Blog Club

This week--you need to compose one more blog entry on Fight Club, by Thursday at the start of the class. Here are the topics I gave you in class on Monday, but please feel free to write about whatever may move you as an artist, person, bystander, punching bag--

1.) Marla—what is the role/function of Marla? Is she real, and how does her lie reflect the narrators lie? How is Marla the problem that will not heal, will our narrator not let it heal?
2.) Tyler muses, “the things we own end up owning us…I say lets evolve.” Is Tyler suggesting that evolution take place by society taking a step back? Is this similar to Thoreau’s notion of “simplify, simplify, simplify” or Dostoevsky’s arithmetic that 2 X 2 =5?
3.) “One can make all sorts of explosive items with simple household things.” Like what? Again, why soap? An obvious question but an answer that may be hard to articulate.
4.) Why have pornography, why have fantasy, is this necessary—is it a good thing? Burgess in the introduction to A Clockwork Orange writes, “I enjoyed ripping and raping by proxy.” Thus, are we all clockwork oranges composed of good and evil, grinding opposition, do we all have impish and evil desires and should we find a way to act on them in healthy ways?

Let me know if you have any questions....lastly, the posts as of late have been great, keep up the exemplary work.

NYT--Lives

I was the reading New York Times this Sunday, and I stumbled upon the following article; it is a poem a mother wrote to her son in Iraq...interesting how keep inventory on those things we hold dear, those things we hold close to ourselves...thought I would pass it along to you--comment if you so desire.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/magazine/02lives-t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine&oref=slogin

Extra Credit Club

Hello--if you would like extra credit, please visit the following link and read the article from USA Today:

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-05-29-fight-club_x.htm

Then respond to the following thought: are the people inspired by the film, and thus responsible for starting underground Fight Clubs, understanding the true nature, message, and themes of the film?

Is the movie Fight Club really promoting violent and aggressive behaviour?